024a – שום היתומים – פרק ששי – ערכין, דף כד ע”א

(Leviticus 27) "And if he is poor, he shall be valued by your valuation; let him live by your valuation^[1]". But not his wife and children, etc.:

גמ' הוא - We expound "החייהו" to mean: this is what it says — he shall remain standing by your valuation.

What is the reason that "he" is valued by your valuation, and not his wife and children?

R. Eliezer^[2] says: If he was a farmer, [he keeps] his yoke of oxen [etc.]:

And the Rabbis say: These are not tools of a trade^[3]; rather they are property.

If he had one kind^[4] [of property, etc.]:

This is obvious: just as it sufficed for him until now, so too it suffices for him now.

Lest you say: until now, when he had an extra tool to use^[5], they would lend him [tools]; now that no one lends him, [the Mishnah] teaches us [that he keeps only what he needs].

עד האידנא דהוה ליה - An extra adze to use; they would lend him such tools.

If one consecrates his property, we bring up his tefillin^[6] for him [i.e. they are not included].

A certain man who had sold his property came before Rav Yemar. He said to them: Take off his tefillin from him.

סליקו ליה תפילין - They removed his tefillin from his head until he redeems them with money.

This is a Mishnah: If one consecrates his property, we bring up his tefillin for him.

Lest you say: there he thought "I am doing a mitzvah^[7]", but regarding the sale of a mitzvah object itself, a person may not sell it; [the Mishnah] teaches us this.

מצוה קא עבידנא - That I will give it to the repair of the Temple; therefore his intent was about all his property.

Mishnah: One who consecrates his property, and one who assesses himself, has no [claim on] his wife's clothing, nor his children's clothing, nor the dye that he dyed for himself, nor new sandals that he bought for himself; even though they said that slaves are sold with their clothing for improvement — that if a garment is bought for him for thirty dinars, it improves the price by a maneh; and likewise a cow, if we keep it for the market day^[8], it is improved; and likewise a pearl, if we bring it up to a big city^[9], it is improved. The consecration takes only its place and its time.

מתני' אין לו לא בכסות אשתו - That it is not his.

לשמן - For his wife and children.

סנדלים חדשים - A novelty: even though they have not yet been worn, they are in his possession from the time he took them.

אע"פ שאמרו עבדים נמכרים [בכסותן] לשבח - Clothing of slaves raises their value. For example, in the case of orphans' property: if a garment is bought for a slave for thirty dinars, it adds a maneh to his price, which is his present worth.

לאיטליס - Market day.

לכרך - A big city, where merchants go.

אין לו להקדש אלא מקומו - With the pearl.

ושעתו - This is about a slave and a cow for which a person consecrated himself and is valued: he gives to the consecration according to what he has. If a slave is now assessed at twenty zuz, we do not say that we look at it as if clothing were bought for him for thirty zuz, improving him by a maneh, so that he sells for 120 zuz and his price is ninety; rather he gives to the consecration at his present worth. So too a cow, and a pearl in a village is appraised only according to its place.

Our Rabbis taught^[10]: "And he shall give the valuation on that day" — so that a pearl is not delayed for light-headed people^[11]. "Holy to the Lord" — a general consecration goes to the repair of the Temple.

גמ' שלא ישהה מרגלית לקלים - For a light and poor person who consecrated himself and has a pearl: the treasurer should not hold it and say, bring it up to a city and pay by those prices. Rather, we appraise it according to what it is worth here. He holds it, sells it as he wishes, and pays by the appraised price, since when they assessed him the priest had nothing more.

Chapter Seven: One Does Not Consecrate

Mishnah: One does not consecrate before the Jubilee with less than two years, and one does not redeem after the Jubilee with less than one year. One does not count partial months for the consecrator^[12], but the consecration counts partial months.

מתני' אין מקדישין - Mishnah: one does not consecrate an ancestral field before the Jubilee with less than two years remaining, since it is written "according to the remaining years", and two is not fewer than two.

ולא גואלין אחר היובל פחות משנה - Explained in the Gemara, Rav according to his view and Shmuel according to his.

ואין מחשבין כו' - Explained in the Gemara.

אבל הקדש מחשב חדשים - That is, if it is to the benefit of the consecration, we count the partial year that went out, as explained below: it was consecrated in the middle of the forty-eighth [year]. If we did not count those months, it would be less than two years before the Jubilee and it would be redeemed not with a reduction but for fifty. Here one certainly counts it as a full departure, since the consecration otherwise loses.

And there is a contradiction^[13]: one may consecrate both before the Jubilee and after the Jubilee, but in the Jubilee year itself one may not consecrate, and if he did, it is not sanctified.

גמ' ורמינהו מקדישין בין לפני היובל - Implying even less than two years. Rav and Shmuel both say that one does not consecrate for redemption at a reduction with less than two years. A field consecrated in the first year of the Jubilee and then redeemed pays fifty sela, as it is written "from the year of the Jubilee". If it was consecrated ten or twenty years after the Jubilee, one counts the remaining years up to the next Jubilee and pays a sela and a pondion per year. The Gemara in Bekhorot challenges the pondion, and Rav and Shmuel say that one who consecrates less than two years before the Jubilee has no reduction. The verse teaches that a person should be careful with his property, so as not to lose forty-eight sela.

Rav and Shmuel both say: one does not consecrate for redemption^[14] at a reduction with less than two years. And since one does not consecrate for redemption at a reduction with less than two years, a person should be careful with his property and not consecrate for less than two years.

It was said: one who consecrates his field in the Jubilee year itself^[15] — Rav says it is sanctified and he gives fifty [shekels]; Shmuel says it is not sanctified at all.

Rav Yosef objects:

Granted, regarding sale, where Shmuel disagrees with Rav, one can say a kal vachomer^[16]: if a sold [field] is already leaving [the buyer] now, then one not yet sold should not be sold [or consecrated].

בשלמא - Granted, regarding the sale of a field in the Jubilee year itself, Shmuel disagrees with Rav below in the chapter HaMoker (29b), because one can say a kal vachomer.

But here, can one say a kal vachomer? For we learned: "If the Jubilee arrived^[17] and it was not redeemed, the priests enter it and give its value — the words of R. Yehudah."

מי איכא למימר ק"ו - Since those consecrations already do not leave their sanctity at the Jubilee without redemption, as we learned (25b): If the Jubilee came and it was not redeemed, the priests enter it and give its value to the Temple treasury.

Shmuel holds like R. Shimon, who says: "They enter and do not give^[18] [money]."

כר"ש ס"ל - Therefore one can say a kal vachomer: a sanctity that is already leaving now is not sanctified; a fortiori it should not be sanctified.

Tosafot

אין להקדש אלא מקומו ושעתו - And if so, why must the consecration wait sixty days, when in all the cases here one does not wait, even though it is a gain to the consecration? One cannot say that here it is about one who consecrated all his property, so no proclamation applies: that is not so, since a Tosefta of Perakim teaches that even if he consecrated only a pearl, the same law holds and one does not wait. The answer: here it deals with movables, and as taught in Ketubot (100b), one does not proclaim about these lest they be stolen; the first clause of the Mishnah, which requires a proclamation for sixty days, deals with land.

אין מקדישין כו':

רב ושמואל דאמרי תרוייהו אין מקדישין ליגאל - Rav and Shmuel both say: one does not consecrate for redemption at less than two sela and two pondion. If he or someone else redeems in either of the two Jubilee years, he redeems by the remaining years to the Jubilee, a sela and a pondion per year: forty-nine sela for forty-nine years, less one sela, since a sela is forty-eight pondion. This is the pondion that makes the cholbon, as in Bekhorot (50). But if one redeems less than two years before the Jubilee, there is no reduction at all, and he redeems a whole kor of seed for fifty sela, as written: "and he shall reckon the money by the remaining years until the Jubilee, and it shall be reduced", the number two being excluded. Lest you ask: why not state also that one does not consecrate in the first year of the Jubilee, so that he is careful with his property, since then too he redeems without reduction? The answer is that the person knows that if he redeems in that year he redeems without reduction and accepts it; but here the Tanna teaches that a person should be careful with his property, so that if he redeems less than two years before the Jubilee there is no reduction, and if he waits until the Jubilee he does not get it back. Lest you ask: what does the Mishnah teach, since it says one consecrates both before and after the Jubilee? The answer is that although the year begins at Rosh Hashanah, the Jubilee begins only at Yom Kippur, and after the Jubilee, that is after Rosh Hashanah of the end of the Jubilee year, the Jubilee is not counted until Yom Kippur.

Notes

1. 1. Leviticus 27:8: a poor person who consecrates his own worth is valued at what the priest sets for him. The Gemara derives from the verse that only he himself, and not his wife and children, is included in this valuation.
2. 2. A Tanna who holds that a farmer's yoke of oxen counts as his tools of trade and is not sold with his other property.
3. 3. Implements a man uses to earn his living. They are not counted among the property that he consecrates.
4. 4. The Gemara quotes this clause back for discussion. It is a case of a person whose assets are of a single kind, and the next line asks whether the rule is obvious.
5. 5. To use: a spare tool that a man would lend out to others.
6. 6. Tefillin: the leather boxes with scriptural passages worn on the head and arm, a mitzvah from the Torah. They are not sold, and they are not counted as ordinary property.
7. 7. This quotation explains the man's intent: he thought the sale was a mitzvah. The Gemara answers that a person may not sell a mitzvah object itself, even with that intent.
8. 8. Itlis: a market day, when animals were brought to be sold.
9. 9. A big city, to which merchants travel.
10. 10. A baraita: a Tannaitic teaching that is not part of the Mishnah.
11. 11. People who take little care with the value of property, so a pearl should not be left in their hands.
12. 12. The Mishnah says that partial months are not counted in the consecrator's favour, but they are counted in the consecration's favour.
13. 13. A contrary baraita that appears to conflict with the Mishnah, and the Gemara resolves it below.
14. 14. Redemption: buying back consecrated property by paying its value, which is reduced according to the years remaining until the Jubilee.
15. 15. In the Jubilee year the field returns to its original owner, so the Amoraim disagree whether a consecration made that year takes effect.
16. 16. A kal vachomer is an a fortiori argument: a lighter case is used to infer a heavier one. Here the Gemara tests whether the rule about sale carries over to consecration.
17. 17. Mishnah: if the Jubilee arrives and the field was not redeemed, the priests enter it and give its value to the Temple treasury, according to R. Yehudah.
18. 18. The view of R. Shimon: the priests enter the field without giving money for it.