008a – אין נערכין – פרק שני – ערכין, דף ח ע”א

If he gave four to the first and one to the second: he has fulfilled his obligation to the second, but not his obligation to the first, for all of them are pledged to the first.^[1]

נתן ארבע לראשונה - The kohen assessed him for the first vow first. He has not fulfilled the first, for he must give all that he has, according to the Sages;^[2] and if he later becomes rich, he gives the whole valuation, for the first payment counts for nothing.

Rav Ada bar Ahava asked: If he had five sela’im in hand and said “Two valuations are upon me” at once, what is the law?^[3]

Since he vowed them at once, they take hold of the money equally, and he gives two and a half to this one and two and a half to that one; or perhaps all of it is fit for this one and all of it is fit for that one?

כולהו חזיא להאי כו' - And so one of the valuations is still upon him.

Let it stand.^[4]

One is not valued at less than a sela, nor at more, etc.^[5]

Why do I need this again?

This is what it teaches us: it is less than a sela that there is not, but more than a sela there is; it is more than fifty that there is not, but less than fifty there is. And the anonymous Mishnah follows the Sages.^[6]

הא יותר על סלע איכא - Even though he does not have fifty sela’im: if he had five sela’im in hand he gives all of them, which is more than a sela and less than fifty. And the anonymous Mishnah follows the Sages, for according to Rabbi Meir there is no hasagas yad of more than a sela and less than fifty for one whose valuation is fifty – [only either fifty] or a sela.

Mishnah

There is no petach for a to’ah of less than seven, nor of more than seventeen.^[7]

מתני' פתח - The beginning of niddah. For this is the Torah law of niddah: if she saw today, she counts six and this day; if she saw two days, she counts five and these; and even if she saw all seven and stopped by evening, she immerses and may be with her husband. From the seventh day on are the days of zivah, eleven days:^[8] if she sees on one or two of them, she keeps a day for a day and immerses; if she sees three consecutive days in them, she is a complete zavah and requires counting seven clean days and an offering. If her days of zivah stretch on for a month or a year, she does not return to the beginning of niddah until she sits seven clean days; once she has sat seven clean days and then sees, that is the beginning of niddah, and she counts six and this day and returns to her course, as is all explained. And if she did not see three consecutive days within those eleven days, she is not a zavah; and when she sees afterwards, whether she sees right away or her sighting is delayed, it is the beginning of niddah, and even if she sees three consecutive days she counts only four more and these; for there are days of zivah only in those eleven days between the end of one niddah and the beginning of the next. And so it is explained in the last halachah of Tractate Niddah (Niddah 72a).

אין פתח בטועה פחות משבעה - A to’ah who saw today and does not know whether she stands in her days of niddah or in those eleven days of zivah does not return to the opening of her niddah with fewer than seven clean days.

ולא יותר על י"ז - Clean days, as the Gemara explains.

Gemara

The Rabbis taught: A to’ah who said, “I saw one day of tumah” – her petach is seventeen;^[9]

גמ' תנו רבנן טועה שאמרה יום אחד טמא ראיתי - Today, and she does not know whether it is in the days of the beginning of niddah, so that she must count six and this day, or in those eleven days of zivah, so that she need only keep a day for a day.

פתחה שבעה עשר - If she does not see until after seventeen days besides this day, she then returns to the opening of her niddah, to count six and this day. For either way, after seventeen days besides this day she has left the doubt of the days of zivah: if this day on which she saw was at the start of the days of zivah, once the eleven days ended she left the days of zivah, and since her sighting was delayed and she did not see until after seventeen, it is the beginning of niddah. And even if you say that this day was the beginning of niddah, she has still left the days of zivah, for six days have passed to complete her days of niddah and eleven between niddah and niddah – that is seventeen; so when she sees after seventeen, it is the beginning of niddah. But if she sees on the seventeenth day, she has not left the doubt whether it is a day of niddah or a day of zivah. One may say: perhaps this day on which she came before us having seen was the first of the days of niddah, and the seventeenth day on which she saw is the end of the eleven days between niddah and niddah, and she needs no watching [of a clean day after it]; or perhaps the first day on which she came before us is of the days of zivah, and when the eleven days ended she left the days of zivah, and the seventeenth day on which she saw is the beginning of niddah, and she must count six and this day. All the more so if she sees before the seventeenth. And in this doubt she will remain forever, until she sits seventeen clean days. As long as she is in this doubt she is in great disorder, for we are always stringent with her because of the doubt: when she sees one day within these seventeen days we say it is the beginning of niddah, and she needs six and this day; and when she sees three consecutive days we say they are days of zivah, and she needs seven clean days and an offering brought out of doubt, which is not eaten.^[10] But after seventeen there is no need to be stringent, for it is certainly the beginning of niddah: if she sees three consecutive days she counts four more and these, and at the end, after seven, if she sees she keeps a day for a day, and on the third day she will be a zavah.

“I saw two days of tumah” – her petach is seventeen;

שני ימים טמא ראיתי פתחה י"ז - Besides these two days: if she does not see until after seventeen, it is the beginning of niddah either way. If these two days were of the days of zivah, the days of zivah ended for them nine days after the two, and when her sighting was delayed and she saw at the end of seventeen, it is the beginning of niddah. And if it was the beginning of niddah, the days of niddah and zivah ended for them at the end of sixteen after the two, for the days of niddah and zivah are only eighteen; and this one, who did not see until after seventeen, which is the twentieth day from the start of the doubtful sighting, is niddah. But if she sees on the seventeenth day, and all the more so before then, she has not left the doubt: perhaps these two days were the beginning of niddah, and at the end of sixteen after the two the days of niddah and zivah ended, and what she saw on the seventeenth day is the beginning of niddah; or perhaps one of the two days was the end of the eleven of zivah and the second the beginning of niddah, and the days of niddah and zivah did not end until after seventeen, and what she saw on the seventeenth day is the end of zivah. So she is in doubt. All the more so if she sees earlier – for instance, if she sees on the thirteenth or fourteenth day she stands in doubt: perhaps these two days on which she came before us were the end of the days of zivah, and this one, who did not see again until the thirteenth day, is the beginning of niddah; or perhaps the two days were the beginning of niddah, and this thirteenth day is the eighth of the days of zivah, and she keeps a day for a day. And so she remains in this doubt forever, until she sits seventeen clean days.

“I saw three days of tumah” – her petach is seventeen;

שלשה ימים טמא ראיתי פתחה י"ז - As I explained. But before then, such as the seventeenth itself, she stands in doubt, for one may say: perhaps two days of the three were the end of zivah and the third the beginning of niddah, and this seventeenth day is the end of zivah; or perhaps all three were the beginning of niddah, and at the end of fifteen besides the three the days of niddah and zivah ended, and this seventeenth day is the beginning of niddah. But by the eighteenth day she has left the doubt either way.

“I saw four days of tumah” – her petach is sixteen;^[11]

ארבעה ימים וכו' פתחה ששה עשר - If she does not see until after sixteen besides these, she has left the doubt either way. If they were the beginning of niddah, the days of niddah and zivah ended at the end of fourteen after these four; and if they were days of zivah, all the more so they ended before sixteen, and now it is the beginning of niddah. And if you say two of them were the end of zivah and two the beginning of niddah, even so the days of niddah and zivah ended at the end of sixteen. And one cannot say that perhaps the three were the end of zivah and the fourth the beginning of niddah, so that they did not end until the end of seventeen; for if the three were the end of zivah, when she saw on the fourth it is not the beginning of niddah: since she saw three consecutive days in the days of zivah she is a zavah, and she will never leave zivah to become the beginning of niddah until she sits seven clean days, as it is written (Vayikra 15): But if she is cleansed of her issue, then she shall count etc.; and after she has sat seven clean days she returns to the beginning of her niddah. But if she sees before then, even on the sixteenth day, there is room to doubt her between the end of zivah and the beginning of niddah: perhaps two of the four were the end of zivah and two the beginning of niddah, and the sixteenth day is the end of zivah; or perhaps the four were the beginning of niddah or the end of zivah, and she has already left the days of niddah and zivah.

“I saw five days of tumah” – her petach is fifteen;

ה' ימים טמא ראיתי פתחה ט"ו - Either way, after fifteen it is the beginning of niddah, if she sees. But on the fifteenth day itself, if she sees on it, it is a doubt: perhaps two of the five were the end of zivah and the three days of niddah, and this fifteenth day is still the end of the days of zivah. And so throughout the beraisa we consider for her that the first two were at the end of zivah and the later ones of niddah; but more than this there is no room to doubt, for if you say three of them were the end of zivah, the others would no longer be days of niddah as long as she has not sat seven clean days; and then, when she sees after she has sat the seven clean days, it is the beginning of niddah.

“I saw six days of tumah” – her petach is fourteen;

“I saw seven days of tumah” – her petach is thirteen;

“I saw eight days of tumah” – her petach is twelve;

“I saw nine days of tumah” – her petach is eleven;

“I saw ten days of tumah” – her petach is ten;

Eleven – her petach is nine^[12]

Tosfos

כיון דבבת אחת נדר כי הדדי תפסן - Therefore, when the kohen comes to assess him, one may say that he gives two and a half to this one and likewise to the other; or perhaps all of it is fit, and the kohen may only tell him to pay all five sela’im to one, for they were pledged to one and not to two; and if he gave two and a half to this one and two and a half to that one, he has fulfilled neither, since the law is that he gives them to one alone. Therefore, at the moment he gives the five to both, all of them are pledged to one, and it is as if he gave four to the first. And we must say that the case is where [the kohen] assesses him for both together;^[13] for if one after the other, it would be no worse than where he gave to the second and then gave for the first, since the creditors are certainly equal, and also what he collected is no worse than if it were later.

פתחה י"ז - That is, seventeen clean days. If she sees on the eighteenth, she is certainly a niddah; but if she sees on the seventeenth, perhaps it is the sighting of a zavah, for perhaps on the day she saw it was the beginning of niddah, and the seventeenth day is the last of the eleven days of zivah.

שלשה ימים טמאים - Perhaps the first two days were of the eleven days and the third day the first of niddah; therefore she needs seventeen. Four days – her petach is sixteen, either way: for if we say that the first three days were of the eleven, and seven, then once the seven days of her counting have passed over her she comes to the opening of her niddah; for one cannot say that her niddah began on the last of the four days, since that is impossible: as she is a full zavah, she will never become a niddah until after counting seven days, the days of purity of zivah. Therefore the only way to locate the opening of her niddah is to say that perhaps the first two were of the days of zivah and her niddah did not begin until the third day, so that two days of her niddah have passed; and when five more days are completed to finish her niddah, and eleven more – that is sixteen days – you find the opening of her niddah.^[14]

Notes

1. 1. This continues the sugya from the previous amud [Arachin 7b]. Rav Ada bar Ahava taught there that a poor man with five sela’im who said “My valuation is upon me” and then said it again, and gave four to the second vow and one to the first, has fulfilled both, since a later creditor who collected first keeps what he collected. Here is the reverse order.
2. 2. Hasagas yad, “what his hand can reach”: one too poor to pay the valuation fixed by the Torah pays according to his means (Vayikra 27:8). In the Mishnah [Arachin 7b] Rabbi Meir holds that a poor man with five sela’im gives only one, while the Sages hold that he gives all five; so by the Sages four is not all he has, and the first vow is not discharged.
3. 3. He took both valuations upon himself in one utterance, so neither vow comes before the other. The question is whether the five sela’im are divided between the two, or each vow has a claim on all five.
4. 4. Teiku, “let it stand”: the question remains unresolved.
5. 5. The Mishnah [Arachin 7b] opens: “One is not valued at less than a sela, nor at more than fifty sela’im,” and after the dispute of Rabbi Meir and the Sages about the poor man with five sela’im, it repeats the same words. The Gemara asks what the repetition adds.
6. 6. An anonymous Mishnah (stam Mishnah) states a law without naming its author, and the halachah generally follows it. The repeated clause implies that one may pay something between one and fifty sela’im, which is possible only according to the Sages; according to Rabbi Meir it is either fifty or one (Rashi).
7. 7. The perek lists laws stated as “not less than … nor more than.” A to’ah is a woman who has lost track of her cycle and does not know whether a sighting falls in her days of niddah or her days of zivah. Her petach, “opening,” is the point after which a new sighting is certainly the beginning of a niddah period.
8. 8. By Torah law a woman’s cycle has seven days of niddah, followed by eleven days of zivah. Blood seen on one or two days within the eleven makes her a minor zavah, who keeps one clean day for each day seen (shomeres yom keneged yom). Three consecutive days make her a full zavah, who must count seven clean days and bring an offering.
9. 9. “Seventeen” means seventeen clean days besides the days on which she saw; only a sighting after them is certainly the beginning of niddah, and until then she remains in doubt (Rashi; Tosfos).
10. 10. A full zavah brings two birds, one an olah and one a chatas. When she brings them because of a doubt, the bird chatas may not be eaten: if she was not obligated, it is chullin killed by melikah instead of shechitah, and so a neveilah.
11. 11. From four days on, the petach drops by one for each further day. At most two of her days can be the end of the eleven days of zivah: had she seen three of them within the zivah days she would be a full zavah, who cannot begin a niddah period before counting seven clean days. So the rest of her days count as niddah days (Rashi on five days).
12. 12. The beraisa continues on the next amud [Arachin 8b]: twelve – her petach is eight; thirteen – her petach is seven; for a to’ah’s petach is never less than seven.
13. 13. Tosfos limits the question to a case where the kohen assesses him for both vows together. Were he assessed for them one after the other, he would be no worse off than one who gave to the second vow first, who fulfils both [Arachin 7b].
14. 14. Tosfos’s count for four days: perhaps the first two were the last days of zivah and her niddah began on the third; five more days complete the niddah week and eleven more the zivah days – sixteen in all.