Commentary for Arakhin 9:2
מְכָרָהּ לָרִאשׁוֹן בְּמָנֶה, וּמָכַר הָרִאשׁוֹן לַשֵּׁנִי בְּמָאתַיִם, אֵינוֹ מְחַשֵּׁב אֶלָּא עִם הָרִאשׁוֹן, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר, לָאִישׁ אֲשֶׁר מָכַר לוֹ. מְכָרָהּ לָרִאשׁוֹן בְּמָאתַיִם, וּמָכַר הָרִאשׁוֹן לַשֵּׁנִי בְּמָנֶה, אֵינוֹ מְחַשֵּׁב אֶלָּא עִם הָאַחֲרוֹן, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (שם), לָאִישׁ, לָאִישׁ אֲשֶׁר בְּתוֹכָהּ. לֹא יִמְכֹּר בְּרָחוֹק וְיִגְאֹל בְּקָרוֹב, בְּרָע וְיִגְאֹל בְּיָפֶה. לֹא יִלְוֶה וְיִגְאַל, וְלֹא יִגְאַל לַחֲצָאִים. וּבַהֶקְדֵּשׁ מֻתָּר בְּכֻלָּן. זֶה חֹמֶר בַּהֶדְיוֹט מִבַּהֶקְדֵּשׁ:
If he sold it to the first for one hundred [<i>dinar</i>] and the first sold it to the second for two hundred, then he need reckon only with the first, as it says, “With the man to whom he sold” (Leviticus 25:27). If he sold it to the first for two hundred, and the first sold it to the second for one hundred, then he need reckon only with the second, as it says: “With the man” (ibid)— the man in possession of the field. One may not sell a distant field in order to redeem a near one, or a poor field in order to redeem a good one. One may not borrow [money] in order to redeem, nor redeem it in halves. But in the case of objects consecrated, all these [things] are permitted. In this respect the laws concerning a person’s [property] are more stringent than those concerning sacred things.
Bartenura on Mishnah Arakhin
אינו מחשב – the [original] seller that came to redeem it.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Arakhin
Introduction
Today’s mishnah continues to deal with how one redeems one’s ancestral field.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Arakhin
אלא עם הראשון – and that calculation he will deduct for him for each and every year that he occupied it (i.e., enjoying its produce), and the remainder he will pay him.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Arakhin
If he sold it to the first for one hundred [denars] and the first sold it to the second for two hundred, then he need reckon only with the first, as it says, “With the man to whom he sold” (Leviticus 25:27). In this case, the person who wishes to redeem his field must reckon only with the person to whom he sold the field, and not with the person who bought from him. The way this is done is by first dividing the price of the field according to the number of years between the purchase and the next Jubilee. Let’s say he bought the field for 100 denars and there were ten years until the next Jubilee. When the owner comes to redeem his field he will pay ten denars for every year left. Then, the purchaser will have to restore the remainder of the money to the one who bought it from him, according to the value to which he sold it to him. So if the field was redeemed in the fifth year, the redeemer will give fifty to the first buyer, and the first buyer will have to give another 100 to the second buyer, who paid 20 denars a year for the field.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Arakhin
אשר מכר לו – it is written concerning the redeemer of his acquired field (Leviticus 25:27): “[he shall compute the years since its sale,] refund the difference to the man to whom he sold it.”
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English Explanation of Mishnah Arakhin
If he sold it to the first for two hundred, and the first sold it to the second for one hundred, then he need reckon only with the second, as it says: “With the man” ( the man in possession of the field. If the first buyer sold it to the second buyer for a lesser amount of money, the original owner need reckon the redemption price only with the second buyer. The mishnah’s midrash takes the word “the man” from the same verse as above, and isolates it, as if it means, “sometimes the original owner reckons with the first buyer and sometimes with the second buyer.” The halakhah ends up being lenient in both cases on the original owner, a person who grew so poor he had to sell his ancestral holdings. The lesson learned here is that the Torah wants the original owner to be able to acquire his ancestral land back, and therefore will make the law as lenient as possible to achieve such a goal.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Arakhin
לאיש אשר בתוכה – that he finds himself within the field that he (i.e., the original owner) comes to redeem. And from where [in the Torah] do we learn that we expound leniently regarding the seller and we don’t expound stringently? We learn [from a comparative analogy using the words]"גאולה" "גאולה" from [the law of] the Hebrew slave in the ancestral field; it is written (Leviticus 25:26): “[If a man has no one to redeem for him, but prospers] and acquires enough to redeem with,” and concerning a Hebrew slave, it is written (Leviticus 25:31): “[But houses in villages that have no encircling walls shall be classed as open country;] they may be redeemed,[and they will be released through the jubilee],” just as there leniently, so also here leniently. And there, from where [in the Torah] do we learn to be lenient? As it is taught in a Baraitha: “if it was sold for a Maneh (i.e., 100 zuz) and it improved in value/ameliorated, and now stood at two-hundred [Maneh], from where do we learn that we only calculate it for a Maneh and like as it arrived from that Maneh for each year we deduct it, we derive it from (Leviticus 25:52): “[and if few years remain until the jubilee year, he shall so compute:] he shall make payment for his redemption according to the years involved,” that is to say, to what it is worth in that year.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Arakhin
One may not sell a distant field in order to redeem a near one, or a poor field in order to redeem a good one. One may not borrow [money] in order to redeem, nor redeem it in halves. There are, however, certain restrictions when it comes to redeeming the ancestral land that he sold. One cannot sell some ancestral property in order to redeem other property, even if the property he wants to redeem is closer to his current residence, or the property he wants to redeem is of better quality than the property he wants to sell. One cannot borrow money in order to redeem his land. This may be a measure meant to prevent a poor person from going into even greater debt. Finally, one cannot redeem half of the property it’s either the whole thing or none.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Arakhin
לא ימכור – [he should not sell] a far-off field that he has, in order to redeem this field that is close by. And similarly, he should not sell off a bad field in order that he can redeem this field which Is nice. And he may not borrow from others in order that he can redeem it. And he does not redeem half-of the field that he sold but rather either he redeems all of it or not any of it. And all of these things we derive from Scripture, as it is written (Leviticus 25:26): “[If a man has no one to redeem for him,] but prospers and acquires enough to redeem with.” "השיגה ידו" /he prospers from his own [efforts], and not that he will borrow and then redeem. "ומצא" /and acquires enough, implying that he will find something that he was not found with him at the time that he sold it, excluding selling [a field] far off in order to redeem what is close/nearby, with something bad in order that he can redeem it for something good that was found with him at the time that he sold it. "כדי גאותו" /enough to redeem with [in order that the redemption] that he is redeeming is not redeeming halves.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Arakhin
But in the case of objects consecrated all these things are permitted. In this respect the laws concerning a person’s [property] are more stringent than those concerning sacred things. These limitations do not apply to redeeming land dedicated to the Temple. In such a case, we allow him to borrow in order to redeem the land, or redeem it piece by piece. It seems that there is a desire to make it a bit easier for the Temple to receive the money for the dedicated land. The mishnah concludes by noting that in this respect, the laws concerning redeeming land from another person are more stringent than those governing redeeming land from the Temple. This is indeed an oddity, because usually the laws regarding holy things are more stringent.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Arakhin
ובהקדש מותר בכולן – a person who dedicates/sanctifies his field is permitted to sell another field, or to borrow in order to redeem it, and if it is not sufficient to redeem all of it, he can redeem part of it and when he prospers, he will redeem all of it.
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