Arakhin 25a (כה.) — the Talmud in English

What does “after the Jubilee” mean?

(precise page location)

In the middle of the Jubilee year,

that is: even in the middle of the Jubilee year, redemption does not take into account a period of less than a year.

And it teaches us this:

for as long as the year has not been completed,

when the redeemer comes to redeem it in the middle of the year,

he does not deduct from it

for the portion of the year that has already elapsed, but he also pays for the year whose middle it is, as though he were standing at its beginning.

And we challenge this:

What does it teach us—that months are not calculated

that have elapsed from the year

together with the consecrated property,

to deduct them from its redemption price?

It is explicitly taught

in the Mishna:

“Months are not calculated together with the consecrated property,”

so why must the same matter be repeated in two formulations?

And we answer:

The reason

that one does not redeem for less than a year

is what it is saying

in order to explain in the latter clause that months are not calculated:

What is the reason one does not redeem after the Jubilee

by deducting the period that is

less than a year? Because months are not calculated together with the consecrated property!

We learned in the Mishna:

“Months are not calculated together with the consecrated property.”

The Sages taught: From where is it derived that the months

that have elapsed from the year in which he redeems it

are not calculated together with the consecrated property,

to deduct from its redemption price on account of the months that had already elapsed from the year before its redemption?

The verse states: “And the priest shall calculate for him the money according to the remaining years,”

which indicates that everything remaining is considered a complete year, as though he were standing at the beginning of the year:

“Years” you calculate

the remaining months,

but you do not calculate months

as months.

From where is it derived that if the consecrated property wants to benefit

as this is advantageous to it,

the months

that have elapsed from the year

as a year,

and to calculate them as though he were standing at the end of the year,

it may do so?

And

what are the circumstances

in which calculating the months benefits the consecrated property?

For example, he consecrated it in the middle of forty-eight

[in the middle of the forty-eighth year of the Jubilee cycle], since, as he consecrated it less than two years before the Jubilee, he does not deduct anything from its redemption price at all, but gives fifty sela to the consecrated property, as explained above. And if the months were not calculated, and we would say that he is considered as though he were standing at the beginning of the year, it would turn out that two complete years still remained before the Jubilee; and he would deduct from the redemption price for the consecrated property all the years that had elapsed. It follows that it benefits the consecrated property to calculate the months.

The verse states: “And the priest shall calculate for him,” in any event,

which includes every calculation, even months.

Mishna:

One who consecrates his field at a time when

the

Jubilee

[was in effect, before Israel was exiled],

gives

for its redemption

the amount of seed of a homer of barley,

for a plot of field in which a kor of barley is sown,

fifty shekels

[sela],

of silver,

whether it is worth a thousand shekels or is worth only five shekels.

If there were depressions

[pits]

ten handbreadths deep, or rocks ten handbreadths high, they are not measured with it,

but are measured separately and redeemed according to their value.

If they are less than this

[less than ten handbreadths],

they are measured with it.

If he consecrated it two or three years before the Jubilee, he gives

for its redemption

a sela and a pundeyon

which are one forty-ninth of the fifty sela that the Torah prescribed giving to the consecrated property when redeeming it at the beginning of the Jubilee, when it would remain in his possession for forty-nine years; and now he gives this amount

for each year

according to the number of years that it will remain in his possession until the Jubilee [although there are only forty-eight pundeyon in a sela, he gives this additional amount because of the kalbon—a small coin—for an exact calculation. Rashi above, 24b].

And if he said,

when redeeming it several years before the Jubilee,

“I hereby give an amount

[the value] for each

year

that it will remain in my possession

in the year

itself in which it will remain in my possession—and not at the beginning of the redemption”—

they do not

heed him; rather, he gives the entire amount at once.

Both the owner

redeem their consecrated property for fifty sela

and any other person.

What is the difference between the owner and any other person? The owner gives

and adds

a fifth,

an external fifth, which is one-quarter of the principal,

whereas any other person does not give

anything further,

a fifth.

Gemara:

A tanna

taught: The fifty sela that the redeemer gives are for a plot of field in which

a kor of seed is sown, and not

for a plot from which one harvests

a kor of produce,

which is less than a kor of seed. The calculation is based on sowing performed

by hand scattering,

the seeds being scattered into the field by

hand, and not

by means of

ox scattering,

where oxen carry sacks full of seed, perforated with wide holes, and the seed falls from them into the field. The oxen scatter a kor of seed over a smaller plot than that sown by hand scattering.

Levi taught: The sowing is not estimated using

a

dense

[large quantity of seed], which takes root in a smaller plot and disadvantages the redeemer,

nor

is the sowing estimated using

sparse

[a small quantity of seed], which takes root in a larger plot and disadvantages the consecrated property,

but rather

using

an average quantity of seed.

We learned in the Mishna:

“If there were depressions ten handbreadths deep, etc.”

they are not measured with it.

And we ask:

Let them be consecrated

in their own right!

That is: what difference does it make that they are not measured with the rest of the field? They are considered as though they were consecrated separately and redeemed separately, but in the end they too should be redeemed according to the calculation of fifty sela per beit kor. What difference does it make that they are measured separately?

And we explain:

And if you would say

that they should be interpreted as being consecrated separately, then

since they are not

the depressions or the rocks themselves

a full beit kor,

they are not consecrated

to be redeemed according to the calculation of fifty sela per beit kor, but rather according to their value.

But it was taught

otherwise. Even consecrated land smaller than a beit kor is redeemed according to this calculation, as we learned: It is written, “And if a man consecrates any of the field of his ancestral possession to the Lord, then your valuation shall be according to its seed: a homer of barley seed for fifty shekels of silver.” It should have said, “And if he consecrates any of his ancestral possession”;

“field”—why is this stated? Since it says, “a homer of barley seed for fifty shekels of silver,”

if so,

I have derived

only that one redeems according to this calculation

when he consecrated it in this manner,

which is a full beit kor.

From where is it derived that one redeems according to this calculation even a

beit

letekh,

which is half a beit kor,

and half a

beit

letekh, a

beit

se’a, and a tarqav

which is a beit of three kav [two kav and one kav], and

half a

beit

tarqav?

The verse states:

“Field,” in any event—every plot of field is included. If so, the question returns to its place: what difference does it make that they are measured separately? And we answer:

Mar Ukva bar Ḥama said: Here we are dealing with depressions filled with

water, which are not fit for sowing,

and are not included in “a homer of barley seed”; they are therefore measured separately, to be redeemed according to their value.

This is also precise

according to this interpretation:

as it teaches

in the Mishna “depressions”

analogously to rocks,

which are certainly not fit for sowing.

Infer from this!

And we ask:

If

so, those less than this

less in depth or height than ten handbreadths, which the Mishna says are measured with it and redeemed according to fifty sela, should

also

be redeemed according to their value, since they are not included in “a homer of barley seed”?

And we answer:

These

depressions that are less than ten

are called the hollows of the land

[the bowls of the land];

they are called

by the name of the land and are not considered separately.

And likewise rocks less than ten

are called the spines

[named after the spine of an animal, which is raised]

of the land;

they are called by the name of the land and are not considered separately.

We learned in the Mishna:

“If he consecrated it two or three years”

before the Jubilee, he gives a sela and a pundeyon per year.

The Sages taught: “And the priest shall calculate for him according to the remaining years until the year of the Jubilee

“The priest shall calculate for him according to the remaining years until the year of the Jubilee

and it shall be deducted from your valuation”;

this teaches that he deducts the years that have elapsed from the valuation of fifty sela

even from the consecrated property.

Do not say that he deducts only those years during which it was non-sacred until he consecrated it; rather, he also deducts the years from its consecration until its redemption. And it comes to teach us:

If the consecrated property had made use of it

through the treasurer’s sowing, or if the consecrated property leased it out for its produce

for one or two years

and afterward he came to redeem it,

alternatively,

even if

the consecrated property did not make use of it

but it was

the field

lying

before it

of the consecrated property without use, these years until the year of redemption are deducted from its redemption price. Therefore

he gives

only

a sela and a pundeyon per year,

for the period from the redemption until the Jubilee.

We learned in the Mishna:

“And if he said, ‘I hereby give’

an amount for each year, they do not heed him.”

The Sages taught: From where is it derived that if the owners say, “We hereby give an amount”

[the value]

for each year

itself, when they stand in it,

they are not heeded,

but give everything at once?

The verse states: “And the priest shall calculate for him the money,” until the money is all together.

Both the owner

according to the calculation of fifty silver coins per beit kor,

and any other person

according to this calculation.

What is the difference between the owner and any other person? The owner gives

something further,

a fifth, whereas any other person does not give

anything further,

a fifth!

Mishna:

One who redeems an ancestral field from the consecrated property—the field leaves the consecrated property at the Jubilee for the priests of the priestly division serving during the Jubilee. However:

If he consecrated it and redeemed it,

the consecrator himself from the consecrated property,

it does not leave his possession at the Jubilee

to be divided among the priests. And likewise, if

his son redeemed it,

the consecrator’s, it does not leave his possession for the priests; rather,

it leaves

and returns

to his father at the Jubilee.

And this that we said—that if the consecrator or his son redeemed it, it is not divided among the kohanim—applies only when the consecrator or his son redeemed it directly from hekdesh. But if

another person redeemed it

from hekdesh,

or

even if

one of the consecrator’s relatives

redeemed it, excluding his son,

and

the consecrator

redeemed it from him

or from his relative, then it

goes out

to the kohanim at the Jubilee

just as it would have gone out to the kohanim from the redeemer on whose account and by whose agency the consecrator came and power.

If one of the kohanim redeemed it and it is in his possession

at the Jubilee,

he may not say: Since it goes out to the kohanim at the Jubilee

if another person had redeemed it,

and it is

now

in my possession,

since I redeemed it and it remains with me at the Jubilee, and there is no kohen more entitled than I to receive it, therefore

it is mine.

He may not say this;

rather, it goes out of his possession and is divided among all his fellow kohanim

of the priestly watch serving at that Jubilee, and he receives only his share, like his fellow kohanim.