Arakhin 24b (כד:) — the Talmud in English

And we explain:

And Rav

who does not derive the kal va-chomer with regard to a dedication

holds: In the end, to whom does it return?

Does a field belonging to the Temple treasury return to its owners at the Jubilee, so that we could say by a kal va-chomer that if he dedicated it during the Jubilee it should remain in their possession? After all,

it leaves for the priests,

not for the owners!

And the priests

themselves do not acquire it because they stand in place of the owners; rather,

from the table of the Most High

do they acquire it,

as those who stand in place of the Temple treasury.

And we raise a difficulty:

What is the reason

of Rav? [Since the verse states, “If from the Jubilee year he dedicates his field,” which implies after the Jubilee year, the verse would not be speaking of the Jubilee year itself. We should therefore have said that the field is not holy at all, as Shmuel said – Ramah in Tosafot.]

[Since the verse says, “If, beginning from the Jubilee year, he dedicates his field,” which seems to mean after the Jubilee year, the verse does not appear to discuss the Jubilee year itself. We should therefore say that a dedication during the Jubilee is not sacred at all, as Shmuel says – Ram”r in Tosafot.]

And we answer:

The verse states: “If from the Jubilee year

he dedicates his field, according to your valuation it shall stand,”

and the Jubilee year is included!

And Shmuel,

who holds that the field is not holy, does not interpret the verse in this manner, because

does it say, “If during the Jubilee year

he dedicates his field,” which would imply one who dedicates it during the Jubilee itself? No;

it is written, “from the Jubilee year”?!

That is,

from the “year”

that is

after the Jubilee.

And we raise a difficulty:

Granted, according to Rav,

who interprets “from the Jubilee year” as referring to the Jubilee itself,

this is why it is written

in two verses: The first says,

“If from the Jubilee year

he dedicates his field”—referring to one who dedicates it during the Jubilee itself—and then, “according to your valuation it shall stand,” without a deduction. And another verse states: “

And if after the Jubilee

[he dedicates it],” and so on, “the priest shall calculate for him according to the years remaining”—referring to one who dedicates it after the Jubilee and deducts from its redemption price. This teaches that one who dedicates a field during the Jubilee itself gives the Temple treasury the entire redemption price, whereas in the year following it he makes a deduction.

But according to Shmuel, what is the meaning of “after the Jubilee,”

which is written with regard to making a deduction from its redemption price? After all, the first verse says “from the Jubilee year,” indicating that he gives the entire redemption price, and according to Shmuel, that too refers to the period after the Jubilee.

And we answer: What does “after the Jubilee” mean?

After the [year] after

the Jubilee—for example, two or three years after the Jubilee. [Shmuel holds that wherever the term “after” is stated, it means a period distant from the event, rather than immediately following it—Rashash; see also Rabbeinu Gershom.] Thus, according to Shmuel, the two verses are interpreted as follows: “If from the Jubilee year”—in the first year after the Jubilee—“he dedicates his field, according to your valuation it shall stand,” and he does not make a deduction. “And if after the Jubilee”—two or three years after the Jubilee—“the priest shall calculate for him,” and so on; he makes a deduction from the redemption price.

We raise an objection

against Rav [from the beraita above]:

One may dedicate a field both before the Jubilee and after the Jubilee, but during the Jubilee year itself one may not dedicate it, and if he dedicated it, it is not holy!

This accords with Shmuel, who holds that during the Jubilee it is not holy at all, and it is difficult for Rav.

And we answer:

Rav can say to you: “It is not holy,”

as stated in the beraita, means

[it is not holy] in order to be redeemed with a deduction, but

the field itself

is holy, and they give

for its redemption

fifty

to the Temple treasury, for regarding the Jubilee year it is written, “according to your valuation it shall stand.”

And we raise a difficulty: Since Rav explained that what is written in the final clause, “during the Jubilee year itself one may not dedicate,” does not mean, according to its straightforward sense, that one may not dedicate the field at all during the Jubilee year, but rather that if he dedicated it, the field does not leave through a deduction but through full redemption, it follows that the clause is not addressing the dedication itself but the law of deduction.

By inference,

then, what is written in the first clause, “One may dedicate a field”

before the Jubilee,

means that it

is holy in order to be redeemed with a deduction. But

this cannot mean that the law of deduction applies to a dedication made immediately before the Jubilee, since

Rav and Shmuel both said

above:

One may not dedicate a field in order to redeem it with a deduction less than two years before the Jubilee?!

And we answer in another way:

Rav could have said to you:

In truth, the beraita is to be understood literally: the consecration does not take effect at all during the Jubilee. Nevertheless, this is not difficult for Rav, who maintains that consecration

whose author is this

beraita, which states that a field consecrated during the Jubilee is not consecrated?

It is the opinion of the Rabbis!

According to the Rabbis [above, 18a], who interpret “from the first day”—which is stated with regard to the prohibition of leaven—as meaning “from the day after the first day,” excluding the first day itself, they likewise interpret “from the year of the Jubilee” as meaning “from the year after the Jubilee,” excluding the Jubilee year itself. Therefore, one who consecrates a field during the Jubilee does not consecrate it.

But I, who say

that when the Torah states, “From the year of the Jubilee he shall consecrate his field,” the Jubilee year itself is included, do so

in accordance with Rabbi, who says

with regard to “from the first day”:

The first day and the day after the first day are both included,

and “until the seventh day”

the seventh day and the day before the seventh day are both included.

And

here too, “from the year” includes the Jubilee year itself!

But Shmuel maintains that here Rabbi concedes that “from the year” does not refer to the Jubilee year itself. Only there, where it says “from the first day” and “until the seventh day,” is the expression “from the day” applicable to the first day itself. Here, however, where it does not say “until,” if the Torah intended the Jubilee year itself, it should have written, “in the year of the Jubilee.”

And we challenge Rav:

But if it is in accordance with Rabbi

That is, if your view is correct, that according to Rabbi the Torah’s statement, “If from the year of the Jubilee he consecrates his field, according to your valuation it shall stand,” refers to the Jubilee year itself, so that one who redeems the field during the Jubilee itself gives fifty selas to the Temple treasury, it follows that the sum of fifty selas prescribed by the Torah for a field redeemed during the Jubilee is calculated for “fifty” years, during which the field remains in the redeemer’s possession until the beginning of the following Jubilee [and not for forty-nine years alone]. If so,

what is the function of the pundeyon

that is added to the sela for each year when one redeems a field in the middle of the Jubilee

?

For the fifty selas prescribed by the Torah are for fifty years, amounting to one sela per year and no more. [But according to Shmuel, who maintains that even according to Rabbi, “If from the year of the Jubilee he consecrates his field, according to your valuation—which is fifty selas—it shall stand” refers to the year following the Jubilee, the field remains in his possession until the Jubilee for only forty-nine years. It follows that the Torah prescribed fifty selas for forty-nine years: one sela and a pundeyon [which is one forty-eighth of a sela] for each year. Accordingly, it is understandable that when one redeems the field during the Jubilee, he gives one sela and a pundeyon for each year that it will remain in his possession.]

And we explain:

And should you say

that in truth

Rabbi does not hold

that a pundeyon is added,

but didn’t we learn [below, 25b, see there], explicitly not so:

“If one consecrated a field two or three years before the Jubilee, Rabbi says:

I say that he gives a sela and a pundeyon for each year.”

This accords with Shmuel, according to whom the fifty selas prescribed by the Torah apply in the first year, for the forty-nine years until the beginning of the following Jubilee: a sela and a pundeyon per year. If so, according to Rabbi, this is difficult for Rav: Why is a pundeyon required?

And we answer:

Rabbi holds in accordance with Rabbi Judah

that there are only forty-nine years between the beginning of one Jubilee and the beginning of the next!

As Rabbi Judah said:

Rabbi Judah said:

The fiftieth year

in every count of the Jubilee

counts here

as part of the count of the years of the first Jubilee

and here

as part of the count of the years of the following Jubilee. The Jubilee itself is counted as the first year in the count of the fifty years of the Jubilee. Therefore, the fifty selas given for a field redeemed during the Jubilee itself are for only the forty-nine years until the beginning of the following Jubilee, according to the calculation of one sela and a pundeyon per year.

And we raise a question:

According to Shmuel,

who maintains that even according to Rabbi, one who consecrates a field during the Jubilee itself does not consecrate it, and that the fifty selas prescribed by the Torah apply when one redeems it in the first year after the Jubilee,

shall we say

that it is necessarily the case

that Rabbi holds like the Rabbis

who maintain that the beginning of the count of the fifty years is the year after the Jubilee

?

And we explain:

For if Rabbi held like Rabbi Judah,

Rabbi would likewise maintain that from the beginning of the first year after the Jubilee until the beginning of the following Jubilee there are only forty-eight years. If so, according to Shmuel, the fifty selas prescribed by the Torah to be given in the first year after the Jubilee apply only to the forty-eight years until the beginning of the following Jubilee, since this year is the second year in the count. Therefore,

a sela and two pundeyonim

which is one forty-eighth of fifty selas

would be required

according to Rabbi to be given for each year, and not merely one sela and one pundeyon, as is explicit in Rabbi’s statement.

And we resolve: Indeed,

it is necessarily the case that according to Shmuel, Rabbi holds like the Rabbis.

Ta shma—

a proof for Shmuel, who maintains that consecration during the Jubilee itself does not take effect, from our Mishna, which states:

And one does not redeem it after the Jubilee for less than one year,

that is, for less than one year from the beginning of the Jubilee year.

And we explain:

Granted, according to Shmuel, one does not redeem it after the Jubilee for less than one year

because the consecration does not take effect during the Jubilee.

But according to Rav, what is meant by “one year after the Jubilee”

during which the Mishna says that one may not redeem it?

And we reject this:

Do you understand

that the intention of our Mishna is

immediately after the Jubilee itself?!