030b – המוכר שדהו – פרק תשיעי – ערכין, דף ל ע”ב

צורת הדף באתר היברובוקס

Here I am, like Ben Azzai^[1] in the marketplace of Tiberias.

הריני - Praised in my place, for I am an expounder and skilled like Ben Azzai, who boasted in the marketplace of Tiberias, as taught in Bekhorot, ninth chapter (58a): "Ben Azzai says: all the sages of Israel before me are like garlic skin."

A certain scholar said to Abaye: they can be expounded for leniency^[2], and they can be expounded for stringency.

איכא למדרשינהו - These verses, about the Hebrew slave.

How do we know that it is for leniency? Say it is for stringency! It cannot enter your mind, since the Merciful One was lenient with him.

As it was taught^[3]: "It is good for him with you" (Deut. 15:16). "With you" - in food, in drink: that you should not eat fine bread while he eats kibar bread, that you should not drink aged wine while he drinks new wine, that you should not sleep on cushions while he sleeps on the ground.

קיבר - A kind of bread, glossed by Rashi as "shgundiyar^[4]."

From here they said: one who buys a Hebrew slave^[5] is like one who buys a master for himself.

Rather, let us be stringent with him, based on R. Yossi son of R. Chanina^[6], who said: "Come and see how hard is the dust of the Shemittah^[7]: a man trades in Shemittah produce, and in the end he sells his movables."

מדרבי יוסי בר' חנינא - Surely he came to this only because he was wicked and traded in Shemittah produce.

אבקה של שביעית - One who trades in Shemittah produce; that is why it is called "dust," which is not the thing itself. The principal matter of the prohibition of the Shemittah [is elsewhere].

As it says^[8]: "In this year of Jubilee you shall return, each man to his property" (Lev. 25:13).

And it is written: "When you sell to your neighbor, or buy from your neighbor's hand" (Lev. 25:14) - a thing acquired hand to hand. He did not feel it, and in the end he sells his fields.

וסמיך ליה וכי תמכרו ממכר - And it is expounded by juxtaposition^[9], and so the Merciful One said: if you do not keep the commandments of the Jubilee, in the end you will sell movables and household implements.

לא הרגיש - He was not shaken to return from the transgression.

As it says: "If your brother becomes poor and sells from his property" (Lev. 25:25) - it did not come into his hand; in the end he sells his house.

לא באת לידו - That is, it never comes into his mind that he would commit any transgression at all.

As it says: "And a man who sells a dwelling house in a walled city^[10]" (Lev. 25:29).

What is the difference there, where it says "he did not feel it," and what is the difference here, where it says "it did not come into his hand"?

Like R. Huna^[11], who said: "Once a person has transgressed and repeated the transgression, it has become permitted to him." It has become permitted to him?! It cannot enter your mind!

Rather say: it has become to him like something permitted.

נעשית לו כהיתר - It seems to him like something permitted. Therefore, at the first stage, when he has transgressed only once, the Gemara teaches "did not feel," which implies that he knew and took it to heart that he was transgressing, but did not recoil from the transgression and did it. The second time, the Gemara teaches "did not come into his hand," that not even in his thought does it arise that it would be a transgression.

He did not come into his hand until he sells his daughter^[12], as it says: "And when a man sells his daughter as a maidservant" (Ex. 21:7).

Although his daughter is not in this matter, a man would prefer to sell his daughter rather than borrow at interest, for there [in selling a daughter] the sum decreases, whereas here [in borrowing at interest] it keeps increasing.

ניחא ליה לאיניש דליזבין ברתיה ולא לוזיף בריביתא - For usury is written in this matter, as it is written (Lev. 25:36): "Take no interest from him, usury or increase, etc." And surely before that he had already sold his daughter; this is why it is preferable to him.

פדיון בתו מגרעא ואזלא - The redemption of his daughter diminishes as time goes on. For the ordinary sale of a daughter is not that she be a maidservant except until the years of maidenhood come; and if he comes to redeem her in the meantime, he reckons the money for which he sold her, how much would come for each year that she was fit to be in the master's hand, and by that reckoning the master deducts for each year that he used her, as taught in Kiddushin (11a): "And the redemption [teaches] that her redemption diminishes, and she goes out."

[He did not come into his hand until he borrowed at interest, as it says: "If your brother becomes poor, etc." (Lev. 25:35), and it is written: "Take no interest from him, usury or increase" (Lev. 25:36).]

He did not come into his hand until he sells himself, as it says: "If your brother becomes poor beside you and sells himself to you" (Lev. 25:39).

"To you" - not to you, but to a resident alien (ger), as it says "to a ger", and not to a ger tzedek, but to a ger toshav^[13], as it says "to a ger toshav". "The family of the ger" - as it says "or to the root of the family of the ger" (Lev. 25:47): this is the one who sold himself and became a servant to idolatry itself.

ונעשה משרת - That he would become a servant of idolatry, to chop wood and draw water.

He said to him: nevertheless, the verse has turned it back.

א"ל אביי - To that scholar: nevertheless, "the verse has turned it back," so that they should show him mercy.

A teaching of the school of R. Yishmael^[14]: since he went and sold himself to {idolatry}, let the stone be pushed away after the one who fell.

אדחה אבן - That is, he shall never be redeemed.

Scripture teaches: "an everlasting redemption shall be his, and in the Jubilee he shall go out" ["a redemption shall be his; one of his brothers shall redeem him"] - say: "a redemption shall be his," so that he not be absorbed among {the nations}.

And for the matter of his redemption we are stringent.

נחמיר - Concerning him: if he was sold for a mina^[15] and it increased, it is reckoned at two hundred; or if he was sold for two hundred and it decreased, it is reckoned at two hundred, as written there: "from the money of his acquisition." "Are there really many years, so that one year is more than another?" For the verse says "if there are yet many years," or a year less than another.

Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak said: it is written, "If there are yet many years^[16]" (Lev. 25:51).

And it is written: "If few years remain" (Lev. 25:52).

Are there, then, many years and few years? Rather: if his money increased, [the redemption is reckoned] from the price of his purchase; if his money decreased, [it is reckoned] according to his years.

אלא - That is, the verse says: if there is an increase in his money in the years in which he stands, meaning, what it has appreciated he returns as his redemption from the purchase money, for one reckons only the amount for which he was sold; and if few [years] remain, its value in the years in which he stands, for example if it decreased, according to his years he returns his redemption.

And say: where he worked two [years] and four remained, let him pay him four [years' worth] from the price of his purchase.

ואימא - The verse says: where he worked for him two years, and four remained until the Jubilee, let him pay him what comes to four years from the purchase money, by the reckoning by which he acquired him.

And where he worked four [years] and two remained, let him pay him two, according to his years.

כפי שניו - According to the years he was still owed to serve him; and the verse does not speak of decrease and increase.

If so, let it write: "if there are yet many years" [in years]: if his money increased in the years, [it is reckoned] from the price of his purchase; if his money decreased in the years, according to his years.

Rav Yosef said: Rav Nachman expounded these verses "as at Sinai."

He may not sell at a distance^[17], etc.:

From where do we have these laws? As it was taught: "And his means be sufficient for it^[18]" (Lev. 25:26) - "his own means," that he may not borrow and redeem. "And he finds" - except for one who finds: he may not sell far away and redeem nearby, nor sell at a bad [price] and redeem at a good one; if he has enough for his redemption, he redeems, and he does not redeem by halves.

Does "he finds" imply, in the present tense, that he finds it now?

But it is contradicted^[19]: "Except for one who finds himself" (Deut. 19:5).

ומצא את רעהו ומת - That his fellow was present there at the moment he raised the axe, he is liable; except for one who finds himself, who is exempt from exile.

From here R. Eliezer^[20] said: if the stone had left his hand, and the other put out his head and caught it, [the thrower] is exempt. Thus "finds" implies something that existed from the outset.

Rava said: here [the derivation is] from the context of the verse,

and here too [the derivation is] from the context of the verse: here it is like "and his means" - just as "his means" [refers to] now, so "finds" [refers to] now;

מה השיגה ידו דהשתא - For surely at the outset, when he sold it, his hand did not have the means, as written there: "If your brother becomes poor and sells from his property."

and here it is like "forest" - just as a forest is something that existed from the outset, so "finds" is something that existed from the outset.

And [the law of] the consecrated [field], etc.:

From where do we have this, as it was taught: "And if he will redeem, he shall redeem" (Lev. 27:19) - "[this] teaches that he may borrow and redeem, and redeem by halves^[21]."

ואם גאל יגאל המקדיש וגו' מלמד שלוה - Since he is a redeemer, and if he wishes he may redeem by halves.

R. Shimon said: what is the reason? Because for one who sold an ancestral field his strength was good: if the Jubilee arrived and it was not redeemed, it returns to the owner. At the Jubilee his strength was weakened, so that he may not borrow and redeem, and does not redeem by halves.

הורע כחו - As we said above.

But in the case of one who consecrates an ancestral field, since his strength was weakened, if the Jubilee arrived and it was not redeemed, it goes out to the priests^[22]; [where] his strength was good, he borrows and redeems, and redeems by halves.

Tosafot

דתניא כי טוב לו עמך - So it reads in all the texts, but it seems we should not read it so: this is not a command but a recounting of the slave's words, "for I love you and your household, for it is good for him with you." Rather, read as in the Sifre: "like a resident, like a hired worker, shall be with you" - which is a command.

כמה קשה אבקה של שביעית - This means trade, for that is not the main prohibition; the main prohibition is ploughing and sowing. And if you ask how we know that these troubles that the Gemara describes come upon him through trade alone, and not through ploughing and sowing, we answer: it is measure for measure - since he traded in Shemittah produce, he sells what is his.

או לעקר זה הנמכר לעבודת כוכבים עצמה - Because the end of idolatrous practices is to be uprooted, so he expounds.

ואימא היכא דעבד תרתי ופיישי ד' כו' - Rashi explained: it speaks not about decrease or increase at all. But this is difficult: if so, it is only the plain sense of the verse, and we would understand it without the extra word; and it seems Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak derives it from a superfluous word. Therefore it seems we should explain: "and say: where he worked two years and four remained, let him pay four from the purchase price, whether it decreased or increased; and where he worked four and two remained, let him pay two according to his years, whether it decreased or increased." And this is why the superfluous wording came: that we always follow the adjacent [clause].

Notes

1. 1. Shimon ben Azzai, a tanna known for his learning. The speaker compares himself to him as an expert expounder.
2. 2. The verses about the Hebrew slave can be read either way, leniently or strictly; the Gemara asks which reading is right.
3. 3. Deut. 15:16 speaks of a Hebrew slave who does not want to go free. The beraita reads "with you" as: he should have what you have, in food, drink and bedding.
4. 4. Kibar is a kind of bread. Rashi's gloss "shgundiyar" is a foreign word whose exact sense is not certain.
5. 5. A Hebrew slave: a Jew sold into servitude for theft or poverty, who serves up to six years or until the Jubilee (Ex. 21:2; Lev. 25:39-41).
6. 6. R. Yossi son of R. Chanina, an Amora of Eretz Yisrael.
7. 7. Avkah shel shemittah: the Gemara's term for trading in Shemittah produce. This is not the core prohibition (ploughing and sowing) but leads to loss by measure for measure, as Tosfos explains.
8. 8. Yovel (the Jubilee): the fiftieth year, in which land returns to its owners and Hebrew slaves go free (Lev. 25:8-13).
9. 9. Semukhin: an exposition that derives a law from two adjacent verses.
10. 10. A house in a walled city may be redeemed only within a year of its sale; otherwise it stays with the buyer permanently (Lev. 25:29-30).
11. 11. Rav Huna, a Babylonian Amora. The principle: a transgression that is repeated becomes, in the doer's eyes, like something permitted.
12. 12. A father may sell his minor daughter as an amah ivriyah, a bondwoman; she serves until she reaches adulthood or is redeemed (Ex. 21:7-11).
13. 13. A non-Jewish resident who accepted the seven Noahide laws and renounced idolatry; he may acquire a Hebrew bond-servant (Lev. 25:47).
14. 14. R. Yishmael, a tanna whose school's teachings appear in the Mekhilta.
15. 15. A mina: a unit of money, one hundred zuz.
16. 16. The redemption price of a Hebrew slave is reckoned by the number of years left until the Jubilee (Lev. 25:50-52).
17. 17. The Mishnah on the sale of a field (Arakhin ch. 9, per the page title). The "etc." stands for the rest of the Mishnah.
18. 18. Lev. 25:26: if he has no redeemer and his means suffice, he may redeem it himself.
19. 19. The Gemara's term "ve-ramninhu" introduces a contradiction between two sources.
20. 20. R. Eliezer, a tanna of the early generations.
21. 21. Redeeming by halves: the redeemer may redeem only part (half) of the field, paying in proportion.
22. 22. A consecrated field not redeemed by the Jubilee goes out to the priests (Lev. 27:21).