Arakhin 25a — the Talmud in English

What is “after the Jubilee”? ![](pamud.bmp "

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In the middle of the Jubilee,

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

And it teaches us this:

for as long as a year has not been completed for him,

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

he does not diminish for him

for the part of the year that has already elapsed from this year, but he also gives for the year in the middle of which he stands, 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

with the consecrated property,

to deduct them from its redemption price?!

It is explicitly taught there

in the Mishna:

months are not calculated with the consecrated property,

so why is the same matter needed to be repeated in two formulations?

And we answer:

What is the reason

that they do not redeem for less than a year

is what it is saying,

to explain in the latter clause that they do not calculate [the months]!

What is the reason they do not redeem after the Jubilee

by deducting a period that is

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

We learned in the Mishna:

Months are not calculated with the consecrated property.

The Sages taught: From where [do we know] that months are not calculated

that have elapsed from the year in which he redeems it

with the consecrated property,

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

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

This indicates that everything that remains is considered a complete year, and as though he were standing at the beginning of the year:

“Years” you calculate

the months that remain,

but you do not calculate months

as months.

From where [do we know] that if the consecrated property wishes to make

what is advantageous for it

months

that have elapsed from the year

into a year

a complete one, and to calculate as though he were standing at the end of the year,

it does so?

And

what are the circumstances

in which calculating the months is advantageous for the consecrated property?

For example, when he consecrated it in the middle of forty-eight [years]

that is, in the middle of the forty-eighth year of the Jubilee; since he consecrated it less than two years before the Jubilee, he does not deduct from its redemption price at all, but gives fifty sela to the consecrated property, as explained above; and if he did not calculate the months, and we would say that he is considered as though he were standing at the beginning of the year, it would emerge that there are still two complete years before the Jubilee, and he would deduct from his redemption price for the consecrated property all the years that had elapsed. It emerges that it is advantageous for the consecrated property to calculate the months.

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

every calculation, and even months, is included.

Mishna:

One who consecrates his field during the time of

the practice of

the Jubilee

before Israel was exiled,

gives

for its redemption

fifty shekels of silver for the seed of a homer of barley,

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

fifty shekels

[sela],

of silver,

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

If there were depressions there

[pits]

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

but are measured separately, and are redeemed according to their value.

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 fifty sela, the amount that the Torah stipulated to give to the consecrated property when he redeems it at the beginning of the Jubilee and it remains in his possession for forty-nine years; and now he gives this

for each year,

according to the number of years that it will remain in his possession until the Jubilee. [Although in a sela there are only forty-eight pundeyonin, he gives this addition on account of the kalbon—a small coin—for detailed payment. Rashi above, 24.]

And if he said,

when he redeemed it several years before the Jubilee,

“I hereby give a thing

[the value of] every

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 all of it at once.

The owner

redeems his consecrated property for fifty sela

and every other person.

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

and adds

a fifth,

an external fifth, which is a quarter of the principal,

but every other person does not give

an additional

fifth.

Gemara:

A tanna:

The fifty sela that the redeemer gives is for a parcel of field in which they sow

a kor of seed, and not

for a parcel from which they reap

a kor of produce,

which is less than a kor of seed. And they calculate according to sowing done

by hand scattering,

the seeds into the field by

hand, and not

by means of

ox scattering,

when they carry sacks full of seed, perforated with wide holes, and the seed falls from them into the field; for the oxen scatter a kor of seed over a smaller parcel than that by means of hand scattering.

Levi taught: They do not

estimate the sowing with

dense

[abundant] seed, which is absorbed as more seed in a smaller parcel and causes a loss to the redeemer,

nor

do they estimate the sowing with

sparse

[little] seed, which is absorbed as less seed and causes a loss to the consecrated property,

but rather

with

medium seed.

We learned in the Mishna:

“If there were depressions there, deep, and so forth,”

they are not measured with it.

And we wonder:

Let them be consecrated

by themselves?!

That is: what difference does it make that they are not measured with the rest of the field, and they are considered as though they were consecrated separately and redeemed separately? In the end, they too are redeemed according to the calculation of fifty sela per kor of land; so what difference does it make that they are measured separately?!

And we explain:

And if you should say

to explain that because they are considered consecrated separately, then

since they are not

the depressions or the rocks themselves

a complete kor of land

they are not consecrated

to be redeemed according to the calculation of fifty sela per kor of land, but according to their value?

But it was taught

not so; even consecrated property less than a kor of land is redeemed according to this calculation, as we learned: It is written, “And if a man consecrates a field of his ancestral property to the Lord, then your valuation shall be according to its seed, a homer of barley seed for fifty shekels of silver”; and it should have said, “And if he consecrates his ancestral property.”

“Field”—what does the verse teach by saying this? Since it is stated, “A homer of barley seed for fifty shekels of silver,”

if so,

I have only

learned that he redeems according to this calculation

when he consecrated it in this manner,

which is a complete kor of land.

From where is it included

that he redeems according to this calculation even a

half-kor

which is half a kor of land,

and half

a

half-kor, a

kor of

a se'a, and a tarkav

which is a field of three kav [two kav and a kav], and

half

a field of

a tarkav? The verse states: “Field”—in any event, every parcel of field is included. And if so, the question returns to its place: what difference does it make that they are measured separately?

The verse states:

And we answer:

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

with water, which are not fit for sowing,

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

It is precise as well

according to this explanation:

for it teaches

in the Mishna “depressions”

analogous to rocks,

which are certainly not fit for sowing.

Infer from this!

And we wonder:

If

so, less than this

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

also

should 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 bowls of the land

[the basins of the ground],

are called

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

And likewise rocks that are less than ten

are called the backbones

[named after the backbone of an animal, which is high]

of the land are called

after 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:

“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

This teaches that the years that have passed are deducted from the valuation of fifty sela

even from the consecrated property.

Lest you say that he deducts only those years during which it was ordinary property until he consecrated it, but not the years from its consecration until its redemption, the verse comes to teach us that he deducts those as well! And it comes to teach us:

if the consecrated property consumed it

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

for one or two years

and afterward he came to redeem it,

or alternatively,

even

if it did not consume

it, the consecrated property,

but it was

the field

before it

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

a thing year by year, they do not heed him.”

The Sages taught: From where [do we know] that if the owners said, “We hereby give a thing

[the value of]

year by year

in the year itself when they will stand in it,

they are not heeded,

but they give everything at once?

The verse states: “The priest shall calculate for him the money,” until the money is entirely as one.

The owner

according to the calculation of fifty silver pieces per kor of land,

and every other person

according to this calculation.

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

an additional

fifth, but every other person does not give

an additional

fifth!

Mishna:

One who redeems an ancestral field from the consecrated property—it leaves it at the Jubilee for the priests of the priestly watch of the Jubilee. But:

If he consecrated it and redeemed it,

the one who consecrated it 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 son of the one who consecrated it, it does not leave to the priests from his possession; rather, it

leaves

and returns

to his father at the Jubilee.

And this is what we said: that if the consecrator or his son redeemed it, it is not divided among the kohanim—members of the priestly family who served in the Temple—applies only when the consecrator or his son redeemed it directly from the property dedicated to the Temple. But if

another person redeemed it

from the property dedicated to the Temple,

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

is transferred

to the kohanim at the Jubilee

just as it would have been transferred to the kohanim from the redeemer because of whom the consecrator came and through whose power he did so.

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

at the Jubilee,

he may not say: “Since it is transferred 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 kohein more deserving than I to receive it, and therefore

it is mine.

He may not say this.

Rather, it is removed from his possession and divided among all his fellow kohanim

who are serving in the same priestly division during that Jubilee, and he receives only his share, like his fellow kohanim.