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Bechorot 50 for kids: What Is a Sela?

בכורות נ׳

🪙 How much is a sela worth? This daf counts coins for redeeming a firstborn son and asks why the same coin can have different values.

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Stories from Bechorot 50

Words to know

Rashi and Tosafot on Bechorot 50 in simple English

Rashi on Bechorot 50a, in English Tab translation (26)
  1. Hadrianic dinar — a gold dinar stamped with the images of the emperors Hadrian and Trajan.
  2. And Shaifa — the name of a king.
  3. Sold for twenty-five — twenty-five silver dinars in Tyrian coinage.
  4. Deduct one-sixth, and the rest is for redeeming the firstborn son — this assumes that each of the five required sela is worth four Tyrian dinars, making twenty dinars in all.
  5. That leaves twenty-one minus one-sixth of a dinar — subtract one-sixth of twenty-four to leave twenty, then one-sixth of the remaining dinar.
  6. Rather, deduct one-sixth and a dinar — that still leaves twenty dinars minus one-sixth, since the one-sixth is deducted before the dinar.
  7. Rather, first deduct a dinar — twenty-four remain; subtract one-sixth of that, and the remaining twenty are for redeeming the firstborn son.
  8. That makes twenty dinars by the dinar weight — by the weight of the Tyrian dinar, as explained.
  9. Which are twenty-eight and a half, plus half a sixth — in Arabian dinars. Seven Tyrian dinars equal ten Arabian dinars, so fourteen equal twenty. The remaining six Tyrian dinars equal about eight and a half Arabian dinars plus half a sixth. This calculation comes from a responsum of the Geonim; Rashi says he did not receive an explanation of the passage from his teacher.
  10. Biblical sela are three — and one-third Tyrian dinars, equal to twenty ma’a.
  11. But a sacred sela — one who consecrates a field in the Jubilee year redeems an area sown with a kor of barley for fifty sela. The teaching assigns forty-nine sela and forty-nine pundeyon to the forty-nine years. Yet a sacred sela contains forty-eight pundeyon, making the total fifty sela and one pundeyon.
  12. What is this pundeyon for? — The Torah requires only fifty silver shekels.
  13. An exchange premium — the extra pundeyon is a small premium charged when making change. In any event, the teaching says that a sacred sela contains forty-eight pundeyon. Since a dinar contains twelve pundeyon, that makes four dinars to a biblical sela, contradicting Rava.
  14. After they added to it — the Sages increased the biblical sela by one-sixth, making it equal to the Tyrian sela of twenty-four ma’a.
  15. Shall be — the phrase “twenty gera shall be the shekel” allows for an increase. The verse “it is twenty gera” teaches that it may not be reduced below twenty.
  16. Rav Aḥa was a priest — Rav Ashi sent the money to him.
  17. Let the Master send me one-third — I gave you one-third of a dinar too much. According to Rava, five biblical sela total sixteen and two-thirds dinars, while I sent seventeen.
  18. He sent him — Rav Aḥa replied: “Let the Master send me another three dinars,” since the Sages increased the sela to the Tyrian measure, making five sela worth twenty dinars.
  19. Litra — a weight equal to twenty-five sela.
  20. Centenaria — one hundred sela for each shekel.
  21. As it is written, “current money with the merchant” — merchants everywhere accept it as shekels.
  22. But is there not a place where they call their weight a centenarius? — Their shekel weighs as much as a centenarius; that is the weight Ephron received.
  23. Because of Jerusalem’s silver and gold — it was in the Temple treasury, was consecrated, and could not be used by non-priests. When gentiles took it, they mixed it with other silver and gold.
  24. And profane it — once the robbers entered and took it, it lost its consecrated status and became ordinary property.
  25. Was Jerusalem most of the world? — Could its silver and gold be grounds to prohibit all the silver and gold in the world?
  26. Worn-out coins of Hadrian and Trajan — These were coins of Jerusalem, and most of them came from Jerusalem.
Tosafot on Bechorot 50a, in English Tab translation (3)
  1. Rabbi Yoḥanan said, ‘Hadrianic dinars’ — These are the gold dinars mentioned throughout the Talmud, each worth twenty-five silver dinars. Subtract one dinar, then one-sixth of the remaining twenty-four, and twenty dinars remain. That is the five sela required to redeem a firstborn son, since a sela is four dinars. The text also expresses this as twenty matkalei, worth twenty-eight and a half dinars plus half a sixth of a dinar in the other currency. This resembles the Geonim’s explanation of the five sela in terms of the coins of their day.
  2. Hadrianic, Trajanic, worn dinars — Rashi explains that ‘Hadrianic’ and ‘Trajanic’ name emperors, and that ‘worn’ names a king. Rabbeinu Tam objects: the Gemara later says these coins were nearly withdrawn because they bore Jerusalem’s image, whereas the Talmud describes Jerusalem’s coin as bearing David and Solomon on one side and ‘Jerusalem, the holy city’ on the other. He therefore explains ‘Hadrianic’ as round, ‘Trajanic’ as large, and ‘worn’ as having an effaced design. The different initial letters used in the words he compares to ‘Trajanic’ are no obstacle. Rashi’s explanation can nevertheless be upheld by distinguishing the First Temple period from the Second. Emperor Hadrian is mentioned elsewhere in the Talmud, and the Arukh also gives Rashi’s explanation.
  3. Sold for twenty-five dinars — Elsewhere, too, the Talmud says that a silver dinar is worth one twenty-fifth of a gold dinar. This is also apparent from its discussions of the first two owners’ gold dinars in the case of an ox that gored several oxen, and of a claimant who says, ‘I received a gold dinar from you.’ Yet in our day a weight of gold is worth at most ten equal weights of silver. How could their relative values have changed so much? Rabbeinu Tam explains that a gold dinar weighed twice as much as a silver dinar, contrary to what Rashi’s explanation above implies. Another Talmudic passage, which measures what remains by the thickness of a gold dinar, likewise suggests a difference in thickness. Thus a gold dinar was worth twenty-five silver dinars as a coin, but equal weights of gold and silver differed in value by only about twelve to one. A midrash likewise equates fifty gold shekels with six hundred silver shekels when reconciling the prices given for Araunah’s threshing floor in Samuel and Chronicles. The final chapter of Zevaḥim reconciles those verses differently: David collected fifty shekels from each tribe, making six hundred altogether. On Rabbeinu Tam’s calculation, the gold in a gold dinar was worth twenty-four silver dinars. He says the extra silver dinar in its price was an allowance for weighing: that is why the Gemara separately subtracts a dinar and a sixth, rather than simply subtracting one-fifth of twenty-five. This allowance matches the view in Shekalim that one adds half a ma’a when paying a half-shekel: a half-shekel is two dinars, or twenty-four half-ma’a units. Even the view that requires a whole ma’a as the half-shekel surcharge can agree that the weighing allowance on a gold dinar is one silver dinar. The nearby teaching about redeeming a barley field, which mentions only a single pundeyon as an exchange surcharge, is not a precise measure of this allowance. Its wording serves to reconcile the yearly calculation of a sela and a pundeyon over the forty-nine years of the Jubilee. Perhaps no such allowance is due when all fifty shekels are paid together: that resembles a purchase, while weighing allowances apply when exchanging coins with a money changer. Nor can the allowances for silver be inferred from a passage about weighing meat, where weighing ten units together requires a smaller allowance than weighing them separately. A difficulty remains from the rule that brothers who are partners pay only one surcharge together, although each would pay one if he paid separately; different weighing allowances may operate differently. Rabbi Yehuda ben Natan offers another explanation: the extra dinar covers coinage allowances and the mint’s fee. Someone bringing enough silver for twenty-five dinars to a minter receives only twenty-four minted dinars back.
Rashi on Bechorot 50b, in English Tab translation (13)
  1. Tyrian money — When the Torah says “shekel,” it means a Tyrian sela worth four dinars, as Rabbi Yoḥanan explained above. When it says only “money,” it means a Tyrian dinar.
  2. Provincial money — It is worth one-eighth of Tyrian money. It is the provincial istira mentioned above.
  3. A claim — A person says to another, “I entrusted you with such-and-such an amount.”
  4. The oath administered by judges — When it follows an admission to part of a claim, the defendant takes the oath only if the claim is worth at least two silver ma’a, one-third of a dinar, even though the Torah says, “If a man gives his neighbor money.”
  5. That case is different — The Torah places “money” alongside “vessels.” Vessels means at least two, even if they are worth less than a dinar; so too, money means at least two coins.
  6. And just as money is something of value — A silver ma’a counts as valuable. So too, the vessels must have some value, not be worth virtually nothing.
  7. One who exchanges for a sela — He has second-tithe money in small copper coins and wants to exchange it for silver sela coins to lighten his load for the journey. The mishna goes on to state Beit Shammai’s view about exchanging the coins for an entire sela. In any case, it shows that second tithe may be exchanged for copper coins, though the Torah says “money.”
  8. The repeated word “money” broadens the rule — “Money” appears there three times: “exchange for money,” “bind up the money,” and “use the money.” This includes every kind of coin.
  9. Worth one peruta — That is a copper coin.
  10. “Holy” from second tithe — Second tithe is called “holy” in the verse “Every tithe of cattle and sheep, everything that passes under the rod…” Consecrated property is also called “holy” in the verse “When a man consecrates his house as holy.”
  11. “She shall go out free, without money” — From this we derive the law of betrothal: There is no money for this master, but there is money for another master.
  12. A set amount — The Torah specifies amounts such as thirty and fifty in those cases. None of the cases raised as objections has a set amount.
  13. One who strikes — My teacher explained in Bava Kamma that this means striking another person’s ear. Here I heard that it means blowing directly from one’s mouth into another’s ear. Support for my teacher’s explanation comes from “Do not be among those who strike hands,” referring to people who strike palms with others when guaranteeing their debts. Rav Ashi teaches that the payment is not a Tyrian sela worth four dinars, but a provincial sela worth half a dinar—one-eighth as much.
Tosafot on Bechorot 50b, in English Tab translation (3)
  1. All money mentioned in the Torah is Tyrian silver — In Kiddushin, Rashi cites his teachers’ explanation that the dinar was the smallest Tyrian coin. This is used to explain Beit Shammai’s ruling that a woman is betrothed with a dinar. Although the Torah calls a shekel “twenty gerahs,” which the translation renders “twenty ma’a,” this does not mean ma’a coins existed in Moses’ day. The weight then in use equaled a ma’a coin made later, in the days of Onkelos. The Gemara asks why, in a claim requiring an oath, the minimum is two silver ma’a: the wording of the Mishnah indicates ma’a coins. It answers that money is compared with vessels: there must be two coins, and they must be significant. A ma’a is significant. On that account, the verse lowers the requirement from a dinar to a ma’a. On the Gemara’s final account, which limits the Tyrian rule to fixed amounts, the requirement that the money be significant raises it from a peruta to a ma’a. Rashi objects to the first explanation: if unspecified Torah money means a dinar, how can the comparison change that, when it is needed to teach that there must be two coins? But a comparison need not teach only one thing. Indeed, Rav’s reading in Shevuot requires both ‘two’ and ‘significant’ to be learned from vessels; he understands ‘money’ as addressing the amount denied. Rashi also asks how a needle can count as significant, since vessels are said to qualify regardless of their value. Even a needle is significant because it can be used for important work. He further objects that Shevuot states the comparison in the opposite direction: just as money is significant, so vessels must be significant. That is Shmuel’s reading; Rav explicitly derives both requirements from vessels. Some texts even give Shmuel’s reading in the order used here. When the Gemara says that, without ‘money,’ vessels would establish only the number and not significance, it can mean that ‘money’ makes it possible to compare money with vessels and require significant money. Alternatively, since ‘money’ implies at least a peruta’s worth, it can establish a minimum value for vessels, excluding an inferior tool or a vessel worth less than a peruta. Thus the Jerusalem Talmud’s case of two needles involves needles worth two perutas, leaving one peruta for the denial and one for the admission. The comparison can then work back from vessels to money: just as the vessel must have significance, so the money must be a significant coin—a ma’a, not merely a peruta. Rashi changes the wording in Shevuot to avoid saying ‘so vessels must be significant,’ but that change is unnecessary. Rashi offers another explanation in Kiddushin: an expressly stated number of shekels means Tyrian shekels, while unspecified money means the smallest Tyrian coin. That cannot be a copper peruta, since there was no Tyrian copper coin. Betrothal involves ‘money,’ learned from the word ‘taking’; once a peruta is excluded, the amount is set at a dinar as a significant coin. For the oath, the Gemara then asks where the requirement of two coins comes from. The answer compares money with vessels to require two; it also compares vessels with significant money, requiring vessels worth two silver ma’a. This excludes the view that a claim for two needles requires an oath upon admission to one, because vessels qualify regardless of value. But on Rav’s reading in Shevuot, the teaching about significant vessels cannot be derived from money, since he uses ‘money’ for the amount denied. Rabbi Yitzhak also asks: if the ma’a is the smallest Tyrian coin, why set betrothal at a dinar rather than a ma’a? The move from a peruta to a significant dinar makes sense where a silver peruta has first been established for a Hebrew maidservant. Here, however, if unspecified money means a ma’a, there is no reason to move from a peruta to a dinar. And if that move is made for betrothal, why not similarly move from two perutas to two dinars for an oath?
  2. Just as vessels are two — In Shevuot, Rashi asks how Shmuel can say that vessels are mentioned separately to teach that they qualify regardless of value: their mention is needed to teach that there must be two. Rashi answers that the Torah could have written ‘silver coins,’ in the plural, which would imply both two and a significant amount. But why would that imply a significant amount rather than two perutas? One can instead say that the Torah could have written ‘money or objects.’
  3. Every fixed sum of money in the Torah is Tyrian silver, while sums set by the Sages are provincial coinage — This seems difficult: for striking someone, Rabbi Yosei HaGelili sets a fine of one hundred dinars, which the Gemara identifies as Tyrian. Conversely, the Mishnah’s allowance of fifty zuz for clothing is understood as ordinary coins without invoking Rav Yehuda’s statement in Rav Asi’s name. A virgin’s marriage contract is two hundred Tyrian dinars even according to those who hold that the obligation is rabbinic; a widow’s marriage contract, which everyone agrees is rabbinic, is one hundred Tyrian dinars. Rabbi Yitzhak therefore explains that the rule here concerns sela coins specifically, like the Torah’s fixed sums, which are stated only in shekels.

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: Bekhorot, Bechoros, Bekhoroth 50.