025a – אין מקדישין – פרק שביעי – ערכין, דף כה ע”א

In the middle of the Jubilee: as long as a full year has not yet been completed for the field, the redemption price is not reduced. ^[1]

באמצע יובל - That is: the point is any time, even twenty or thirty years into the Jubilee cycle. What does "less than a year" mean? The one coming to redeem in the middle of the Jubilee offers a sela and a pondion for the coming years. If he stands in Nisan, the midpoint of the year, he should not say, "I give half a sela and half a pondion for this year"; he gives a full sela and pondion. This is what "one does not redeem with less than a year" means: while the year is not complete, nothing is reduced, and he does not pay for half a year but for a full year.

What is this teaching us? That partial years are not counted together with a consecrated field.

It is explicitly taught: one does not count partial years together with a consecrated field. ^[2]

[שאין מחשבין חדשים עם ההקדש - As stated: if he comes to redeem it five and a half years before the Jubilee, we do not count those six months that passed from one year into the sixth year; rather he pays six sela and six pondion.

What is the reason he says this?

And the reason one does not redeem with less than a year remaining after the Jubilee is that partial years are not counted together with a consecrated field.

The Mishnah states: One does not count partial years, etc. ^[3]

A beraisa taught: From where do we know that one does not count partial years together with a consecrated field?

Scripture says, "And the priest shall calculate for him the money according to the remaining years" (Vayikra 27:18). You count years, but you do not count partial years.

השנים הנותרות - Whatever remains counts as years.

From where do we know that if you wish to make partial years into a full year, you may do so?

לעשות חדש שנה - To count those months that have passed as if they were a year, and it is to his advantage.

What is the case? For example, he consecrated it in the middle of the forty-eighth [year]. ^[4]

והיכי דמי דאקדשה בפלגא דמ"ח - For if you counted the months that had fully passed, they would be fewer than two years, and it could not be redeemed at a reduction.

The verse says, "And the priest shall calculate" (in any case).

The Mishnah: If one consecrates his field in the Jubilee, he gives the price of a homer of barley seed, fifty shekels of silver. ^[5] If there were deep hollows of ten handbreadths, or high rocks of ten handbreadths, ^[6] they are not measured together with the field.

מתני' בשעת היובל - When the Jubilee is in effect. But when the Jubilee is not in effect, he redeems it at its value like other consecrations.

אין נמדדין עמה - And they are redeemed at their value, and the rest by calculation of fifty sela per beit kor.

But if they are less than that, they are measured together with it.

If he consecrated it two or three years before the Jubilee, he gives a sela and a pondion for each year.

If he said, "I will give the redemption year by year," we do not listen to him; he pays it all at once.

Whether it is the owner or any person: what is the difference between the owner and any person? Only that the owner pays an added fifth ^[7], while any other person does not pay the fifth.

ואחד כל האדם - He redeems a beit homer for fifty shekels, whether it is worth a thousand shekels or only five shekels.

A Tanna taught: [the measure is] a kor of seed, not a kor of produce; [the seed is scattered] by hand, not by oxen. ^[8]

גמ' כור זרע - That they can sow a kor in it.

ולא כור תבואה - Land from which one harvests a kor of produce, which is much less than a kor of seed; for that one does not need fifty [shekels], but only according to the amount of seed: a third of a kor or a quarter of a kor.

מפולת יד - Sown by hand.

ולא מפולת שוורים - They used to put sacks full of seed on oxen, with holes pierced at the bottom, and they drove them with the plough so that the seed fell out. Land that takes a kor of seed when sown by hand is less dense than land that takes a kor of seed when sown by oxen, which is dense.

Levi taught: [the seeding is] neither dense nor thin, but medium. ^[9]

תנא - The Tanna: one does not measure by dense sowing, since that is a loss to the redeemer.

ולא בזרע מידק - [Also] not by thin sowing, since that is a loss to the consecrated property, for the Temple's measure is a large kor-house; rather one measures by medium sowing.

מעובה - Dense: where more seed is placed than in thin sowing; in Old French it is called "kliyer".

The Mishnah's clause: "If there were deep hollows, etc." ^[10]

And let them be consecrated separately.

וליקדשו - Those hollows are consecrated separately, and they are also redeemed by calculation of fifty per kor. What benefit is there in what is not measured with it? Surely they too are redeemed in that way.

And if you say that since they were not [large enough to hold] a kor, they were not consecrated: but it is taught otherwise.

But it is taught: Why does the verse say "field"? Because it is said (Vayikra 27:16), "the seed of a homer of barley for fifty shekels of silver." ^[11]

שדה מה ת"ל - It should have written: "And if from his property a man consecrates, etc." (Vayikra 27:16).

I would have known the law only for one who consecrated [a field] in this way.

בענין הזה - A full beit kor.

From where do we include a lethekh and half a lethekh, a se'ah, and a tarkav and half a tarkav? The verse says "field". ^[12]

לתך - Half a kor.

תרקב - Half a se'ah: "tri u-kav", that is three kavs, which are half a se'ah.

In any case, Mar Ukva bar Chama said: here it refers to hollows full of water, which are not fit for sowing.

This is also indicated, since [the Mishnah] teaches "like rocks".

Conclude from this: if so, then even those below that depth, the naganei de'ara, are called shidrei de'ara. ^[13]

נגאני - Hollows less than ten: the naganei de'ara are basins of land where water gathers. They are named after the land and are not considered on their own. The sela'im lower than ten are the shidrei de'ara, like the spine of an animal, which is high.

The Mishnah: "If he consecrated it two or three years, etc." ^[14]

A beraisa taught: "And it shall be diminished from your valuation" (Vayikra 27:18), [this applies] also to years in consecrated hands: if the Temple used the field for a year or two, ^[15]

אף מן ההקדש - Just as he is diminished in the years when it was in his hand and not consecrated, so too it is diminished because of the years it was in the hand of the Temple, from the time of consecration until the time of redemption.

or alternatively, if the Temple did not use it but it was before him, he pays a sela and a pondion for each year.

אי נמי לא אכלה - That no treasurer sowed anything in it, nor rented it to anyone, and it was before him in Temple hands: he deducts a sela and a pondion for each year, from the Jubilee that passed until the time of redemption.

The Mishnah: "And if he said, I will give year by year, etc." ^[16]

A beraisa taught: From where do we know that if the owners say, "we will give year by year," we do not listen to them?

Scripture says, "And the priest shall calculate for him the money" until the whole sum is paid at once, the owner and any person alike.

What is the difference between the owner and any person? That the owner pays a fifth, and any other person does not pay a fifth.

שהבעלים נותנין חומש - As it is written: "And if he will indeed redeem the field that sanctified it, etc." (Vayikra 27:19).

The Mishnah: If he consecrated it and then redeemed it, it does not leave his hand at the Jubilee.

מתני' אינה יוצאה מידו ביובל - To be divided among the priests: for if another person had redeemed it, it would have gone out at the Jubilee and been divided among the priests, as written (Vayikra 27:21): "And the field, when it goes out in the Jubilee, etc."

If his son redeemed it, it goes out to his father at the Jubilee. ^[17]

גאלה בנו יוצאה לאביו ביובל - And not to the priests, as derived in a beraisa in the Gemara.

If another person, or one of his relatives, redeemed it, and it was then redeemed from his hand, it goes out to the priests at the Jubilee. ^[18]

גאלה אחד מקרוביו - The consecrator takes it from the treasurer's hand and redeems it from the relative's hand; it goes out at the Jubilee and is divided among the priests, as it would have gone out from that relative's hand because of him.

If one of the priests redeemed it and it is under his hand (in his possession), ^[19]

גאלה כהן - The consecrator takes it from the treasurer's hand: he shall not say, "Since if an Israelite had redeemed it, it would have gone out to me and my fellows at the Jubilee, and now that it is under my hand because I redeemed it, there is no High Priest greater than me, so it shall be mine."

One should not say: since it goes out to the priests at the Jubilee, and it is under my hand, it is mine. Rather it goes out from his hand and is divided among all his brother priests.

Tosafot

דאקדשיה בפלגיה דארבעים ותמני - Not literally: the matter does not depend on consecrating it, but on the redemption.

וליקדשו באפי נפשייהו - I have explained this in Bava Batra (103a) and Kiddushin (61a).

Notes

1. 1. The Jubilee (yovel) is the fiftieth year, in which land returns to its original owner (Vayikra 25). A consecrated field that was not redeemed goes to the priests at the Jubilee.
2. 2. "Partial years" (chadashim) are the months left over after the last full year. They are not counted toward the redemption sum.
3. 3. The Mishnah clause is quoted here. It means the redeemer pays for a partial year as if it were a full year, not pro rata by months.
4. 4. The example: the field was consecrated in the middle of the forty-eighth [year], so that less than two full years remain before the Jubilee.
5. 5. A homer (kor) is thirty se'ah, a measure of seed. The price is set by the amount of seed sown in the field: fifty shekels for a homer of seed.
6. 6. Deep hollows (na'akim) of ten handbreadths cannot be sown, so they are not measured with the field and are priced separately.
7. 7. The owner adds one fifth to the redemption price (Vayikra 27:19); any other person does not.
8. 8. These are two ways of sowing: scattering by hand, and scattering from sacks pulled by oxen. Each gives a different density, so the measure differs.
9. 9. Dense sowing (me'uveh) is a loss to the redeemer; thin sowing (miduk) is a loss to the Temple. So the medium rate is used.
10. 10. The Gemara quotes the Mishnah's clause on deep hollows. In practice, those hollows are excluded from the measure and are not priced with the field.
11. 11. Vayikra 27:16 reads: "the seed of a homer of barley for fifty shekels of silver." The Gemara uses the wording to derive the measure.
12. 12. Lethekh and tarkav are small measures of seed; a lethekh is half a kor (general knowledge; see Rashi).
13. 13. Shidrei de'ara are low raised ridges in the ground. The Gemara explains the Mishnah's words "like rocks" by them.
14. 14. The Mishnah clause on consecrating for two or three years before the Jubilee: the owner pays a sela and a pondion for each year.
15. 15. Vayikra 27:18 says the valuation is diminished "from your valuation". The Gemara applies this also to years the field spent in the Temple's hands.
16. 16. The Mishnah clause: if he says "I will give year by year," we do not listen; he must pay the whole sum at once.
17. 17. If a son redeemed the field, it returns to his father at the Jubilee, since it remains within the family.
18. 18. If the field is not redeemed, it goes to the priests at the Jubilee (Vayikra 27:21).
19. 19. A priest who redeems the field cannot keep it for himself; it is divided among all the priests.