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Arakhin 24 for kids: The Jubilee Field

ערכין כ״ד

🌾 What may the Temple treasurer take, and what must be left behind? The daf also asks how to value a pearl and whether a field can be consecrated during the Jubilee Year.

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Stories from Arakhin 24

Words to know

Rashi and Tosafot on Arakhin 24 in simple English

Rashi on Arakhin 24a, in English Tab translation (22)
  1. He — We interpret the verse to mean, “Keep him alive from your valuation.”
  2. Until now, when he had — an extra adze to lend, others would lend him saws.
  3. Remove his phylacteries — Take them off his head until he redeems them for money.
  4. I am performing a mitzva — by giving to Temple maintenance; therefore, he intended to include all his property.
  5. He has no claim to his wife’s clothing — because it is not his.
  6. For their sake — for his wife and children.
  7. New sandals — The teaching includes even sandals they have not yet worn: they belong to them from the time of purchase.
  8. Although they said slaves sell for more in their clothing — Fine clothing raises a slave’s price. For example, when selling orphans’ property, clothing bought for a slave for thirty dinars can raise his sale price by one hundred dinars.
  9. At the market — on market day.
  10. To the city — where merchants customarily come.
  11. The Temple treasury has only its present location — in the case of a pearl.
  12. And its present time — in the case of a slave or cow. A poor person who has vowed his own valuation pays the Temple treasury according to his means. If his slave is worth twenty zuz now, the treasurer does not calculate what the slave might bring after buying him expensive clothing, deduct the clothing’s cost, and demand that amount. The slave is appraised as he is now; the same applies to a cow. A pearl in a village is appraised where it is.
  13. Do not hold back a pearl for a poor person — If a poor person who vowed his own valuation has a pearl, the treasurer must not tell him to take it to the city and pay according to its price there. It is appraised here. He may then keep it and sell it for whatever he can get, paying the appraised amount, since he had no more than that when the priest assessed him.
  14. One may not consecrate — an ancestral field less than two years before the Jubilee. Scripture sets its redemption price by the years remaining, and “years” means at least two.
  15. Nor redeem it less than a year after the Jubilee — The Gemara explains this according to Rav’s view and according to Shmuel’s view.
  16. And one does not count, and so forth — The Gemara explains this.
  17. But the Temple treasury counts months — When counting part of a year as a completed year benefits the treasury, it is counted. For example, if he consecrated the field halfway through the forty-eighth year, counting that half-year as elapsed leaves less than two years before the Jubilee, so redemption costs fifty selaim. Without counting it, the price would be only two selaim and two pundions.
  18. But a baraita contradicts this: One may consecrate before the Jubilee — which implies even less than two years before it.
  19. Rav and Shmuel both say: One may not consecrate it for redemption at a reduced price less than two years before the Jubilee — An ancestral field consecrated just after a Jubilee costs fifty selaim per area sown with a kor of barley. As the next Jubilee approaches, its redemption price is reduced according to the years remaining, at a rate of one sela and one pundion per year; with two years left, the price is two selaim and two pundions. The fifty selaim cover the forty-nine years after the Jubilee: forty-nine selaim, plus a pundion for each year. Although that totals fifty selaim and one extra pundion, the extra pundion is a small-change surcharge. Rav and Shmuel say the reduced rate does not apply with fewer than two years left, since Scripture speaks of “years remaining,” meaning at least two. Redemption then costs fifty selaim. The mishna advises a person to protect his property by avoiding that loss.
  20. Granted, regarding — one who sells his field in the Jubilee year itself, Shmuel disagrees with Rav later in the chapter on selling, because an argument from lesser to greater can be made.
  21. Can an argument from lesser to greater be made? — An already consecrated field does not leave Temple ownership at the Jubilee without payment. As the mishna teaches, if the Jubilee arrives and it has not been redeemed, the priests take possession and pay its value to the Temple maintenance fund.
  22. He holds like Rabbi Shimon — Therefore an argument from lesser to greater can be made: If a field already consecrated leaves Temple ownership now, surely a field not yet consecrated cannot become consecrated now.
Tosafot on Arakhin 24a, in English Tab translation (3)
  1. The Temple treasury has only the item’s present place and time — Why, then, must the sale of consecrated property be announced for sixty days? Here too, waiting could benefit the Temple treasury, yet the sale is not delayed. Nor can the distinction be that the owner consecrated all his property: the Tosefta says the same rule applies even if he consecrated only a pearl. Rather, this passage concerns movable property, whose sale is not announced lest it be stolen, as explained in Ketubot. The earlier mishna’s sixty-day announcement concerns land.
  2. One may not consecrate, etc. —
  3. Rav and Shmuel both say: One may not consecrate a field to redeem it for less than two selaim and two pundions — A field redeemed with at least two years remaining until the Jubilee is valued by the years left: one sela and one pundion per year. For forty-nine years, that amounts to forty-nine selaim and forty-nine pundions. Since forty-eight pundions make a sela, the remaining pundion accounts for the additional payment mentioned in Bekhorot. But with less than two years remaining, no reduction is made: redeeming a field large enough to sow a kor costs the full fifty selaim. Scripture speaks of deducting from its valuation according to the ‘years’ remaining, and the minimum plural is two. The mishna therefore warns a person to protect his property by not consecrating it so close to the Jubilee. Why does it not also warn against consecrating in the first year of the Jubilee cycle, when redemption likewise costs the full amount? He knows from the outset that fifty selaim is the price for the full forty-nine years and accepts it. Alternatively, he can wait until three years remain and redeem it for three selaim and three pundions. With less than two years remaining, however, he must pay the full fifty; if he waits until the Jubilee, the field will no longer return to him. But what does this add to the mishna’s statement that one may consecrate before or after the Jubilee? Although a year begins on Rosh Hashanah, the Jubilee begins on Yom Kippur. ‘After the Jubilee’ means after Rosh Hashanah at the end of the Jubilee year; we do not treat that year as lasting until Yom Kippur.
Rashi on Arakhin 24b, in English Tab translation (14)
  1. And Rav — would tell Rabbi Shimon that this is not a return to the owner: ultimately, does the field go back to its owner?
  2. Granted, according to Rav — the verse distinguishes between consecration from the Jubilee Year, which requires fifty sela, and consecration after the Jubilee, for which a deduction is made.
  3. But according to Shmuel, what does “after the Jubilee” mean? — The earlier verse, which requires fifty sela, also refers to consecration after the Jubilee.
  4. After the year after — a deduction is made if he consecrates the field two or three years after the Jubilee, but not if he consecrates it in the year immediately after the Jubilee.
  5. It is not consecrated for redemption with a deduction — because a full Jubilee cycle remains.
  6. It follows — that when the baraita says one may consecrate a field before the Jubilee, it means redemption with a deduction. But Rav and Shmuel both say otherwise.
  7. Rav could tell you — the baraita’s permission to consecrate means that one pays the full fifty sela. It says a field consecrated during the Jubilee is not consecrated at all. This does not contradict me: the baraita follows the Rabbis, who disagree with Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi and hold that the first day is not included in the phrase “from the first day.”
  8. But I follow Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi — Shmuel would say that even Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi agrees the field is not consecrated here. He includes the first day in “from the first day” only where the verse also says “until.” Here it does not say “until”; had the Jubilee Year been included, the verse should have said “during the Jubilee Year.”
  9. If Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi — understands “from the Jubilee Year” to include that year, the verse requires fifty sela for fifty years. Why, then, pay an additional pundeyon per year when redeeming a field consecrated ten or twenty years before the next Jubilee? One sela per remaining year should suffice.
  10. It counts for both — the Jubilee Year belongs to the preceding cycle and also counts as the first year of the next. Thus only forty-nine years remain until the next Jubilee. That Jubilee Year is not counted, because release takes effect at its start: if someone else redeemed the field, it then goes to the priests. So a field consecrated and redeemed during the Jubilee remains in the redeemer’s hands for only forty-nine years. Fifty sela divided among those years is a sela and a pundeyon per year.
  11. According to Shmuel — even Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi agrees that “from the Jubilee Year” excludes the Jubilee Year itself. The verse refers to the following year and requires payment of fifty sela.
  12. Shall we say Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi — who requires a sela and a pundeyon per year?
  13. Holds like the Rabbis — who disagree with Rabbi Yehuda and do not count the preceding Jubilee Year toward the next cycle. After that Jubilee Year, forty-nine years remain. If Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi followed Rabbi Yehuda, only forty-eight years would remain after it, and the verse would require fifty sela for those years—one sela and two pundeyons per year.
  14. Granted, according to Shmuel, “less than a year” — the mishna teaches that if one consecrates a field during the Jubilee Year itself, it need not be redeemed, because it was never consecrated.
Tosafot on Arakhin 24b, in English Tab translation (4)
  1. Does it ultimately return to its owners? — Why must Rav answer this way? Why not simply reject Shmuel’s a fortiori argument? Later, when Rav and Shmuel dispute whether someone may sell his field during the Jubilee Year, the Gemara asks why Rav does not accept a similar a fortiori argument. Its answer shows that, without the distinction made here, Rav would have to accept the argument. He therefore explains that a consecrated field does not return to its owners at the Jubilee; since it does not return to them, they can no longer consecrate it as an ancestral field.
  2. What is Rav’s reason? Scripture says, ‘If he sanctifies his field from the Jubilee Year’ — Why explain Rav’s reading of the verse after rejecting Shmuel’s a fortiori argument? Rav must read ‘from the Jubilee Year’ as including that year, as Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi reads similar wording elsewhere. Otherwise, since Scripture gives no rule for the Jubilee Year itself, one might say that a field consecrated then is redeemed at its market value, rather than at the prescribed valuation. This is Tosafot’s explanation, though it raises some difficulty later. My teacher instead explains that, without a rule for that year, we would say with Shmuel that the field is not consecrated at all. But if Rav has an explicit verse, why must he also reject the a fortiori argument? Because, if that argument held, even Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi would read ‘from the Jubilee Year’ as beginning the following year. Thus Shmuel too can argue within Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi’s view; Rav Yosef explains his position through the a fortiori argument so that the dispute is not merely a disagreement between tannaim. Under the Rabbis’ view, even Rav agrees that a field consecrated during the Jubilee Year is not consecrated.
  3. Rav could tell you: This follows the Rabbis — But according to Tosafot’s explanation above, if Scripture says nothing about the Jubilee Year itself, a field consecrated then should take effect and be redeemed at market value. How, then, can the Rabbis say it is not consecrated? My teacher’s explanation above resolves this.
  4. If Rav follows Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, what is the additional pundeyon for? — Why ask this only because Rav follows Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi? The teaching that a field consecrated two or three years before the Jubilee is redeemed at a sela and a pundeyon per year appears to challenge Rav directly: if the Jubilee Year is included like the other years, why add a pundeyon? Rav could answer that this teaching follows the Rabbis, as he did above. But the question from Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi stands, since he too requires a sela and a pundeyon per year, as the Gemara goes on to explain.

Sources

Kid summary and story cards written by Tab from the William Davidson Edition English (Sefaria, CC BY-NC 4.0).

Tab translation (machine-assisted) of Rashi and Tosafot, from the Vilna Edition Hebrew (public domain) on Sefaria. May contain mistakes.

In the app, the Gemara text comes from Sefaria (William Davidson Edition, CC BY-NC 4.0; Hebrew/Aramaic Vilna Edition). Rashi and Tosafot Hebrew: Vilna Edition (public domain) via Sefaria.

Also spelled: Arachin, Erchin 24.