Comentário sobre Arachin 4:3

אפילו אביו מת – at the time when this person is obligated for a sacrifice, his father is on his deathbed and about to die, and he (i.e., the father) died and he inherited from him ten-thousand before he brought his sacrifice, he does not bring anything other than the sacrifice of an impoverished person, just as he was at the time that he became obligated for a sacrifice.

Introduction In yesterday’s mishnah we learned that when a person vows another person’s value, whether he was rich at the time of the vow or at the time that he comes to pay his debt, he pays as a rich man. Our mishnah contrasts this with the laws of bringing a sacrifice.

ספינתו בים – not that his ship was lade from his business-dealings with ten-thousand, for if so, he is rich. But rather, that his ship was rented out to others with ten-thousand as payment, and he lacks anything in his hand other than that ship. But because of the payment, he is not rich, for the rent is not completely paid other than at the end, and it is found that now he is a poor person. But, because of the ship itself, he is a poor person, for this Tanna/teacher [of the Mishnah] holds like one who says further on (see Talmud Arakhin 17b-18a) that if the person making the Valuation was a donkey-driver, the Kohen gives him his donkey and he doesn’t give it to be dedicated to the Temple, but if he was a farmer, he leaves for him the yoke/pair of working animals tied to the yoke which is his income. And so too, he leaves him his ship.

But it is not so with sacrifices. When it comes to sacrifices, whether he was rich and became poor, or poor and became rich, he always brings the sacrifices according to his financial means at the time he is actually bringing them.

Even if his father was dying [when a man vowed] and left him ten thousand, or if he had a ship on the sea and it brought to him ten thousand, the sanctuary has no claim at all on them. This section relates a halakhah common to both evaluations and sacrifices. If a person has money coming to him, whether through an inheritance or from a boat that is bringing him a large delivery, we ignore his future imminent income and determine his means according to his current financial situation. So if a person is about to become rich, but is still technically poor, he pays his evaluation debt or brings his sacrifices as a poor man.