014a – יש בערכין – פרק שלישי – ערכין, דף יד ע”א

It teaches us a matter in passing, in line with Rav Yehuda in the name of Rav; for Rav Yehuda said in the name of Rav: It is forbidden for a person to say, “How handsome is this gentile!”^[1]

מילתא אגב אורחיה קמ"ל - [The Mishnah] did not teach “the handsome among the Canaanites,” because it is forbidden to attach a mention of beauty to a Canaanite, as Rav Yehuda [said], for it is written (Devarim 7): “Lo sechanem” – do not give them grace.

But let it teach “the handsome in Israel and the ugly among the gentiles”!

It speaks of one nation; of two nations it does not speak.

And does it not? But it teaches: the greatest in the kehunah and the least in Israel!^[2]

והא קתני - Regarding one who violates or seduces.

את הקטנה שבישראל ואת הגדולה שבכהונה - Evidently it does speak of two nations.

There it is one nation; only that the kohanim are more sanctified.

And if you wish, say: since it wants to teach in the end clause “an ancestral field”,^[3] which is found among Israel – among gentiles it is not found, for they have no ancestral holdings – therefore it teaches it with Israel.

בעובד כוכבים לא משכחת לה - The law of an ancestral field, that he redeems it for fifty shekels of silver and not at its value, [is not found among them,] for they have no ancestral holding in Eretz Yisrael.

Mishnah

With an ancestral field [there is] leniency and stringency. How so? Whether one consecrates [a field] in the sands of Mechoz or one consecrates in the orchards of Sebaste, he gives [for each] sowing of a chomer of barley fifty shekels of silver;^[4]

מתני' אחד המקדיש שדה בחולת המחוז - Surroundings of a town, which are not so valuable because of the trampling of feet. Cholas means surroundings, like mechol hakerem (Kilayim 4:1). (Another version:) Mechoz is a town. Another version: Mechoz is the name of a place whose fields were not valued.

פרדיסות סבסטי - Vineyards of that place, and they are very choice.

נותן - Whoever redeems them, whether the owner or another person, [gives] for each area of sowing a chomer of barley fifty shekels of silver, if it was the start of the Yovel; and if not, he deducts according to the years that have passed – a sela and a pundyon for each year,^[5] as the verse writes.

and with a purchased field, he gives its value.^[6]

Rabbi Eliezer says: Both a purchased field and an ancestral field [are redeemed at the fixed rate].^[7]

אחד שדה אחוזה כו' - That all of them are redeemed for fifty shekels.

What is the difference between an ancestral field and a purchased field? That with an ancestral field he gives a fifth, and with a purchased field he does not give a fifth.^[8]

שדה אחוזה - If the owners redeem it, they add a fifth to the fifty, as it is written (Vayikra 27): “And if he that consecrated the field will indeed redeem it” etc.

ובשדה מקנה אין נותן חומש - As the Gemara explains.

Gemara

Rav Huna said: If one consecrated a field full of trees, when he redeems it he redeems the trees at their value, and then redeems the ground [at the rate of] a sowing area of a chomer of barley for fifty shekels of silver.

Evidently Rav Huna holds: A person who consecrates, consecrates with a generous eye.^[9]

גמ' בעין יפה מקדיש - The trees by themselves and the ground by itself, and not that he should redeem the trees along with the ground.

Rav Nachman challenged Rav Huna: Whether one consecrates in the sands of Mechoz or one consecrates in the orchards of Sebaste, he gives [for each] sowing area of a chomer of barley fifty shekels of silver!^[10]

פרדיסות - These are planted vineyards, and it teaches fifty shekels; evidently trees are redeemed along with the ground.

He said to him: I mean [ground] fit for orchards.

ראויה - But it is not planted.

He challenged him: “A sowing area” – I have only a sowing area; a field of vines, a field of reeds and a field of trees, from where? The verse says “field” – in any case!^[11]

אין לי - [That is] redeemed for fifty shekels, only a sowing area that is fit for sowing.

He said to him: Here too, he redeems [the trees] and then redeems [the ground] again.

פודה - The trees at their value, and then he redeems the ground; and the “field in any case” that it says refers only to the ground.

He challenged him: If one consecrated three trees planted at the density of ten to a beis se’ah, he has consecrated the ground and the trees between them; when he redeems, he redeems [at the rate of] a sowing area of a chomer of barley for fifty shekels of silver;^[12]

הקדיש שלשה אילנות - Planted and spread out in their order, at the density of ten to a beis se’ah: if there were ten spread out like these they would fill a beis se’ah. This is the norm for planting trees, and all the ground between them is needed for them. Therefore if he consecrated them, he has consecrated the ground between them and all the small trees between them.

less than this, or more than this, or if he consecrated them one after the other – he has consecrated neither the ground nor the trees between them;

פחות מיכן - If they are planted at less than the density of ten to a beis se’ah, or more than that, this is not the arrangement of planted trees, and he has consecrated only the trees; and when he redeems them he redeems them at their value.

זה אחר זה - Hekdesh did not acquire ground, for ground is acquired only with three trees, as it says in Bava Basra.^[13]

and not only that, but even if he consecrated his trees and afterwards consecrated the ground, when he redeems, he redeems the trees at their value, and then redeems the ground [at the rate of] a sowing area of a chomer of barley for fifty shekels of silver!

ולא עוד - And not only are these redeemed at their value, which have no consecration of ground with them at all;

אלא אפי' הקדיש האילנות - That are not planted in order;

ואח"כ הקדיש קרקע - Where one could say, let them be redeemed along with their ground – even so, since they were not consecrated together, he redeems the trees at their value, and the ground is redeemed at fifty shekels per sowing area.

And if you say that here too he redeems and then redeems again – but since the end clause says “he redeems and then redeems again,” it follows that the first clause does not!

תיובתא לרב הונא - From the first clause: where he consecrated them together they are redeemed along with the ground.^[14]

Rather, whose [view] is this? It is Rabbi Shimon, who says: One who consecrates, consecrates with a grudging eye.^[15]

As it is taught: One who consecrates a field has consecrated all of it. Rabbi Shimon says: He has consecrated only the grafted carob and the sycamore stump.

הקדיש את כולה - Everything that is in it.

ר' שמעון אומר לא הקדיש - The trees in it;

אלא חרוב המורכב וסדן השקמה - For they are old and very large, and draw from the field of hekdesh more than other trees; and so it is explained in Bava Basra. The sycamore stump: the way with sycamores is to cut them so that they grow thick; before it is cut it is called a “virgin sycamore,” and after cutting it is called a “sycamore stump.” So it is taught in Tractate Niddah (Niddah 8b).

If it is Rabbi Shimon, say the end clause: And not only that, but even if he consecrated his trees and afterwards consecrated the ground, when he redeems, he redeems the trees at their value, and then redeems a sowing area of a chomer of barley for fifty shekels of silver.^[16]

But if it is Rabbi Shimon – let us follow the redemption, and let them be redeemed along with their ground; for we have heard of Rabbi Shimon that he follows the redemption!

ליזיל בתר פדיון - And since at the time of redemption there is ground along with the trees;

ליפרקו אגב ארעייהו - Even though at the time of consecration he consecrated them by themselves.

As it is taught: From where [do we know] that one who buys a field from his father and consecrated it, and afterwards his father died – from where that it should be before him as an ancestral field? The verse says (Vayikra 27:22): “If a field of his purchase, which is not of the field of his holding” –^[17]

והקדישה ואח"כ מת אביו - Even though at the time of consecration it was a purchased field – since after his father died it became an ancestral field.

מנין שתהא לפניו כשדה אחוזה - And it is redeemed for fifty shekels, and not at its value.

a field that is not fit to be an ancestral field; this one, which is fit to be an ancestral field, is excluded – the words of Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Shimon.^[18]

Rabbi Meir says: From where [do we know] that one who buys a field from his father, and his father died, and afterwards he consecrated it – from where that it should be before him as an ancestral field…^[19]

Tosfos

מה בין שדה מקנה לשדה אחוזה כו' - (Belongs to 14a) And likewise he could have stated another difference between an ancestral field and a purchased field: with an ancestral field, if he consecrated it and another person redeemed it, it is divided among the kohanim at Yovel; and with a purchased field, if he consecrated it and another person redeemed it, it returns to the owners at Yovel. But it chose to explain only a difference that applies when he himself redeems it.^[20]

בעובד כוכבים לא משכחת - Because they have no ancestral holdings. And even though we say (Kiddushin 17b) that a gentile inherits his father by Torah law, nevertheless they had no ancestral holding in the land; and this law applies only in Eretz Yisrael, for it is a mitzvah dependent on the land, and a gentile has no inheritance in the land.

הקדיש שלשה אילנות ממטע עשרה לבית סאה - And these trees are saplings; for if they were grown, three [trees] to a beis se’ah would suffice.

פחות מכאן או יתר על כן לא הקדיש את הקרקעות - At the density of ten to a beis se’ah, each tree gets two hundred and fifty [square] amos.^[21] And it is puzzling: in perek Hamocher es Hasefinah (Bava Basra 82a) it is taught: One who buys three trees, and they are from four amos [apart] up to sixteen, has acquired [the ground] beneath them, between them and beside them, as far as the gatherer and his basket [reach]. Evidently we do not regard them as crowded when there are only eight amos by eight amos square between one and the next, that is, sixty-four amos for each, and he has ground with this; yet here we say that with less than two hundred and fifty amos he has not consecrated the ground! And the Ri said that there is a difference between one who sells and one who consecrates: with a seller we do not require so much. However, it is puzzling that here we say that [with] more than this he has no ground, while with a seller we say up to sixteen amos by sixteen amos, that is two hundred and fifty-six, and we do not regard them as too spread out, and they have ground. One must say that these sixteen amos regarding sale speak of a circle, and the square exceeds the circle by a quarter; so regarding sale we do not require as much as for one who consecrates. And Rabbeinu Shmuel asked in Bava Basra from what is taught in the Tosefta, that there is no difference between a seller and one who consecrates in this law of acquiring ground; and he answered that it is a dispute of Tannaim. However, it is puzzling that Rabbi Shimon holds there that eight amos between one and the next is not too much even regarding hekdesh, and the beraisa here of ten to a beis se’ah is established here shortly as Rabbi Shimon! One can say that it is established as Rabbi Shimon only for the law that one consecrates with a grudging eye, but for the law of the measure of planting trees it is not Rabbi Shimon.

Notes

1. 1. Continues from the previous amud [Arachin 13b]. The Mishnah taught “the handsome in Israel and the ugly in Israel.” The Gemara answered that even Rabbi Meir, who holds a gentile can be valued, would agree; the Mishnah said “Israel” to teach a point in passing.
2. 2. The Mishnah later [Arachin 14b]: one who violates or seduces a girl pays fifty sela’im, whether she is the greatest in the kehunah or the least in Israel.
3. 3. A sdei achuzah is an ancestral field, inherited from the division of the land among the tribes. A sdei mikneh is a field a person bought; it goes back to the seller at Yovel.
4. 4. An ancestral field that was consecrated is redeemed at a fixed rate: fifty silver shekels for each area that takes a chomer of barley seed, whether the land is poor or choice [Vayikra 27:16].
5. 5. Fifty shekels over the forty-nine years of the Yovel cycle come to a sela and a pundyon for each year, and the price is reduced by the years already gone [Vayikra 27:18].
6. 6. A purchased field is not redeemed at the fixed rate but at its value, for the years left until Yovel [Vayikra 27:22–23].
7. 7. That is, for Rabbi Eliezer a purchased field is also redeemed at fifty shekels per sowing area, like an ancestral field.
8. 8. Chomesh: owners who redeem their own consecrated property add a fifth to the price. For Rabbi Eliezer this is the whole difference between the two fields.
9. 9. With a generous eye: one who consecrates does so generously, giving the trees as well, as a thing of their own. So the trees are not swallowed into the field rate; they are redeemed at their value.
10. 10. Rav Nachman quotes our Mishnah: pardesos are planted vineyards, yet one pays only fifty shekels. So the trees are redeemed along with the ground.
11. 11. A beraisa on the verse “the sowing of a chomer of barley” [Vayikra 27:16]: even a planted field is included, and is redeemed at fifty shekels.
12. 12. A beis se’ah is an area of fifty by fifty amos, 2,500 square amos. Ten trees to a beis se’ah is the density of an orchard, so three trees at that spacing count as an orchard together with the ground between them.
13. 13. Bava Basra, perek Hamocher es Hasefinah [Bava Basra 82a]: one who buys three trees acquires the ground beneath and between them.
14. 14. The words “a refutation of Rav Huna” are not in our Gemara; Rashi explains them here according to his text.
15. 15. With a grudging eye: one who consecrates gives only what he clearly named, not what stands inside the field.
16. 16. The Gemara quotes the end of the same beraisa again: even where he consecrated the trees and then the ground, he redeems the trees on their own.
17. 17. A son who buys a field from his father would have inherited it anyway; so once his father dies, it becomes for him like an ancestral field.
18. 18. For Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Shimon, even if he consecrated it before his father died, it is redeemed as an ancestral field, since we follow the time of redemption. Rashi on this line (beginning “Talmud lomar etc.”) is printed on the next amud [Arachin 14b].
19. 19. Rabbi Meir’s words continue on the next amud [Arachin 14b], where Rashi on “and afterwards he consecrated it” is printed.
20. 20. The Vilna edition prints this Tosfos on the previous amud [Arachin 13b], marked “belongs to 14a”; it is on our Mishnah.
21. 21. A beis se’ah is 2,500 square amos; with ten trees each tree has 250. In Bava Basra, eight by eight is 64 square amos, and sixteen by sixteen is 256.