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Arakhin 26 for kids: Whose Field at Jubilee?

ערכין כ״ו

🌾 This daf asks when a consecrated field goes to the priests at Jubilee. It also asks how to treat a field a son bought from his father.

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Stories from Arakhin 26

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Rashi and Tosafot on Arakhin 26 in simple English

Rashi on Arakhin 26a, in English Tab translation (22)
  1. What is Rabbi Eliezer’s reason? — Rabba says Rabbi Eliezer reads the verse this way: If the owner does not redeem the field, he can no longer redeem it as an ancestral field. But if the Temple treasurer sells it, then when it leaves the buyer’s possession at the Jubilee, it goes to the priests. This implies that if the treasurer did not sell it, it does not go to the priests.
  2. Does a sharp knife cut through the verses? — The verse does not say that. It says, “It shall not be redeemed anymore, but the field, when it goes out at the Jubilee,” shall go to the priests. This implies that once the Jubilee arrives, the owner can no longer redeem it and it goes to the priests, even if the treasurer did not sell it.
  3. One might think it cannot be redeemed — Even the owner might be unable to redeem it merely to hold it like a purchased field, as anyone else who redeems it from the Temple would: such a field leaves the redeemer’s possession and goes to the priests at the Jubilee.
  4. As it was — The owner cannot redeem it as his ancestral field, so that it would remain his at the Jubilee.
  5. It goes to the priests — According to Rabbi Yehuda, they pay for it; according to Rabbi Shimon, they receive it free. Either way, its original owner can no longer redeem it permanently.
  6. Is this not Rabbi Eliezer? — He holds that if the field was not redeemed during the first Jubilee cycle, it can still be redeemed during the second.
  7. And Rabbi Eliezer’s reason comes from here — The word “anymore” is needed to teach that the owner may redeem the field to hold it like a purchased field. Since the verse can only be speaking about the second Jubilee cycle, the field must still be available for redemption then.
  8. That went to the priests — A person consecrated his ancestral field, someone else redeemed it, and it went from that person to the priests at the Jubilee. A priest then consecrated it during the second Jubilee cycle, and the original owner came to redeem it from the Temple treasurer.
  9. One might have thought he could not redeem it — At all, since he did not redeem it when he first consecrated it.
  10. Therefore the verse says “anymore” — He may redeem it to hold it like a purchased field. At the Jubilee, it will leave his possession and be divided among the priests.
  11. And it was taught — This supports reading the verse that way.
  12. At the Jubilee Year the field shall return — This is written about someone who consecrated a purchased field, which this person then redeemed.
  13. To the one to whom the land belongs as an ancestral possession — This means the original owner, who sold the field to the person who consecrated it.
  14. One might think it returns to the original owner — The person who first consecrated it, since the land had been his ancestral possession.
  15. Therefore the verse says “to the one from whom he bought it” — After the first owner consecrated the field, it passed through the Temple to the priests. It therefore returns to the priest from whom the later purchaser bought it, not to the first owner unless he redeems it. This is the same case discussed above.
  16. And it was necessary to write “to the one from whom he bought it” — This teaches that if an ancestral field was consecrated, redeemed by someone else, and given to the priests, and a priest later sold it, after which the buyer consecrated it and someone else redeemed it, the field does not return at the Jubilee to the original owner who first consecrated it.
  17. And it was necessary to write “it shall not be redeemed” — As explained above: if someone else redeemed the consecrated field, it went to the priests, and a priest then consecrated it, the original owner can no longer redeem it to hold it as his ancestral field.
  18. For it does not return at all — When a priest consecrates the field, it is his ancestral field, as the verse says, “It shall be his possession.” If someone else redeems it from the Temple, it is divided among the priests at the Jubilee. Even the priest who consecrated it receives only a share like his fellow priests. It therefore cannot return to its former owner as his ancestral field.
  19. But if a priest sold it and the buyer consecrated it — It is now a purchased field. If someone redeems it from the Temple, it does not go to the priests at the Jubilee but returns to an owner. One might think it returns to the person who first consecrated it, because it had been his ancestral land. The verse therefore says, “to the one from whom he bought it”: the priest from whom the later consecrator bought it.
  20. It would remain in his possession — Permanently, as an ancestral field. It would not leave him at the Jubilee for the priests, as a field bought from the Temple would leave another buyer’s possession.
  21. What became of it? — What is the source of Rabbi Eliezer’s reason?
  22. When it goes out — This suggests that the field goes to the priests when it leaves the possession of someone who redeemed it, as land normally leaves a buyer at the Jubilee. It does not suggest that the field leaves the Temple’s possession; the verse has not yet taught that property consecrated for Temple maintenance leaves its possession at the Jubilee.
Tosafot on Arakhin 26a, in English Tab translation (2)
  1. What is Rabbi Eliezer’s reason? — One might ask: Doesn’t the plain reading of the verse support him? “If he does not redeem the field” refers to the owner, while “or if he sold it” means that the Temple treasurer sold it to someone else. The field would then go to the priests at the Jubilee only if it had been sold, not if it remained with the treasurer. But as I explained, these are two separate cases, and the verse indicates that the field goes to the priests in either case.
  2. If this refers to the first Jubilee cycle, why can it not be redeemed? It would still be an ancestral field — Why not simply ask that the verse says, “If he does redeem the field…it shall remain his”? Perhaps that is what the Gemara means. One might object that the passage could concern a field redeemed from the Temple treasurer by someone else and then bought back from that person by the original owner. In that case it has the status of a purchased field and goes to the priests at the Jubilee, as the mishna teaches (Arakhin 25a). But the verse is understood to discuss redemption from the Temple treasurer, not acquisition from another person: someone who redeems the field need not sell it to the original owner. Thus “it shall not be redeemed anymore” refers only to redemption from the treasurer.
Rashi on Arakhin 26b, in English Tab translation (13)
  1. A dilemma was raised — According to Rabbi Eliezer, who says that a field not redeemed in the first Jubilee cycle can still be redeemed in the second:
  2. Is the owner in the second Jubilee cycle like another person? — If he redeems the field, does it leave his possession and go to the priests?
  3. Or not? — Perhaps he is not like another person: Just as the field would have remained his if he had redeemed it in the first cycle, it remains his now.
  4. It goes to the priests — According to this view, the field cannot be redeemed at all in the second Jubilee cycle.
  5. One who bought a field from his father, and his father died: It is treated as an ancestral field — He inherited it before consecrating it. So if he redeems it, he pays fifty silver shekels for an area sown with one kor of seed, as for an ancestral field. If someone else redeems it, it goes to the priests at the Jubilee.
  6. As a purchased field — Its status is determined when he consecrates it. If he redeems it, he pays its value, as for a purchased field. If someone else redeems it, it returns to him at the Jubilee: when he consecrated it, he did not own it permanently, since it was due to return to his father at the Jubilee, like other sold fields. Thus, as with any purchased field that is consecrated, its redeemer returns it at the Jubilee to the ancestral owner—his father—and the son inherits his father’s rights.
  7. A purchased field — If someone else redeems it after it is consecrated, it does not go to the priests at the Jubilee. It returns to the person who sold it to the one who consecrated it.
  8. A person cannot consecrate what is not his — This land belonged to him only until the Jubilee.
  9. May consecrate at any time — This is explained in the Gemara.
  10. And may redeem at any time — If a priest consecrates inherited land, he may redeem it even after the Jubilee, as it says, “The Levites shall have a perpetual right of redemption” (Leviticus 25:32).
  11. Rabbi Meir holds that ownership of the produce is like ownership of the land itself — While his father was alive, the son had the right to eat the produce but did not own the land permanently, since it was due to return at the Jubilee. Even so, that right counts like ownership of the land. Therefore, if his father died before he consecrated it, we would not have known without the verse to treat it as an ancestral field: he already held rights in it before his father died. The verse is needed for that case. But if he consecrated it while it was still a purchased field and his father then died, the verse does not make it an ancestral field; it remains a purchased field.
  12. Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Shimon hold that ownership of the produce is not like ownership of the land itself — If his father died before he consecrated the field, the son then inherited the land itself, making it an ancestral field. No verse is needed for that case, since he had not owned the land while his father lived. The verse instead addresses a field he consecrated before his father died: although it was a purchased field when consecrated, it becomes an ancestral field when his father dies before redemption.
  13. It is like ownership of the land itself — Therefore, a verse is needed even for the case in which his father died before he consecrated the field.
Tosafot on Arakhin 26b, in English Tab translation (4)
  1. The owner in the second Jubilee cycle — According to Rabbi Eliezer, is the owner treated like another person who redeems the field? Or, since the field was neither redeemed nor distributed to the priests at the Jubilee and remains with the Temple treasurer, may the owner redeem it and keep it? The verse’s statement that it ‘shall not be redeemed anymore,’ which means that it cannot return to its former status, concerns a field someone else redeemed from the treasurer. It does not address a field that was never distributed to the priests.
  2. Rather, this concerns a field that passed to the priests — For example, an owner consecrated his ancestral field, another person redeemed it before the first Jubilee, and it passed to the priests at that Jubilee. The priest who received it then consecrated it, and the original owner came to redeem it in the second Jubilee cycle. One might have thought that the owner could not redeem it even as a purchased field. The word ‘anymore’ teaches that it cannot return to its former status as his ancestral field, but he may redeem it as a purchased field; it will return to the priests at the Jubilee. Thus, ‘when the field goes out at the Jubilee’ applies to both cases in the verse: ‘if he does not redeem the field’ and ‘if he sold the field to another man.’ This reading also works for Rabbi Eliezer. Earlier, the Gemara asked the basis for his opinion. Rava answers that ‘when the field goes out at the Jubilee’ means when it leaves the possession of someone who redeemed it from the Temple treasurer. As long as it remains with the treasurer, it does not leave at the Jubilee.
  3. A purchased field does not pass to the priests at the Jubilee — A person cannot consecrate property that is not his. At first glance, this refers to a field someone else redeemed from the Temple treasurer before the Jubilee. But Rashi, in his commentary on the Torah, explains that even if no one redeemed it and it remains with the treasurer, it returns without payment at the Jubilee to its original ancestral owner.
  4. According to Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Shimon, ownership of the produce is like ownership of the land itself — I explained this in Gittin 48a.

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 26.