Commento su 'Arakhin 9:9

המוכר את שדהו בשעת היובל – at the time when the Jubilee is in force. But in the year of the Jubilee itself, he is not permitted to sell it, but if he sold, the sale is void and he returns the money.

Introduction Our mishnah deals with the laws of selling one’s ancestral land to another person when the Jubilee was still observed. Concerning this law, Leviticus 25 states: 13In this year of Jubilee, each of you shall return to his holding. 14 When you sell property to your neighbor, or buy any from your neighbor, you shall not wrong one another. 15 In buying from your neighbor, you shall deduct only for the number of years since the Jubilee; and in selling to you, he shall charge you only for the remaining crop years: 16 the more such years, the higher the price you pay; the fewer such years, the lower the price; for what he is selling you is a number of harvests. 17 Do not wrong one another, but fear your God; for I the Lord am your God.

אינו מותר לגאול – even if the purchaser is satisfied, we don’t listen to him, as it is written (Leviticus 25:15): “In buying from your neighbor, you shall deduct only for the number of years/שנים (plural) since the jubilee; [and in selling to you, he shall charge you only for the remaining crop years],” it will be acquired by him for two years, but if he returns it before this, he violates a positive commandment. And the seller also violates a positive commandment if he redeems it prior to two years, as it is written (Leviticus 25:15): “and in selling it to you, he shall charge you only for the remaining crop years.” But after two years if he wants to redeem it, he redeems it against the will of the purchaser and gives him according to what he sold it, as it is written (Leviticus 25:27): “he shall compute the years since its sale, [refunding the difference to the man to whom he sold it, and return to his holding],” that he calculates how many years from when he sold it until the Jubilee [year], and divides the monies according to the years. As for example, if he sold it ten years prior to the Jubilee [year] for a Maneh (100 zuz), it is found that he sold the produce each and every year for a tenth of a Maneh, for a mere sale is only until the Jubilee, it remained in the hand of the purchaser for five years and afterwards the seller comes to redeem it, the purchaser deducts for him half a Maneh (50 zuz).

If one sold his field [of possession] at the time when the Jubilee was in force, he may not redeem it for two years, as it says: “According to the number of the years of the crops he shall sell to you” (Leviticus 25:15). When one sells his ancestral land he can redeem it until the following Jubilee (Leviticus 25:10). In essence, what he is actually selling is the right to use the land until the owner redeems it, or until the Jubilee comes. Since the Torah uses the word “years” when referring to selling or buying ancestral land, the rabbis deduce that no sale can be for less than two years.

אינה עולה ממנין – two years. For it is written (Leviticus 25:15): “[and in selling to you, he will charge you only] for the remaining crop years/שני תבואות (literally two years),” two years that are appropriate for the crops that they will remain in the hand of the purchaser. But if if it was a year appropriate for grain, and breaking ground/נרה (without planting – see Tractate Arakhin 29b), that is he plowed it and made it a newly broken land but did not sow it, or if he left it untilled/neglected, that he left it wild-growing and even breaking ground but did not do anything with it, he is causes loses to himself, and it counts for him in the reckoning [of crop years].

If there was a year of blight or mildew, or a seventh year, it is not included in the count. If there was a year in which the purchaser could not plant, either because it was the seventh year or because of bad weather or blight, that year does not count towards the two.

שלש תבואות לשתי שנים – that grain that stands in it at the time of the purchase and two crop years in two years that it will exist in his hand. But Rabbi Eleazar does not dispute the first Tanna/teacher in this, but it represents the opinion of everyone.

If he only broke the ground [without planting] or left it fallow [for a year], that year is included in the count. However, if the purchaser decided of his own volition not to plant during a one of the first two years of his acquisition, that year counts towards the two year minimum.

Rabbi Elazar says: if he sold it to him before Rosh Hashanah year, and it was still full of fruit, he enjoys three crops in two years. Rabbi Elazar points out that sometimes a person can get a “three for two” deal. If he buys a piece of land right before Rosh Hashanah and it is full of produce, he can harvest that produce and then he still gets a full two years to work and harvest the land. He only pays for two years, so he is getting one harvest for free. It seems that when we reckon the years we don’t begin from the point of purchase but rather from Rosh Hashanah.

אינו מחשב – the [original] seller that came to redeem it.

Introduction Today’s mishnah continues to deal with how one redeems one’s ancestral field.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

הרי זה גאל מיד – and its law (i.e., of a house among houses in walled cities) is not like the law of an ancestral field which he does not redeem less than two years [after its sale].

Introduction Our mishnah and the remainder of the chapter deal with Leviticus 25:29-35, the verses that talk about a person selling a home within a walled city. The seller has one year to redeem his home, and if he does not redeem it, it becomes the property of the purchaser.

הרי זה כמין ריבית – when he returns to him (i.e., the buyer) his money within a year and this one (i.e., the original seller) does not deduct from him anything, it is found that it was used in his house for the fee of the detaining of his money that certainly comes towards [collecting] interest, which is not permanently sold, but not through a sale for if he did not redeem it and it (i.e., the sale) becomes final, there is no interest charged.

If one sold a house among the houses of a walled city, he may redeem it at once and at any time during twelve months. When it comes to redeeming a house sold in a walled city, the seller may redeem it immediately. There is no waiting period as there is for inherited fields.

This is a kind of interest, yet it is not interest. Selling a house in order to redeem it looks like interest, which is prohibited, but it is not interest. If Reuven sells his house to Shimon and it stays with Shimon for a period of months and then Reuven buys it back, it looks like Shimon has loaned Reuven the money in return for use of the house. If this was actually a case of lending money, the deal would have been prohibited. It is allowed because this is actually a sale and not a loan.

יגאל בנו – [his son shall redeem it] within a year if he desires, but after a year, it is completely sold and it is not ever redeemed, as it is written (Leviticus 25:30): “If it is not redeemed before a complete year has elapsed, [the house in the walled city shall pass to the purchaser beyond reclaim throughout the ages; it shall not be released in the jubilee].”

If the seller died, his son may redeem it. If the purchaser died, it may be redeemed from his son. If the seller dies, his son has the right to redeem the house. Similarly, if the purchaser dies, the seller may redeem it from his son.

משעה שמכר לו – that if Reuven sold it to Shimon in Nisan and Shimon [sold it] to Levi in Iyar, once Nisan arrived, it is permanently sold, and we don’t reckon to the second sale, but rather to the fist sale [only], as it is stated (Leviticus 25:30): “before a full year has elapsed,” for it implies to this one that it was his.

One counts the year only from the time that he sold it, as it is said, “Before a full year has elapsed” (Leviticus 25:30). The year in which he has to redeem it is reckoned according to the date that the original owner sold the field. This is true even if his son is redeeming it, after he inherited the right to do so from his father. No matter the case, the field can be redeemed for only one year from the point of the original sale.

להביא חודש העיבור – for if it is a leap year (i.e., with an added month of Adar – seven times in every nineteen years), it is not completely sold until thirteen months [have passed].

When it says a “a full” [year] the extra month is included. Rabbi says: he is allowed a year and its extra month. During a leap year, the seller has an extra month to redeem his field. Rabbi holds that a person is allowed a full lunar year, plus the extra eleven days separating a lunar year from a solar year. This is true regardless of whether the year was a leap year or not. One always gets a solar year in which to redeem the house. This is interesting because we are used to saying that the Jewish calendar is based on the moon. While this is true with regard to the months, it seems to be less true with regard to the year. When it comes to the year, we have a mix between a lunar calendar and a solar calendar.

שנה ועיבורה – whether it is a simple year or whether it is a leap year, we give him the lunar year which is three-hundred and fifty-four days and the eleven extra days that a solar year has over that of a lunar year that their intercalation we complement the year with. And the Halakha is according to the Sages.

ואחד הנותן במתנהn – if he wanted to redeem [the house] within its year, he can redeem, but if not, it is permanently sold to him.

If the [last] day of the twelve months has arrived and it was not redeemed, it becomes his permanent [possession].
This applies whether he bought it or received it as a gift, as it is said: “beyond reclaim” (Leviticus 25:30).
In earlier times, he [the buyer] would hide on the last day of the twelve months, so that [the house] might become his permanent [possession].
Hillel enacted that he [the seller] could deposit his money in the chamber and break down the door and enter, and that the other [the buyer], whenever he wanted, might come and take his money.
Section one: If the last day of the twelve months passes and the owner doesn’t redeem his property, the house becomes the permanent possession of the purchaser. The house doesn’t go back to its original owner during the Jubilee year.
Section two: Leviticus 25:30 reads, “If it is not redeemed before a full year has elapsed, the house in the walled city shall pass to the purchaser beyond reclaim throughout the ages.” The words “beyond reclaim” and “throughout the ages” seem to be redundant. The rabbis use this redundancy as a source from which to conclude that the same laws that apply to selling the land also apply to giving it away. One who gives his house to another can redeem it, although all he must do is claim it in return.
Section three: Before Hillel, the seller would have to actually find the purchaser in order to redeem his house. It seems that they would quite frequently they would wait until the last possible day to redeem the house. This led to the purchaser hiding from the seller so the latter couldn’t reclaim possession of his house. In order to fix this problem, and to allow the sellers, who were assumedly poor and in desperate need of money, to reclaim their homes, Hillel allowed them to deposit their money in the chamber of the treasury in the Temple. Then he could go back to his house, break down the door and enter legally. The purchaser could come and collect his money from the Temple whenever he wanted.
We should note that there are other “takkanot” (rabbinic enactments) that are ascribed to Hillel in which we find Hillel shaping the halakhah to improve the lot of the poor. The most famous of them is the “prozbul” which allowed a creditor to collect his debt after the sabbatical year. There too Hillel acted to protect the poor, for if creditors could not be assured of their ability to collect their loans, they would never lend to the poor in the first place.

היה נטמן (was hidden, hide oneself) – the purchaser on the [exact] day of twelve months in order that the seller not find him to give him [back] his money so that it will be permanently sold to him.

שהיא חולש – that he would put his monies in the chamber of that which is dedicated to sacred purposes in the Temple courtyard.

ויהא שובר את הדלת – of the house of that he sold and enter it. [The word] חולש / assign (his redeeming money to the Temple by depositing there , to assert his privilege of redemption) is like (Isaiah 14:12):”[How are you felled to earth,] O vanquisher of nations!”

כל שלפנים מן החומה – such as the building containing the tank and all the implements for pressing olives that they make olive oil in them and the bathhouses and towers and cisterns, ditches and caves. As it is written (Leviticus 25:30): “in the city [that has a wall],” including everything that is within the city. I would be able to include the fields, the inference teaches us, “the house [in the walled city shall pass to the purchaser beyond reclaim throughout the ages],” (ibid.) excluding the fields that are not similar at all to the houses.

Whatever is within the [city] wall is regarded as the houses in a walled city, with the exception of fields. Rabbi Meir says: even fields.
Anything inside the walled city is governed by the laws regarding houses in the walled city. The first opinion holds that fields are the exception. The implication would be that can be redeemed, if sold, up until the Jubilee year. Rabbi Meir says that even fields within the city must be redeemed within a year, or they become the permanent property of the buyer.

ר' מאיר אומר אף השדות – Rabbi Meir is stating not the actual fields, for it is written “the house” (Leviticus 25:30), and fields are not similar to houses. But the land of rocks and fish-ponds/glen (see Tractate Arakhin 32a) that are not appropriate for sowing and are made for the building of the house. A place of stones, to take from there stones for building. And a fish-pond/glen – to take from there sand for building. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Meir.

A house built into the wall: Rabbi Judah says: it is not considered a house within a walled city. Rabbi Shimon says: its outer wall is regarded as its [city] wall.
In thickly walled cities, houses were often built right into the walls. We see this in the Tanakh in connection with Jericho. According to Rabbi Judah these houses are not considered to be within the walled city. Rather they are like houses in a courtyard, a topic which mishnah seven will discuss.
Rabbi Shimon says that the outside wall of the house counts as the wall of the city and therefore these houses are considered part of the city.

אינו כבתי ערי חומה – to be permanently sold at the end of a year.

כותל החיצון הוא חומתו – and it is judged like houses in a walled city. And the Halakha is according to Rabbi Yehuda.

שגגותיה חומותיה – that a wall did not surround it but rather houses surround and the immediate sequence of houses one next to the other are like a wall.

Introduction
Houses in cities that are not surrounded by walls are not treated in the same way as house in walled cities. These are called “houses in courtyards” and we will the halakhot which govern them tomorrow. Our mishnah discusses what cities count as being walled.

אינה כבתי ערי חומה – for [the word] "חומה" /wall (see Leviticus 25:29: “if a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city”)is written and not that its roofs are its walls.

A city whose roofs [look as if] they form its wall,
If the city does not really have a wall, but its houses are so close together that they look like a wall, it still does not count as a walled city.

ושאינה מוקפת חומה מימות יהושע בן נון – but that which is surrounded by a wall from the days of Joshua son of Nun even though it does not have a wall now, is judged like a dwelling house in a walled city. It is written as (Leviticus 27:30): " [הבית אשר-בעיר אשר-] לוא חומה" /the house in the walled city, with a full [letters] Vav and Alephs, that implies that it is his and implies not [his], meaning to say, it does not have it now, but it had a wall prior to this, therefore, it is also house that is permanently sold.

Or that was not encompassed by a wall in the days of Joshua ben Nun, is not considered like houses in a walled city.
In order for a city to count as a walled city it has to have had a wall around it in the time of Joshua. In other words, the status of walled or not walled is determined by the status of the city when the land was first conquered and then divided up to the original tribes. This is probably because these laws refer to ancestral inheritance, and ancestral inheritance begins at the time of Joshua.

שלש חצרות – that in each and every one [of the courtyards] is two houses, which is called a city.

[A house in any of] the following counts a house in a walled city: [those in a city] of no less than three courtyards, having two houses each, which have been encompassed by a wall in the days of Joshua ben Nun, such as the old acroplis of Tzippori, the fort of Gush-Halav, old Yodfat, Gamla, G'dod, Hadid, Ono, Jerusalem and other similar cities.
In order to count as a walled city the city must fulfill two main conditions:
1) Firstly, it must be large enough to be considered a city. The mishnah requires the city to have at least three courtyards, each with two houses.
2) Second, the city has to have been surrounded by walls at the time of Joshua. There are eight such cities listed here. Tzippori and Yodfat are in the Lower Galilee, and Gush-Halav and Gamla are in the Upper Galilee. G’dod (or in other versions, G’dor) is on the other side of the Jordan and Hadid and Ono are in Judea, near Lod. Jerusalem, I am assuming, is familiar to everyone.

כגון קצרה – the name of a small city that was outside of Tsippori.

וחקרא שבגוש חלב וכו' – all of these that are counted in our Mishnah, are known that they been walled [cities] from the time of Joshua son of Nun. But Jerusalem that is counted in our Mishnah, we hold that there is no permanently sold house in Jerusalem, therefore there is the opinion of one [Sage (Rav Ashi)] in the Gemara (Tractate Arakhin 32b), and this is not the holy Jerusalem where a house cannot be sold permanently, but there is another Jerusalem that was in the Land of Israel and it also was surrounded by a wall from the time of Joshua, and there was a house sold permanently in it like the rest of dwelling houses in a walled city.

בתי החצרים – that these villages lack a wall.

Introduction
Leviticus 25:31 reads, "But houses in courtyards that have no surrounding walls shall be classed as open country: they may be redeemed, and they shall be released through the Jubilee."
Our mishnah discusses how we treat houses in walled cities.

כח יפה (strong legal right, privilege) – as it is explained,

Houses in courtyards - we accord to them the advantages of houses in a walled city and the advantages given to fields:
When an owner sells a house found in a courtyard (and not in a walled city) he has a much easier time redeeming it. It has all of the advantages that a house in a walled city has over a field and all of the advantages that a field has over a house in a walled city.

and they are redeemed immediately, that it is not necessary to delay him for two years in the hand of the purchaser like that of fields, as it is written concerning them (Leviticus 25:31): “they may be redeemed/גאלה תהיה לו [and they shall be released through the jubilee],” implying that he may redeem it immediately (see Tractate Arakhin, Chapter 9, Mishnah 3) if he wants and that is like dwelling houses in a walled city.

They can be redeemed at once, and at any time within the twelve months like houses [in a walled city], and they return [to the owners] in the Jubilee or [at an earlier time] by [payment of a] reduced price like fields.
It has the advantages of a house in a walled city in that it can be redeemed immediately and throughout the twelve months that he has to buy it back. This is different from fields which can be redeemed only after they are with the purchaser for at least two years.
There are two advantages that these houses have for the seller over houses in walled cities. First, they revert to their owner at the Jubilee. Second, when the seller buys the house back, he reduces the money for the amount of time that the house was in the hands of the purchaser, as is the case with fields but not with houses in a walled city.

ובגרעון כסף (see Tractate Arakhin, Chapter 9, Mishnah 1) – [at a reduced price] – that the purchaser deducts for him according to the years that they remained in his hand, like fields. For regarding the houses in villages/בתי החצרים , it is written (Leviticus 25:31): “they shall be classed as open country”/על שדה הארץ יחשב – that they go forth [by payment] of a reduced price like fields.

The following are considered houses in courtyards: [a city which has] two courtyards, each having two houses, even though they have been encompassed by a wall since the days of Joshua ben Nun, they count as houses in courtyards.
This section is the opposite of the last section of yesterday’s mishnah. If the house was in a place too small to be considered a city, or in a walled city that was not surrounded by walls then it counts as a house in a courtyard, and not a house in a walled city.

שתי חצרות של שני שני בתים – a city which doesn’t have in it other than two courtyards, even though it is surround by a wall from the time of Joshua, are regarded as houses in villages.

ישראל שירש – dwelling houses in a walled city from his mother’s father who is a Levite.

Introduction Houses owned by Levites in the cities that were allotted to them have rules that differ from those that apply to houses owned by Israelites. This is states in Leviticus 25:32-33: 32 As for the cities of the Levites, the houses in the cities they hold the Levites shall forever have the right of redemption. 33 Such property as may be redeemed from the Levites houses sold in a city they hold shall be released through the jubilee; for the houses in the cities of the Levites are their holding among the Israelites. The second half of the mishnah deals with the status of the lands that surround the Levites cities. This issue is dealt with in Numbers 35: 1-5: 1 The Lord spoke to Moses in the steppes of Moab at the Jordan near Jericho, saying: 2 Instruct the Israelite people to assign, out of the holdings apportioned to them, towns for the Levites to dwell in; you shall also assign to the Levites pasture land around their towns. 3 The towns shall be theirs to dwell in, and the pasture shall be for the cattle they own and all their other beasts. 4 The town pasture that you are to assign to the Levites shall extend a thousand cubits outside the town wall all around. 5 You shall measure off two thousand cubits outside the town on the east side, two thousand on the south side, two thousand on the west side, and two thousand on the north side, with the town in the center. That shall be the pasture for their towns.

אינו גואל כסדר הזה – in the Gemara (Tractate Arakhin 33b) they said that it teaches that he does not redeem other than according to this procedure. But this is what he said: he does not redeem like Levites, as it is written concerning them (Leviticus 25:32): “the Levites shall forever have the right of redemption,” but rather like this procedure that is stated regarding an Israelite that it will be permanently sold at the end of a year.

If an Israelite inherited from his mother's father who was a Levite, he cannot redeem it according to the order prescribed here. Also if a Levite inherited from his mother's father who was an Israelite, he cannot redeem it according to the order prescribed here, As it says, “As for the houses of the cities of the Levites” (Leviticus 25:32) [this order does not apply] unless he is a Levite and in the cities of the Levites, the words of Rabbi. We can see from Leviticus 25:32-33 that Levites always retain the right to redeem their houses, and if they don’t redeem them, they are released in the Jubilee year. According to Rabbi, the rules in these verses apply only to Levites that have sold ancestral Levitical lands. So if an Israelite inherits Levitical land from his Levite maternal grandfather, he is treated like an Israelite. Similarly, if a Levite inherits land from his Israelite maternal grandfather, the land is not considered to be the land of the Levites.

וכן לוי שירש את אבי אמו ישראל – even he (i.e., this Levite) does not redeem [the property] like a Levite, but rather like this procedure that is stated regarding an Israelite. For he can never redeem like a Levite until he will be a Levite and in a Levitical city. For two Biblical verses are written: It is written (Leviticus 25:33): “for the houses in the cities of the Levities are their holding [among the Israelites],” and it is written (Leviticus 25:33): “Such property as may be redeemed from the Levites,” which implies that for some of the Levities I have given permission to redeem, but not to all of them, excluding the son of Levite who comes from a mother who is illegitimately married to him (i.e., a bastard) or from a female descendant of the Gibeonites (see Joshua 9:27 as well as Tractate Yevamot, Chapter 8 at the conclusion Mishnah 3), and all the more so an Israelite who inherited his mother’s father, a Levite, for he (i.e., the grandson) is a complete Israelite and does not ever redeem [like a Levite].

The sages say: these things apply to the cities of the Levites. According to the sages, these rules apply to all Levitical land, even if it is owned by an Israelite. They agree, however, that Israelite land inherited by a Levite is treated like Israelite land. The rules depend on the land, not on the person.

אין הדברים אמורים (these rules have been stated only) – these things/rules are stated regarding redemption at any time other than concerning Levitical cities. But until he will be a [full] Levite, we don’t require this. And the Halakha is according to the Sages.

One may not turn a field into pasture land, nor pasture land into a field, nor pasture land into a city, nor a city into pasture land. In the passage from Numbers that I quoted above, there seems to be a significant discrepancy between verse four, which says “one thousand cubits” and verse five, which says, “two thousand cubits.” In Sotah 5:3, Rabbi Eliezer, the son of Rabbi Yose Hagalili says that one thousand cubits refers to pasture land, land which is not used for planting or for houses, and the two thousand cubits beyond that refers to fields for planting crops. Our mishnah teaches that when it comes to the cities of the Levites, one may not turn pasture land into a field or vice versa, and similarly one may not turn the pasture land into a city by enlarging the city. The status of these lands is given by the Torah and it does not change.

מגרש – a place empty of anything, and there is no house in it nor do they sow [seeds] other than being a beauty/embellishment of the town [which requires open space all around] (see Rashi to Bava Batra 24b).

Rabbi Elazar said: When is this so? When it comes to the cities of the Levites, but when it comes to cities of Israelites one may turn a field into pasture land, pasture land into a field, pasture land into a city, but not a city into pasture land, in order that they should not destroy the cities of Israel. Rabbi Eliezer says that these rules work differently when it comes to Israelite cities. One may turn a field into pasture and pasture into a field (this is according to one reading of the mishnah other readings state that one may not turn pasture into field). One can also turn pasture land into a city. The one thing that cannot be done is to destroy parts of the city in order to turn them into pasture land. The mishnah prohibits this in order not to destroy the cities of Israel.

אין עושין שדה מגרש – as it is written (Leviticus 25:34): “But the unenclosed land about their cities cannot be sold [for that is their holding for all time],” What do [the words] "לא ימכר"/cannot be sold mean? If you were to say that it cannot be sold at all, but [it is written] (Leviticus 25:32): “the Levites shall forever have the right of redemption,” it follows that it can [in fact] be sold, but what [is the meaning of] (Leviticus 25:34): “[But the enclosed land about their cities] cannot be sold/לא ימכר ?” It shall not be changed.

Priests and Levites may sell [a house] at any time and redeem it at any time, as it is said: “The Levites shall forever have the right of redemption” (Leviticus 25:32). Priests and Levites can sell and redeem their ancestral land, even within the first two years of their sale. They do not have the same restriction of two years that applies to Israelites (see mishnah one). They can also redeem their houses even after a year has passed (see also mishnah 7:5). Congratulations! We have finished Tractate Arakhin! It is a tradition at this point to thank God for helping us finish learning the tractate and to commit ourselves to going back and relearning it, so that we may not forget it and so that its lessons will stay with us for all of our lives. The laws of Arakhin have basically not been in effect for thousands of years; some of them weren’t even applied when the Temple still stood. Nevertheless, there are some very interesting issues about the worth of human beings that can be found in the beginning of the tractate. As we learned, a person can be evaluated in two ways: 1) by an absolute value that is not determined at all by what s/he does, by how much money they make, by their abilities etc. This value is completely determined by the Torah. While we cannot quite say that everyone has the same value according to this system, because the Torah assigns different values based on age and gender, at least within an age group and gender group there is equality. 2) By how much a person could be sold on the slave market. This will depend on a person’s abilities, their looks, their health, etc. Every person will have a different worth, mostly based on their own accomplishments. I think that these two ways of evaluating people remain with us today. We have an ideal: that all human beings are created equal, but we realize that in reality, some people are worth more to the society than others, some people earn more money their others, and some people are more intelligent than others. While we strive for the ideal, we realize that the reality also has to be recognized. I hope you have enjoyed Arakhin. Tomorrow we begin Tractate Temurah.

כדי שלא יחריבו – the settlement of the land.

מוכרים לעולם (see Tractate Arakhin, Chapter 9, Mishnah 1) – and not like an Israelite who is not able to sell less than two years prior to the Jubilee [year] as it is written concerning them (Leviticus 25:15): “and in selling to you, he shall charge you only for the remaining crop years,” but they (i.e., the Priests and Levites) can sell even near the Jubilee [year].

וגואלים לעולם – but if they (i.e., Kohanim and Levites) sold dwelling houses in a walled city, they are permanently sold at the end of the year like dwelling houses in a walled cities of an Israelite, but if they sold fields, they don’t need to stand in the hands of the purchaser for two years, but rather, they redeem [them] immediately, if they wish.