פירוש על ערכין 5:1

האומר משקלי עלי כו', אם כסף כסף – if he specified silver, he gives his weight in silver, but if he specified gold, he gives his weight in gold. But surely it comes to tell us that if he didn’t specify, but rather stated merely, “my weight is upon me,” he exempted himself from anything, as long as there will be a thing that is similar to it that is ordinarily weighed in that place. And even pitch/tar and even onions and the people of the place are accustomed to sell them by weight, and one of the people of that place said merely: “my weight is incumbent on me [as a pledge to the Temple]” but did not specify, he gives his weight in pitch/tar or in onions and is further exempt.

Introduction Today’s mishnah deals with a person who dedicates his weight to the Temple.

ומעשה באמה של ירמטיה – It explains in the Gemara (Tractate Arakhin 19a) that our Mishnah is deficient and should be read as follows, and if he is a prominent person, even though he has not expressly stated, we estimate in accordance with his honor, and it happened with the mother of the Yirmatia, a woman whose name was such, that said, “I vow the weight of my daughter,” and she went up to Jerusalem and weighed her, and then she paid her weight in gold, because she was estimated in wealth.

One who said: “I vow my weight,” he must pay his weight, in silver [if he had said in] silver, or in gold [if he had said in] gold. If one vows his weight to the Temple, he must fulfill this vow by paying his weight, either in gold or in silver, depending on how he made his vow.

משקל ידי עלי – how does he weigh his hand, for if he wants he makes it heavy and if he wants, he makes it lighter?

It happened with the mother of Yirmatia, who said, “I vow my daughter's weight.” She went up to Jerusalem and weighed her and then paid her weight in gold. Now this is one of the best stories I’ve ever read in the Mishnah. I can just picture poor Yirmatia being absolutely mortified that her mother had the audacity to vow her weight to the Temple. And then, the poor girl has to get on the scale in front of all of those priests! I wonder if this was all a ruse by the mother to get her daughter on a diet.

ומכניסה עד מרפקו (pokes his hand in up to his elbow) – KUDO in the foreign tongue, because in vows one follows the language of human beings and at tht time, they would call the hand from the arm to the elbow, and when one places one’s hand into the jar filled with water, the water that is in the jar will spill out according to the place of the hand that one entered into it until the elbow (i.e., the water is displaced), and he goes back and places the flesh, sinews and bones of a donkey, for the weight of the flesh of a donkey is like the weight of the flesh of a human being, and there will be in that flesh sinews and bones according what is in the hand [of a human being] for the weight of the bones and sinews is not equivalent to the weight of the flesh, and he places into it until it returns and is filled up like it was, for now there is volume like the measurement of his hand, and he weighs the flesh and these sinews and this is the weight of his hand.

[If a man said: “I vow] the weight of my hand,” Rabbi Judah says: let him fill a barrel with water and put it [his hand] in up to the elbow. Then let him weigh the flesh, bones and sinews of a donkey and put it into the barrel until it is filled up again. Rabbi Yose said: “But how is it possible to account exactly one kind of flesh against another kind of flesh, and one kind of bones against another kind of bones? Rather: one estimates what the hand is likely to weigh. This mishnah address the Archimedean problem of how to weigh one’s hand. Rabbi Judah employs a system of water displacement, and then comparison of the weight of one’s hand with the weight of a donkey’s bones, sinews and flesh. Rabbi Yose criticizes him for assuming that donkey flesh weighs the same as human flesh. It seems, according to Rabbi Yose, that live human flesh cannot be weighed. The best one can do is just estimate how much the hand weighs. It is unclear how exactly one would do this.

היאך אפשר לכוין בשר כנגד בשר – for perhaps here is in the flesh of a donkey that place that he places into the jar more sinews and bones from what is in the hand [of a human being] or less, and it is found that the weight is not equivalent. And the Halakha is according to Rabbi Yossi.