Komentarz do Arachin 2:1

אין בערכין פחות מסלע (there is no [amount of money] in Valuations less than a Sela)- even if a poor person who made a valuation (i.e., dedicated the value of a person or of an animal unfit for the altar) and he doesn’t have the means/he cannot afford, he is not judged for less than a Sela, as it is written (Leviticus 27:25): “All assessments shall be by the sanctuary weight, [the shekel being twenty gerahs],” all the valuations that you dedicate shall not be less than a shekel.

Introduction Our mishnah begins by discussing upper and lower limits for evaluations. Afterwards, the remainder of the mishnah and the remainder of the chapter continues to discuss various issues unconnected to evaluations, but whose halakhot have the same literary format as the first sentence of the mishnah.

ולא יותר על חמשים – that this is the largest of the valuations that are written in the [Torah] portion [of Arakhin].

There is no evaluation less than one sela, nor more than fifty selas. Leviticus 27:8 states, “But if one cannot afford the equivalent, he shall be presented before the priest, and the priest shall assess him; the priest shall assess him according to what the vower can afford.” Thus if a poor person vows to pay the value of an adult male (whose value is 50 shekel/sela) and he can’t afford to pay the whole amount, he can pay less. Our mishnah teaches that this payment cannot be less than a sela. The maximum amount is 50 selas, as is stated explicitly in Leviticus 27:3.

נתן סלע והעשיר – someone twenty-years old whose valuation is fifty [Sela] but he was poor and gave a Selah for his valuation, for a poor person is judged by his financial means, and if he became rich, he is exempt.

How so? If one paid a sela and became rich, he need not give any [more]. But if he gave less than a sela and became rich, he must pay fifty selas. The mishnah now explains what happens if after the poor person gave a sela he then becomes rich. If he gave a sela, then he has fulfilled his obligation and even if he becomes rich, he need not give the full amount of fifty selas. But if he gave less than a sela, and then he became rich, he must give the full amount, because by giving less than a sela, he did not fulfill his obligation.

פחות מסלע – he gave less than a Sela.

If he had five selas in his possession: Rabbi Meir says: he need not give more than one; The sages say he must give them all. The sages now debate what happens if a person has more than a sela, but does not have the full amount that he vowed. Let’s say he vowed to give the value of an adult male (50 selas) and all he has in 5 selas. According to Rabbi Meir, since he can’t give the full amount, he needs to pay only a sela, the lowest amount. The other rabbis hold that he must give whatever he can, even if he can’t pay the full amount.

והעשיר he gives fifty [Sela]. For the first giving did not fulfill his obligation of his valuation, and his valuation was still upon him [to fulfill].

There is no evaluation less than one sela, nor more than fifty selas. This is a repeat of section one. It is repeated here because the mishnah now begins a long list of halakhot taught with the literary format of “there is not in X less than A nor more than B.”

היה בידיו חמש סלעים – a poor person twenty-years of age who valuated himself, and he had five Selas.

If a woman makes a mistake in her reckoning there is no re-opening for her [of the niddah count] earlier than seven, nor later than after seventeen days. This somewhat complicated halakhah has to do with counting a woman’s menstrual cycle, in order to know the difference between menstrual blood (which causes a woman to be impure for 7 days, even if she continued to bleed all the way through the seventh day) and non-menstrual blood (which causes a woman to be impure for one day, unless she sees blood for three straight days, in which case she is impure for 7 full days after she stops seeing blood). The rabbis instituted an 18 day cycle to calculate when blood was menstrual and when it is non-menstrual. When a woman first sees blood she considers it to be menstrual blood and she is impure for seven days, from the time she saw the first blood. After these seven days, any blood seen over the next 11 days is considered to be zivah (non-menstrual blood). After these eleven days are over, she returns to counting seven days, during which any blood is considered to be menstrual blood. Our mishnah deals with a situation where a woman made a mistake in counting these days (i.e. she didn’t know whether she was in the seven days or in the eleven) and she saw blood. She doesn’t know whether the blood she saw is to be considered menstrual, in which case she is impure for seven days, or zivah, in which case she is impure for only one day, or a full seven days if she sees zivah for three straight days. Our mishnah teaches that the beginning of her days of menstrual blood cannot be less then seven days after she doesn’t see any more blood, nor more than seventeen days, all counted from the time she first saw blood. How this works out is a bit complicated, but I shall try to explain very briefly. Let’s say she saw blood for one day, if these were “days of niddah” she could begin to count her next days of niddah after seventeen days, which is the maximum amount. This would mirror the normal situation. However, if she sees blood for several straight days, it may be possible that she only has to wait seven more days after not seeing blood to begin counting her menstrual blood days. Let’s say she sees blood for three straight days, she can then begin counting her menstrual days after seven days without seeing blood, because it doesn’t matter if the blood she saw was menstrual or not, seven days are sufficient to begin counting again. I realize that this is all very complicated, and indeed entire books exist dedicated to these complicated calculations. We will learn much more about this subject when we learn Tractate Niddah.

רבי מאיר אומר אינו נותן אלא אחת – for Rabbi Meir held that he should give all of the fifty [Sela] that is upon him or he doesn’t give anything but a Shekel.

No signs of leprosy are shut up for less than one week and none more than two weeks. This calculation deals with isolating a person or house that might have shown signs of “negaim” which we should understand as some sort of skin affliction or house fungus. The minimum time of such an isolation is seven days, which is how long the isolation is for a person (see Leviticus 13:21, 26). The maximum time is three weeks, which is only for a house. We shall learn more about this in Tractate Negaim (I bet you can’t wait!).

וחכמים אומרים נותן כל מהש שבידו – for the Biblical verse as it is written (Leviticus 27:25): “All assessments shall be made by the sanctuary weight,” to the least of the valuations he comes, for even if he is the poorest of the poor, he doesn’t give less. However, where he has more, he gives, as it is written (Leviticus 27:8): “according to what [the vower] can afford.” And the Halakha is according to the Sages.

אין פתח בטועה פחות משבעה (there is no [re] opening for a woman who misses count [of her period] less than seven days) – since it (i.e., our Mishnah) speaks that there is nothing less in valuation and nothing more, it also teaches in the Mishnah for all things that have no less and no more.

פתח – the beginning of menstruant women/Niddot. That the law of the menstruant woman is from the Torah, if she began and saw it (i.e., menstrual blood) today, she counts six [days] and that day. If she saw it (i.e., menstrual blood) two days, she counts five [days] and those [two days]. If she saw it (i.e., menstrual blood) three [days], she counts four [days] and those [three days]. [And even] if she saw it (i.e., menstrual blood] all seven [days] and it stopped by the evening, she immerses [in a Mikveh] and she has conjugal relations. But from the seventh day and further they are the days of protracted menstruation/vaginal bleeding/Y’mei Zivah [which are] eleven days, for if she saw it (i.e., menstrual blood) on them one day or two days, she observes a day for day [without blood flow before she immerses in the ritual bath to regain ritual purity], and if she saw it (i.e., vaginal bleeding) for three consecutive days, she is a woman who experienced a flow of menstrual-type blood that requires seven clean days and a sacrificial offering. But if the days of her seeing a flow of menstrual-type blood over a month or [even] a year, she does not return to the beginning of the menstruant women until she sits seven clean days. But when she has sat seven clean [days] and saw it, that is the beginning of her menstrual period and she counts six [days] and it (i.e., that day), and returns to her matters as everything has been explained. But if she did not see on those eleven days three consecutive days [of menstrual-type blood], she is not a Zavah/a woman who experiences a flow of menstrual-type blood on three consecutive days during a time of the month when she is not due to experience menstrual bleeding. But if she sees it (i.e., menstrual blood) after them, whether she sees it whether adjacent to or whether she has been distanced from it, it is the beginning of the menstrual cycle of a menstruant woman. Even if she sees it (i.e., blood) for three consecutive [days], she does not count other than four [days] and those [three days], for the days of Zivah/days of protracted vaginal bleeding are not other than those eleven days that are between the end of this menstrual period to the beginning of the next menstrual cycle.

אין פתח בטועה פחות משבעה – an [errant] woman [who misses count] [that she saw it (i.e., blood)] today and does not know if it she is standing in the days of her menstrual period or , or in those eleven days of the days of vaginal blood flow, she does not return to the opening of her menstrual cycle with less than seven clean days and not more than seventeen clean [days]. How so? If she was errant when she said one day: “I saw ritual impurity today,” and she doesn’t know if it is the period of her menstrual cycle and she needs to count six [days] and it (i.e., that day), [or] if in those eleven days, and she doesn’t need to observe a day for a day (i.e., wait until only one day has passed, a day for a day, without blood flow before she immerses herself in a ritual bath to regain ritual purity), if is less than seventeen, that if she didn’t see it (i.e., blood) until after the seventh day other than this day, she returns to the opening of her menstrual cycle. For if this day that she first saw it (i.e., blood) were the days of vaginal flow, because he eleven days were finished, the days of vaginal flow were completed and her observation of it (i.e., blood) was distanced that she did not see it until after seventeen days, and it is the beginning of her menstrual period. But even if she would say that this day is the beginning of her menstrual period, nevertheless, she left from the days of her vaginal flow at the end of seventeen days except for this day. But if she saw it (i.e., blood) on the seventeenth day, she did not leave from doubt if this is the day of her menstrual period or the day of her vaginal flow, for one could say that perhaps this day that she saw it (i.e., blood) first were the days of her menstrual period, and the seventeenth day that she saw it (i.e., blood) was the end of the eleven days between one menstrual period to another menstrual period, or perhaps the first day of the days of vaginal flow, and when the eleven days are completed, she has left from the days of flux , and the seventh day on which she saw it was the beginning of her menstrual period. And all the more so, if she saw it (i.e., blood) prior to the seventeenth day, that she did not depart from doubt. And all the while that she is in this doubt, she is disgraced, for always we will be strict upon her [status] from doubt. For when she sees it (i.e., blood) one day, it will be said that it is the beginning of her menstrual period and requires six [days] and it. And if she sees it (i.e., blood) on three consecutive days, it will be said that they are the days of vaginal flow and that she requires seven clean [days] and a sacrificial offering, but after seventeen days, one cannot be stringent, for it is certainly the beginning of her menstrual period and even if she should see [blood] on three consecutive days, she should count four [days] and those [three] and she immerses in a ritual bath and is ritually pure.

אין בנגעים פחות משבוע אחד – for there are in the plagues that afflict a human that are made evident for one week if to [declare] ritually pure or to declare a person a leper.

ולא יותר על שלשה שבועות – the plagues that afflict houses, as is taught in a Baraita in Torat Kohanim (i.e., the Sifra – also see Tractate Negaim, Chapter 3, Mishnah 8): from where do we know that if he stood unaltered during the first week, and during the second week, that he tears out [the leprous stone] and scrape [the wall] and plaster and he gives him the third week, as the inference teaches us (Leviticus 14:44,48): “The priest shall come to examine….if however, the priest comes [and sees that the plague has not spread in the house after the house was replastered].”