Arakhin 29b (כט:) — the Talmud in English

Mishna:

A. It is written [Leviticus 25:25–27]: “If your brother becomes impoverished and sells part of his ancestral property [The fields of ancestral property are those that fell to each Israelite as an inheritance when the Land was apportioned. This also includes one whose ancestral property increased because the inheritance was transferred to him through a daughter who inherited property — Sefer HaChinukh, mitzva 339; see also Minḥat Ḥinukh there, section 26 in the newly printed edition]. Then his nearest redeemer shall come and redeem what his brother sold [and the purchaser cannot prevent him].”

“But if a man has no redeemer [who can redeem his sale], and his means suffice [the seller’s means], and he finds enough for its redemption,” “then he shall calculate the years of his sale [how many years there were from the sale until the Jubilee: such and such! And for how much did you sell it to him: for such and such! You were destined to return it at the Jubilee! Thus, you find that he purchased each year for such and such! If he consumed it for three or four years, subtract their value from the calculation], and return the surplus [take what remains after subtracting the value of the years that have elapsed from the calculation, namely, the excess of the purchase price over the value already consumed by the purchaser] to the man to whom he sold it [and this is called the ‘deduction of money’], and he shall return to his ancestral property.” B. It is written [Leviticus 25:14–15]: “When you sell anything to your fellow, or buy from your fellow’s hand, you shall not wrong one another.” And therefore: “According to the number of years after the Jubilee you shall purchase from your fellow [know how many years remain until the Jubilee, and according to that number of years remaining until the Jubilee, when it will return to the seller], according to the number of years of crops he shall sell to you [according to the number of years in which the field will produce crops while in the purchaser’s possession].” “According to the greater number of years [from the sale until the Jubilee] you shall increase its purchase price, and according to the fewer number of years you shall decrease its purchase price, for he is selling you a number of crops!” From what the Torah said, “According to the number of years of crops he shall sell to you,” the Sages learned: that one who sells his field during the time when the Jubilee is observed of the Jubilee is not permitted to sell to redeem the field from the purchaser in less than two years from the time he sold it, as it is stated: “According to the number of years of crops he shall sell to you,” and the Sages expounded: The field must remain in the purchaser’s possession for “two crops,” and the minimum plural is two. [But after two years, the seller redeems his field from the purchaser and deducts from the money he paid according to the number of years that have elapsed, even against the purchaser’s will].

“then he shall calculate the years of his sale”—how many years there were from the sale until the Jubilee: so many; and for how much he sold it: so much; you were destined to return it at the Jubilee, so you are found to have purchased each year for so much; you have consumed its produce for three or four years, so deduct the value of those years from the calculation—“and he shall return the surplus”—take what remains after deducting the value of the years that have passed, namely, the excess of the sale price over the value already consumed by the purchaser—“to the man to whom he sold it”; this is called the deduction from the money. “And he shall return to his ancestral land.”

2. It is written: “And if you sell anything to your fellow, or buy from your fellow’s hand, you shall not wrong one another.”

And therefore:

“According to the number of years after the Jubilee you shall purchase from your fellow; according to the number of years of crops shall he sell it to you”—the seller sells it to the purchaser.

“According to the greater number of years you shall increase its purchase price, and according to the fewer number of years you shall reduce its purchase price, for he is selling you a number of crops.”

From what the Torah says, “According to the number of years of crops shall he sell it to you,” the Sages derived:

that

one who sells his field during

the time when the Jubilee is in force

is not permitted

to

redeem

the field from the purchaser

before two years

from the time he sold it,

as it is stated: “According to the number of years of crops shall he sell it to you,”

and the Sages expounded: the field must remain in the purchaser’s possession for “two crops,” and the minimum plural number is two. [But after two years, the seller redeems his field from the purchaser and deducts from the money he paid according to the number of years that have passed even against the purchaser’s will].

If

one of the years while the purchaser possessed the field

was a year of blight

2 , or mildew, or a sabbatical year 3 ,

in which sowing is forbidden,

it does not count for him

this year

in the tally

of the two years that he must wait before redeeming it, since this year is not included in “the number of years of crops.”

But

if he plowed it

[he plowed the field but did not sow it] and it did not produce the crops appropriate to it,

or left it fallow

[he did not plow it at all] — although it was fit to produce crops —

it counts for him

even this year in the calculation

of the tally,

since it was the purchaser who caused the loss to himself.

Rabbi Eliezer says

[and the Rabbis do not dispute him]: If he sold it to him while it was full of produce, and after some years redeemed it, the purchaser cannot say to him: “Return it to me full of produce as I sold it to you!” Therefore,

if he sold it to him before

Rosh HaShana and it

was still

full

of produce,

and the seller redeemed it after two years,

this means that

the purchaser

consumes three crops in two years,

but he calculates with him [in the calculation of the deduction of money] only according to two years, [and the seller returns to the purchaser all the surplus of the sale money and redeems it]. [Based on the wording of Maimonides, Laws of Sabbatical Year and Jubilee 11; see Rashi here and in the Gemara, and above, 18b, s.v. “two crops”].

Gemara:

We learned in the Mishna:

“One who sells his field during the time of the Jubilee”

is not permitted to redeem it in less than two years. And we infer:

“He does not redeem”

—which implies that he cannot compel the purchaser to return it to him before two years —

it does not teach this! Rather,

it teaches

“he is not permitted to redeem,” indicating that there is a prohibition

also: Even merely jingling coins

[jingling money in a vessel] for the purchaser, so that he will be pleased to return it to the seller,

is also forbidden!

And it is not necessary to say that the seller

is subject to a positive commandment, as it is written: “According to the number of years of crops he shall sell to you,”

and this is a positive commandment that the seller leave it in the purchaser’s possession for two years.

Rather, even the purchaser —

who is not included in “According to the number of years of crops he shall sell to you” —

is also subject to another positive commandment,

as

we require

“according to the number of

years

after the Jubilee

you shall purchase,”

which implies that it must be “purchased” by him for two years [the minimum of “years” is two],

and there is no such status

if he returns it to the seller before then.

It was stated: One who sells his field in the Jubilee year itself: Rav says: It is sold

the field

and it leaves

the purchaser’s possession immediately, like other fields sold that leave the purchaser’s possession at the Jubilee. Consequently, the purchaser loses his money.

And Shmuel says: It is not sold

the field

at all, and consequently the money is returned to the purchaser.

And we explain:

And we explain:

What is Shmuel’s reason? It is a kal va-chomer

argument:

Just as something that was already sold

before the Jubilee

leaves now

at the Jubilee,

something that was not sold

before the Jubilee, but was sold at a time appropriate for its immediate removal from the purchaser,

should it not logically follow that it is not sold at all?!

We challenge this:

And according to Rav

—who disagrees with Shmuel and does not derive from the kal va-chomer that it is not sold at all —

do we not say a kal va-chomer of this kind? But it was taught

that such a kal va-chomer is used to derive the following:

Could a man sell his daughter

as a Hebrew maidservant

when she is a na'ara

and the sale would take effect, and she would immediately leave upon displaying the signs of na'ara, like any maidservant who was sold in her minority?

You say a kal va-chomer

that she is not sold at all:

Just as one who was already sold

before she became a na'ara

leaves now

when she becomes a na'ara,

one who was not sold

and whom he comes to sell when she is a na'ara,

should it not logically follow that she

is not sold?!

This is difficult for Rav.

We answer: There is a distinction between the departure of a Hebrew maidservant upon becoming a na'ara and the return of a field to its owners at the Jubilee.

There,

with regard to departure upon becoming a na'ara,

it will not return and be sold again

[it does not return and is not sold again], for we learned that “a person may not sell his daughter into servitude after servitude.” Therefore, her departure upon becoming a na'ara is a complete departure, and we consequently apply a kal va-chomer that this departure is effective to nullify the original sale when she was sold as a na'ara. But

here,

with regard to a field’s departure at the Jubilee and return to its owners, the owner’s right to sell it again is not removed. If he comes to sell it after the Jubilee,

it returns to being sold

[it returns and is sold again]. Therefore, the field’s departure at the Jubilee is not a complete departure, and we do not apply a kal va-chomer to say that the field is not sold at the Jubilee at all.

Meytivi

to Rav: It is written, “According to the number of years after the Jubilee you shall purchase,” and we learned: The field must remain in the purchaser’s possession for no fewer than two years [the minimum of “years” is two] after the Jubilee. It is as though it said:

“After the Jubilee, years

which are two,

you shall purchase”—this teaches that one may sell close to the Jubilee

after it, immediately, since this is what “after the Jubilee” implies, and the two years after the Jubilee will be in the purchaser’s possession [Rabbeinu Gershom; see Rashi].

How do we know that it may be sold at a distance from the Jubilee,

and that we should not say that since it is written “after the Jubilee,” he may sell it only close to the Jubilee [Raavad in Sifra]?

The verse states: “According to the greater number of years”

remaining until the Jubilee, you shall increase its purchase price;

“and according to the fewer number of years”

remaining until the Jubilee, you shall decrease its purchase price. We have therefore learned that sometimes it is sold only a few years before the second Jubilee, meaning that it was sold at a distance from the first Jubilee.

And in the Jubilee year itself he may not sell it, and if he sold it, it is not sold!

This is explicitly in accordance with Shmuel in the beraita, and it is difficult for Rav.

We answer:

Rav could say to you

that what we learned in the beraita — that if he sold it at the Jubilee it is not sold — does not mean literally that the sale does not take effect. Rather, it means that

it is not sold for the

purpose of

the number of years of

crops,

which the Torah requires in every sale of a field, that it remain in the purchaser’s possession for two years even if a Jubilee has passed, [apart from the matter of redemption mentioned in our Mishna].

But

nevertheless,

it is sold

in the sense that the purchaser loses his money —

and it leaves

his possession immediately.

We challenge this:

And if

the law is in accordance with Rav, who holds that

it is indeed sold

[and this is a complete sale] at the Jubilee, since the law requires the sale to remain in the purchaser’s possession for two years,

should it remain in his possession

of the purchaser [Rabbeinu Gershom]

until after the Jubilee, and after the Jubilee he should consume it

the purchaser should consume it further

for “two crops,”

in fulfillment of “According to the number of years of crops he shall sell to you,”

and then he should return it

afterward, because the Jubilee has passed over the field?

Was something of this sort not taught

in a beraita:

If

the purchaser

consumed one year

only

before the Jubilee, they complete for him

for the purchaser

another year after the Jubilee!

If so, why, when the sale was made in the Jubilee itself, do they not complete for the purchaser “two crops” after the Jubilee?!

We answer:

There,

when the purchaser consumed one year before the Jubilee, he had already

entered

into

consumption,

and had begun fulfilling “According to the number of years of crops he shall sell to you.” Therefore, we fulfill the verse for him even after the Jubilee, and complete the year for him.

Here,

when he sold it in the Jubilee itself,

he had not entered

into

consumption,

since immediately upon his purchase it was already the Jubilee. Therefore, we do not fulfill for him at all “According to the number of years of crops he shall sell to you.”

Rav Anan said: I heard two statements from Mar Shmuel

as one

of two

traditions:

A.

One: This

is the statement that Shmuel said: One who sells his field in the Jubilee year itself — it is not sold at all.

B.

And the other: One who sells his slave

the Canaanite

to an idolater

and thereby removes him from the fulfillment of the mitzvot.

Or

one who sells his Canaanite slave to a Jew

outside the Land of Israel,

the Sages penalized him and

the slave goes out

the slave

to freedom.

And from

one

of these I heard from Mar Shmuel that

they return

the money of the

sale,

which the purchaser had given.

And one

of them I heard: that

they do not return

the money of the

sale. And I do not know

in

which of them

Shmuel said that the money is returned, and in which it is not returned.

And we resolve it:

Rav Yosef said: Let us examine

from which of them does the money return?

As it is taught: One who sells his slave

after he

[unclear: the source is missing the verb after “after he”] in a country outside the Land of Israel, he goes free and requires a bill of manumission from “his second master”! Infer from this: since he calls the

second master

“his master,” evidently

the essential sale took effect, and consequently

the

money from the

sale

does not return. And since we know that in one case Shmuel said that the money does not return, while in the other case it returns, it necessarily follows:

And when Shmuel says here

regarding one who sells his field during the Jubilee year:

“It is not sold,”

this means:

It is not sold, and the money

too

returns,

and we do not say: Since the purchaser’s acquisition does not take effect, he certainly gives the money as a gift.