Bekhorot 5a (ה.) — the Talmud in English

And they ceased -

after the redemption by the Levites - from becoming sanctified until their entry into Eretz Yisrael.

And we challenge this:

Granted, Reish Lakish, as he stated his reason

because it is written: “And it shall be, when the Lord brings you...” and “you shall set apart,” and it is therefore necessarily the case that they ceased to become sanctified until their entry into Eretz Yisrael.

But according to Rabbi Yoḥanan, what is the reason!?

Rabbi Elazar said: I saw Rabbi Yoḥanan in a dream, and I understood that I would say a good matter

I saw Rabbi Yoḥanan in my dream, and understood that I was to say something good about him that day] to reconcile his words; and this is what I say:

The verse says

[Numbers 3]: “And I, behold, I have taken the Levites from among the Children of Israel instead of every firstborn who opens the womb among the Children of Israel, and the Levites shall be Mine. For every firstborn is Mine; on the day that I struck every firstborn in the land of Egypt, I sanctified every firstborn in Israel, from man to beast.

They shall be Mine

—I am the Lord.” And we learn from this:

They shall remain in the state in which they are.

And

we challenge

Rabbi Yoḥanan:

This verse,

“And it shall be, when He brings you...

and you shall set apart,”

which implies that firstborns became sanctified only upon their entry into Eretz Yisrael, and that even if they had been sanctified in the wilderness, they were sanctified and then ceased to be sanctified—

what does he do with it

[how does he interpret this verse]!?

And we answer:

That

verse

is needed for that which the school of Rabbi Yishmael taught: Perform this mitzva

immediately

because of which you will enter Eretz Yisrael.

Rav Mordekhai said to Rav Ashi: You have learned their dispute in this manner; we have learned it in the opposite manner

You learned the dispute between Rabbi Yoḥanan and Reish Lakish using the wording that you learned, whereas we learned their dispute in reverse], and this is what we learned:

Rabbi Yoḥanan says: Firstborns were not sanctified in the wilderness, and Reish Lakish said: Firstborns were sanctified in the wilderness.

He said to him

Rav Ashi said to Rav Mordekhai:

And

when

you reversed

the refutation as well,

which Rabbi Yoḥanan raised against Reish Lakish, so that you teach: Reish Lakish challenged Rabbi Yoḥanan;

and

likewise,

you reversed that statement of Rabbi Elazar

who said, “I saw Rabbi Yoḥanan in my dream,” so that you teach, “I saw Reish Lakish in my dream”!?

He said to him

Rav Mordekhai said to Rav Ashi:

In fact, according to Rabbi Yoḥanan, firstborns were sanctified in the wilderness, while according to Reish Lakish, firstborns were not sanctified in the wilderness. And when Rabbi Yoḥanan said,

“They were not sanctified

firstborns in the wilderness,” this is what he meant:

They did not need to become sanctified

with a new sanctity, for they were already sacred from the womb.

If so, this is the same as our version

If so, even according to Rav Mordekhai they disagree in the same way that they disagree according to our version]!?

And we answer:

Rav Mordekhai teaches us

that

a person must state his teacher’s words in his teacher’s language,

and his teacher used wording opposite to ours, although his intention was as we have explained.

The minister Kuntrokos asked Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai:

It is written concerning the census of the Levites in the wilderness: “And these are the names of the sons of Gershon... their count, according to the number of every male from one month old and upward, their count: seven thousand five hundred... And of Kehat... according to the number of every male from one month old and upward: eight thousand six hundred... Of Merari... their count, according to the number of every male from one month old and upward: six thousand two hundred... All those counted of the Levites, whom Moses counted... twenty-two thousand.”

In the detailed count of the Levites,

when you add the number counted among the sons of Kehat to that of the sons of Gershon, and add the number of the sons of Merari to them,

you find

the total of all of them:

twenty-two thousand three hundred—

whereas

in their collective total,

when the number of all the Levites is summarized together, you

find

in the verse only

twenty-two thousand; and

if so,

the three hundred

in excess among the Levites—

where did they go!?

Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai said to him

the minister:

Those three hundred

in excess

were firstborns

of the Levites;

they were,

and therefore they could not be included in the count, since the purpose of the count was to redeem the firstborn of the Children of Israel in exchange for them.

And a firstborn

of a Levite

does not displace the firstborn

of an Israelite.

The Gemara asks:

What is the reason

that a firstborn son of a Levite does not displace the sanctity of an Israelite firstborn?

He said

explained

Abaye:

Because

it is sufficient for the firstborn that he displace

the

sanctity of himself,

but he should not also displace the sanctity of an Israelite firstborn.

It is written in the portion of Pekudei [Exodus 38]: “And the silver of those counted of the assembly [this is the silver collected from the half-shekels given by the Children of Israel when they were counted] was one hundred talents and one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five shekels, according to the sacred shekel. [And the verse explains how:] A beka per head, half a shekel according to the sacred shekel, for everyone who passed among those counted, from twenty years old and upward, for six hundred three thousand five hundred fifty. And of the one hundred talents of silver he cast the sockets of the Sanctuary and the sockets of the curtain, one hundred sockets for the one hundred talents, one talent per socket. And of the one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five he made hooks for the pillars.”

And he further asked

Kuntrokos Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai:

In the collection of the silver,

that is, if you calculate how much silver Moses collected from the half-shekels [sela’im] given by the Children of Israel,

you find two hundred one talents and eleven maneh—

For

this is what

is written here concerning the collection:

“

A beka per head, half a shekel according to the sacred shekel,”

and when you calculate this for six hundred three thousand five hundred fifty, you arrive at the aforementioned figure—

How so? A talent is equal to sixty maneh, and a maneh is equal to one hundred zuz, which are twenty-five shekels [each shekel being four zuz]. Thus, each talent is equal to one thousand five hundred shekels, which are three thousand half-shekels; and one hundred talents are three hundred thousand half-shekels. Therefore, from six hundred thousand of the Children of Israel—each of whom gave half a shekel, namely, six hundred thousand half-shekels—you find two hundred talents—

Add to them the half-shekels collected from those in excess of six hundred thousand, and you find: three thousand half-shekels, which equal one additional talent; and another five hundred fifty half-shekels, which equal two hundred seventy-five shekels, which equal one thousand one hundred zuz, which equal eleven maneh.

But

if

in the giving of the silver

for the work of the Tabernacle by Moses, you

find

only

one hundred talents, as it is written: “

And there were one hundred talents of silver for casting...”—

then,

was your Moses a thief, or a dice player

[a gambler]

or was he unfamiliar with calculations,

so that

he gave half

[one hundred talents]

and took half, and

even

did not return a complete half,

that is, it was not enough that he took for himself half of what he had collected; he did not even give one complete half—which is one hundred and one-half talents and five and one-half maneh—but gave only one hundred talents!?

He said

in reply

to him,

Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai:

Moses our teacher was a trustworthy treasurer, and

he was also

skilled in calculations, and

nevertheless,

a sacred maneh was double

and contained two hundred zuz, while a talent was equal to sixty sacred maneh. Thus, the calculation comes out exactly, together with the addition mentioned in the Torah: “And of the one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five he made hooks for the pillars.”

Rav Aḥai considered this

[Rav Aḥai raised the following objection]:

What difficulty could he have raised

against that minister? The verse does not say that Moses gave no more than one hundred talents; rather, the verse says: “

And there were one hundred talents of silver for casting

the sockets of the Sanctuary.” One could say that Moses gave

those

one hundred talents

for casting, while the others were in the treasury

[and Moses placed the remainder that he had collected from the people in the treasury of the sacred property].

And we answer:

Another verse says: “

And the silver of those counted of the assembly was one hundred talents,”

indicating that Moses mentioned only one hundred talents, and the minister saw in this an omission of one hundred talents.

The Gemara asks:

And regarding what

Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai said, that

a sacred maneh was double, from where did he derive this

[from where did Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai know this]?

If you say, from it,

perhaps you will say that it is proven from the verse itself,

for

it

is written: “

And of the one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five

[shekels]

he made hooks

for the pillars,”

for here

[in total] they amount to

seventy-one maneh, —

And the verse counted them only in detail,

that is, the verse did not convert those extra shekels into talents.

And if so,

if a sacred maneh were not double, since sixty maneh amount to one talent,

it should have written: one hundred one talents and eleven maneh,

in order to give the calculation in talents, just as it did for the one hundred talents—

Rather,

necessarily,

from the fact that the verse counted them only in detail, conclude from it: A sacred maneh was double,

and one thousand seven hundred seventy-five shekels do not even amount to one talent, which is three thousand shekels.

The Gemara rejects this proof:

Perhaps it calculates large amounts in talents, but it does not calculate small amounts in talents

[perhaps the verse converts shekels into talents only when the calculation reaches one hundred talents, but when it is necessary to express less than one hundred talents, the verse does not calculate them in talents].

Rather, from here

we must learn that a sacred maneh was double, as it is stated [Exodus 38]: “

And the copper of the elevation offering

[which the Children of Israel raised as a contribution for the work of the Tabernacle]

was seventy talents and two thousand four hundred shekels”—

for here

[those amounts in excess of the talents amount in total to]

ninety-six maneh,

and

nevertheless

the verse counted them only in detail

[it did not treat sixty maneh as an additional talent], and it did not say: “Seventy-one talents and nine hundred shekels”—

And

conclude from it: A sacred maneh was double,

and two thousand four hundred shekels do not even amount to one talent, which is three thousand shekels.

The Gemara rejects this:

Perhaps it calculates a large remainder in talents,

whereas

it does not calculate a small remainder in talents,

perhaps the verse converts shekels into talents only when the amount reaches one hundred maneh, or at least when it constitutes a large remainder of ten talents; but when the total does not even reach ten talents, the verse does not calculate a small remainder in talents—that is, individual talents that do not reach ten talents.

Rather, Rav Ḥisda said: From here

we learn that a sacred maneh was double, for it is written in Ezekiel 45:

And the shekel

[that is, the sela, shall be]

twenty gera

[a maneh; and the verse further explains how many shekels comprise the maneh]:

twenty shekels,

and

twenty-five shekels,

and

fifteen shekels

[sixty shekels in total],

shall the maneh be for you.”