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Week 167 - Tuesday - 4 February 2003

ARAKHIN: CHAPTER 7: MISHNAH 1

One may not consecrate less than two years before the yovel year, nor redeem less than one year after the yovel year. One does not count months for the Temple, but the Temple counts months. If one consecrates his field when the yovel is in force, he must pay fifty silver shekels for the sowing of a homer of barley seed. If there were rifts ten handbreadths deep, or rocks ten handbreadths high, they are not measured with it. Less than this they are measured with it. If one consecrated it two or three years before the yovel year he pays one sela and one pundyon for each year. If he said, I give year by year, they do not listen to him, and he must pay all together.

Kehati

This chapter deals with a person who consecrated a field of his possession, i.e., an inherited field, concerning which the Torah (Lev. 27:16-18) states: "And if a man shall dedicate to the Lord some part of a field of his possession, then the estimation (of the field) shall be according to the seed required for it, a homer of barley seed shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver. If he dedicates his field from (immediately after) the year of jubilee (and a person wishes to redeem it immediately), according to the estimation (as stated above) it shall stand. But if he dedicates his field after (the end of the first year of) the jubilee, then the priest shall reckon to him the money according to the years that remain, even to the year of the jubilee, and it (the number of years from the yovel year until the year of redemption - Rashi) shall be deducted from the estimation”. Hence, if one consecrates his inherited field it is not redeemed according to its value but to the value fixed by the Torah: "according to the seed required for it, a homer of barley seed shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver" - i.e., every section of the field with the sowing capacity of one homer (= one kor = 30 se'ahs) of barley, corresponding to an area of 75,000 square cubits (approximately 274x274 cubits, termed in the Mishnah bet kor) can be redeemed in the first year after the yovel year for fifty silver shekels, i.e., fifty selas, the mishnaic term for the biblical shekel.

If the field is redeemed after the first year the redemption amount is calculated in accordance with the years remaining until the yovel, since the field's consecration is in effect during the years of the yovel cycle, after which it is given to the priests (see further on in our chapter). The yovel year is not included in the calculation. Since the value of fifty selas has been established for a bet kor for the forty-nine years (between the yovel years), the yearly value is one and 1/49 of a sela. The sela is 48 pundyons (a sela = 4 dinars, one dinar = 6 ma'ot, one ma'ah = 2 pundyons; thus one sela is 48 pundyons). Here the Sages added another pundyon since a money changer takes 49 pundyons for one sela, and the yearly value of a bet kor is one sela and a pundyon. Thus if, e.g., there are twenty years until the yovel year, the redeemer pays for each bet kor twenty selas and twenty pundyons; if the owner wishes to redeem the field he must pay an additional fifth (i.e., one quarter which is one fifth of the final total), totaling 25 selas and 25 pundyons. If only eight years are left before the yovel year the redemption money is eight selas and eight pundyons for each bet kor (ten selas and ten pundyons if redeemed by the owner).

However, if only one year - i.e., less than two years - is left before the yovel year, it cannot be redeemed with one sela and one pundyon since the Torah states: "the priest shall reckon to him the money according to the years that remain, even to the year of the jubilee, and it shall be deducted from the estimation"; from this the Sages learn that an inherited field can be redeemed according to the years that remain, only if two or more years are left until the yovel year, since "years" means a minimum of two. If only one year is left, the redeemer must pay for each bet kor the full fifty selas as he would when redeeming it in the first year. - Our mishnah elaborates these laws.

One may not consecrate an inherited field less than two years before the yovel year - according to the Gemara our mishnah is not to be understood in its plain sense, i.e., that an inherited field cannot be consecrated less than two years before the yovel year, since a baraita teaches that "one can consecrate both before and after the yovel." This implies that one can do so also close to the yovel year. Hence the mishnah is (according to Rav and Shemuel) interpreted as follows: Since "it shall be deducted from the estimation" cannot be applied if one consecrates his field less than two years before the yovel year - i.e., the field cannot be redeemed by deducting from the total amount of fifty shekels the number of years already passed, but only by the payment of the full fifty shekels per bet kor, as in the first year of the yovel cycle (see introduction to our mishnah) - our mishnah advises not to consecrate one's inherited field less than two years before the yovel year in order not to squander his money, nor redeem less than one year after the yovel year since the Torah states: "But if he dedicates his field after (the end of the first year of) the jubilee, then the priest shall reckon to him the money according to the years that remain, even to the year of the jubilee, and it shall be deducted from the estimation."

Our mishnah teaches that no deductions "according to the years that remain, even to the year of the jubilee" are made for one who redeems the field before a year has elapsed "after the jubilee"; rather he redeems as from the year of the jubilee, i.e., he must pay the full fifty shekels per bet kor without any deductions for the months that elapsed; e.g., in the month of Nisan - the middle of the year - no deduction of a sela and one pundyon is made for the past half year, since;

One does not count months for the Temple - i.e., no deductions are made before the whole year has passed, nor are months counted within the yovel cycle; e.g., if nine and a half years are left until the yovel year, no deduction is made for the redeemer for the six elapsed months of the tenth year, but ten full remaining years are computed (i.e., he pays ten selas and ten pundyons for each bet kor, since the Torah states: "the priest shall reckon to him the money according to the years that remain." From this the Sages derived that years are reckoned but months are not. However, according to (Rav's view in) the Gemara "after the yovel," rather than referring to the period directly after it, includes any time during the yovel cycle (thus also Bartenura; see Arakh. 24b, 25a; Rambam Hil. Arakhin 2:12 and Lehem Mishneh ad loc.; Hagahot Hareshash on our mishnah);

But the Temple counts months if it profits by computing the elapsed months of the year, e.g., if one and a half years remain until the yovel year and the half year is ignored, the redeemer would have to pay at the rate of two years before the yovel year, i.e., two selas and two pundyons per bet kor; however, if the months are considered, no full two years remain, hence no deduction can be made, and the full fifty shekels per bet kor must be paid (see explanation at the beginning of this mishnah). In such a case - when the Temple profits - the months are considered, and since less than two years remain until the yovel year, fifty shekels must be paid for each bet kor. This, then, is the meaning of "but the Temple counts months" (Rashi; Rabbenu Gershom; Tosafot; Bartenura). According to Rambam the Temple Treasurer decides whether to consider the remaining months when the redeemer pays at the rate of two years (see his Mishnah Commentary and Code Hil. Arakhin 4:8, Ravad's glosses; Kesef Mishneh and Lehem Mishneh).

If one consecrates his field when the yovel is in force (Rashi; Bartenura; see also Tosefot Yom Tov), he must pay fifty silver shekels for the sowing of a homer of barley seed as specified in the Torah; i.e., a sowing area of one kor (= 30 se'ahs) of barley - 75.000 square cubits - is redeemed in the first year of the yovel cycle with fifty selas as explained above.

If there were rifts ten handbreadths deep filled with water (Gemara), or rocks ten handbreadths high, they are not measured with it and are not consecrated since they cannot be sown. But if there is no water in the rifts they are consecrated, measured by themselves and redeemed according to their worth. According to another interpretation they are not measured with the field to be redeemed at the rate of fifty selas per bet kor, i.e., water-filled rifts are also consecrated but are measured by themselves and redeemed according to their worth. Empty rifts are redeemed at the rate of fifty selas per bet kor but are measured by themselves in order not to include the slopes in the measurement (see Bartenura; Tosefot Yom Tov; Tiferet Yisrael).

Even if the rifts were water-filled but deep less than this or the rocks were less than ten handbreadths high, they are an integral part of the field and are measured with it. If one consecrated it two or three years before the yovel year he pays one sela and one pundyon for each year per bet kor; i.e., if he redeems the field two years before the yovel year, he pays two selas and two pundyons for each bet kor, and if he redeems it three years before the yovel year, he pays three selas and three pundyons for each bet kor (see calculation in the introduction to our mishnah).

If he said, I give what is due year by year as it comes, one sela and a pundyon, they do not listen to him and reject the redemption money in installments, and he must pay all the money together; thus "the priest shall reckon to him the money" implies "until the whole sum is together," i.e., the Torah requires him to give the whole amount in one payment. However, he need not redeem the whole field but may redeem half of it.

ARAKHIN: CHAPTER 7: MISHNAH 2

It is all the same whether the owner or any other person. Wherein does the owner differ from any other person? Only in that the owner pays the Fifth, and any other person does not pay the Fifth.

Kehati

It is all the same whether the owner or any other person redeems the field at the rate of fifty shekels per bet kor, whether the field is worth a thousand or only five selas.

Wherein does the owner differ from any other person? Only in that the owner pays the added Fifth to the redemption fee, thus, "If he that sanctified the field will redeem it, then he shall add the fifth part of the money of the estimation to it." As explained in several instances, the "fifth" prescribed by the Torah is "from the outside," i.e., a quarter of the principal which is a fifth of the final total amount; thus the owners add one dinar to each sela, i.e., four dinars, and any other person does not pay the Fifth but only the redemption fee at the rate of fifty selas per bet kor.

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