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אין מקדישין – an ancestral field.

Introduction Chapter seven and the beginning of chapter eight deal with the laws concerning a person who dedicates his ancestral field to the Temple. These laws are found in Leviticus 27. 16 If anyone consecrates to the Lord any land that he holds, its assessment shall be in accordance with its seed requirement: fifty shekels of silver to a homer of barley seed. 17 If he consecrates his land as of the jubilee year, its assessment stands. 18 But if he consecrates his land after the jubilee, the priest shall compute the price according to the years that are left until the jubilee year, and its assessment shall be so reduced; 19 and if he who consecrated the land wishes to redeem it, he must add one-fifth to the sum at which it was assessed, and it shall pass to him. 20 But if he does not redeem the land, and the land is sold to another, it shall no longer be redeemable: 21 when it is released in the jubilee, the land shall be holy to the Lord, as land proscribed; it becomes the priest's holding. We should note that from the Second Temple period and onward these laws would have been completely theoretical Jews no longer lived on land that they “held,” meaning land that was part of their ancestral possession. However, these laws are found in the Torah and therefore they are of interest to the rabbis.

פחות משתי שנים (less than two years before the Jubilee year) – as it is written, regarding one who dedicates an ancestral field (Leviticus 27:18): “[the priest shall compute the price] according to the years that are left [until the jubilee year],” and [the word] שנים/years is not les than two. A person who dedicates his ancestral field in the first year of the jubilee and comes to redeem it, gives fifty Sela for an area requiring a KOR of seed, as it is written (Leviticus 27:16): “fifty shekels of silver to a HOMER of barley seed, etc.” But if he dedicated it ten or twenty years after the Jubilee year, we calculate the remaining years until the coming Jubilee year, and he gives a SELAH and a PUNDIYON for each year, as it is written (Leviticus 27:18): “But if he consecrates his land after the jubilee, the priest shall compute the price according to the years that are left [until the jubilee year], and its assessment shall be reduced,” that is, the deduction [from the price of redemption according to the years of redemption] that he doesn’t give fifty complete [years]. But a person who dedicates [his field] two years before the Jubilee [year], he redeems it for two SELA and two PUNDIYONIM, as it is written (Leviticus 27:18): “according to the years that are left”, and such is the accountability which goes up of the redemption of the ancestral field for each year a SELA and a PUNDIYO, for if he dedicated it in the first year after the Jubilee he would redeem it for fifty shekel, deduct from them the forty-nine coming years until the next Jubilee forty-nine shekel, it is found a Sela for each year and an additional Sela, and this additional Sela is divided into PUNDIYONIM, for in each SELA there are forty- eight PUNDIYONIM, therefore a SELA and a PUNDIYON for each year less a PUNDIYON. And just as they required him to give a SELA and a PUNDIYON for each year, for forty-nine years – forty-nine SELA and forty-nine PUNDIYONIM, and there is here one additional PUNDIYON more than the fifty shekel that the Torah mentioned, that PUNDIYON is agio (an addition) to the units (making fifty, as a round sum, instead of forty-eight – see Tractate Bekhorot 50a), meaning to say for the customary addition weight in retailing that he must give for each and every shekel on its own. Alternatively, even though the Selah is not other than forty-eight Pundiyonot, he is required to give forty nine, which is a Selah and a Pundiyon for forty-nine years, because one who gives Pundiyonim to purchase a Sela from the money-changer gives forty- nine Pundiyonim, and that is an agio (an addition) to the units (making fifty, as a round sum, instead of forty-eight. And the person who dedicates his ancestral field less than two years prior to the Jubilee year, there isn’t deduction from the price of redemption according to the years of possession (see Tractate Arakhin 24a), but if he comes to redeem it, he gives fifty complete [shekels], for concerning deduction, it is written (Leviticus 27:18): “according to the years that are left until the jubilee, and its assessment shall be so reduced,” and the minimum of שנים/years is two years. And it is good advice that our Mishnah teaches us that a person should have consideration for his possessions (see Tractate Negaim, Chapter 12, Mishnah 5) and not dedicate them [to the Temple] less than two years [from the Jubilee year] and not lose forty-eight Sela.

One may not consecrate [a field of his possession] less than two years before the Jubilee, nor redeem it less than one year after the Jubilee. Vs. 18 states, “But if he consecrates his land after the jubilee, the priest shall compute the price according to the years that are left until the jubilee year, and its assessment shall be so reduced.” I have emboldened the word “years” because the halakhah in this mishnah is based on a midrash on that word. “Years” implies that there must be at least two years remaining before the Jubilee. If there are fewer, he cannot consecrate his land. If one has dedicated his land and then wishes to redeem it and it is still the first year of the Jubilee, he must pay the full amount, “fifty shekels of silver to a homer of barley seed” (fifty shekels for every piece of land that requires a homer of barley to sow it). He doesn’t get to reduce the amount because of the months that have passed since the Jubilee.

ולא גואלין אחר היובל – and not after the Jubilee, it is stating near the Jubilee [year], but this “after” refers to even after twenty or thirty years. And this is what it says: A person who comes to redeem [his field] in the middle of the Jubilee and to give a Sela and a Pundiyon for the coming years, and he would stand in Nisan, which is the middle of the year, he should not say: “I give half-a-Sela and half-a-Pundiyon from this year, but rather, he gives a complete Sela and Pundiyon. And that is why it (i.e., the Mishnah) states, “They do not redeem it less than a year after the Jubilee”, for as long as the entire year did not go out, he does not deduct anything at all and he does give a redemption fee for half-a year- but rather a full year’s redemption fee. And what is the reason? Because we don’t calculate months with the Dedication to the Temple. A person who comes to redeem his field five and one-half years before the Jubilee [year], we don’t calculate them as six months that had passed from the sixth year, but rather, he gives six Sela and six Pundiyonim, as it is written (Leviticus 27:18): “the priest shall compute the price according to the years that are left,” years – you calculate, but you don’t calculate months, meaning to say, all that which remains is considered years, to make remaining month a year, but you don not calculate the months that passed, to deduct from the Shekel and Pundiyon for them.

One does not reckon months to [the disadvantage of] the Sanctuary, but the Sanctuary does reckon months [to its own advantage]. The mishnah now notes a general rule with regard to taking months into account. As we already learned, when a person redeems his land, he doesn’t take into account the months that have already passed. Rather he pays according to the full years that have passed since the Jubilee. However, the Sanctuary does benefit from the months that the land has already stayed in the hands of the dedicator. They benefit because he has to pay for them. [Note that this rule is somewhat repetitive].

אבל הקדש מחשב חדשים – meaning to say, if it is interval of dedication to the Temple, that we calculate it through the passing of the half year that passed, as for example, that a person sanctifies to the Temple in the half of the forty-eighth year of the Jubilee, for if you calculated for that passage, it would be less than two years before the Jubilee and we don’t redeem for a deduction from the price of the redemption according to the years of possession with due deduction other than for fifty years. But if you say that we don’t calculate the months that passed, we have here two years prior to the Jubilee, and there is loss to that which is dedicated to the Temple that he did not give other than two Sela and two Pundiyonim, here certainly we calculate them according to the complete passage of time, and there aren’t two years before the Jubilee [year], but we don’t redeem for a deduction from the price of the redemption other than for fifty shekels, as it is written (Leviticus 27:18): “the priest shall compute the price,” nonetheless.

If a man consecrated his field at a time when the law of the Jubilee is in force, he must pay fifty shekels for [every piece of field sufficient for] the sowing of a homer of barley. This states the basic law as found in verse sixteen. Another version of the mishnah reads not “in the time of the Jubilee” but “during the year of the Jubilee.” The Hebrew of these two versions is nearly identical. This would then be an interpretation of verse 16 the verse applies to a person who dedicated his land during the year of the Jubilee. If after the Jubilee, the payment is reduced.

בשעת היובל – at the time when the Jubilee is in vogue. But at the time when the Jubilee is not in vogue, he redeems it according to its value like the rest of the things dedicated to the Temple.

If the field contained ravines ten handbreadths deep or rocks ten handbreadths high, they are not included as part of the field. But if less than this, they are included. Ravines and rocks don’t count in measuring the size of the field as long as they are ten handbreadths high or deep. This is because they are considered to be their own domain and not part of the field. However, if they are less than ten high or deep, they are assessed with the field.

זרע חמר שעורים – a place where he is able to sow a KOR of barley when they sow with the quantity of seed which it takes when throwing with the hand and with an intermediate sowing, not that the seed should be pressed together greatly or spread out and dispersed a great deal.

If he consecrated it two or three years before the Jubilee, he must pay one sela [shekel] and one pondion for each year. Who’s ready for some math? The full price of the field is 50 sela (shekels) for 49 years between one Jubilee and the next. A pondion is worth 1/48 of a sela, so the price per year is one sela and 48/49 of a pondion. The mishnah rounds up in favor of the Temple he pays a full pondion per year.

נקעים עמוקים וכו' (cavities that are ten handbreadths deep) – and that they would be filled with water that are not appropriate for sowing, but if they are not filled with water, for since, they are proper whatever it may be, even though they are not measured with it, we calculate them on their own, and they are redeemed according to the calculation of fifty Sela for a Bet Kor/an area requiring a Kor of seed.

If he says: “I shall pay for each year as it comes,” they do not listen to him, rather he must pay for all the years together. The payment made for redeeming the field must be done in full immediately, even though the field is only worth one sela and one pondion per year.

פחות מכאן נמדדין עמה – even though they are filled with water and hey are not proper for sowing, since they are not ten [handbreadths] deep. And similarly rocks, since they are not ten [handbreadths] high, they are called by the name of the land [it is part of] and are not considered on their own.

אלא נותן את כולו כאחד – as it is written (Leviticus 27:18): “the priest shall compute the price” until there would be all of the money would be as one.

ואחד כל אדם – who redeems a Bet Kor/an area requiring a Kor of seed, whether it is worth one-thousand shekel or whether it is not worth anything other than fifty shekel.

It is all the same whether the owner or anyone else [redeems the field].
What is the difference between the owner and any other man? The owner must add one fifth, whereas any other man need not add one fifth.
The reckoning of the value of the field is basically the same whether the owner or another person redeems it. The only difference is that the owner adds another fifth to the value of the field. This is stated in Leviticus 27:19: “And if he who consecrated the land wishes to redeem it, he must add one-fifth to the sum at which it was assessed, and it shall pass to him.” The mishnah reads the words “and if he who consecrated the land” to mean that only if the owner consecrates it must he add another fifth. If others do, there is no added fifth.

שהבעלים נותנים חומש – as it is written (Leviticus 27:19): “and if he who consecrated the land wishes to redeem itג, [he must add one-fifth to the sum at which it was assessed, and it will pass to him].”

אינה יוצאה מידו ביובל – to be distributed to the Kohanim for just as that if another person had redeemed it and it go forth on the Jubilee and distributed to the Kohanim, as it is written (Leviticus 27:21): “when it is released in the jubilee, the land shall be holy to the LORD, [as land proscribed; it becomes the priest’s holding].”

Introduction Today’s mishnah deals with the continuation of the verses about dedicating one’s “and of possession.” These verses read: 20“But if he does not redeem the land, and the land is sold to another, it shall no longer be redeemable: 21 when it is released in the jubilee, the land shall be holy to the Lord, as land proscribed; it becomes the priest's holding.” As we can see, if the owner does not redeem the land, then the land becomes the property of the priests.

גאלה בנו יוצאה לאביו ביובל – but not to the Kohanim, as it is written (Leviticus 27:20): “[But if he does not redeem the land] and the land is sold to another, it shall no longer be redeemable,” "לאיש אחר" /to another person – but not to the son.

If a man consecrated [his field] and then redeemed it, it does not go out of his possession in the Jubilee. If the owner redeems it himself, it reverts to being his possession, and stays that way even after the Jubilee.

גאלה איד מקרוביו – of the person who dedicated it from the hand of the treasurer, and the person who dedicated it and redeemed it from the hand of his relative, it does not go out from the hand of the one who dedicated it in the Jubilee [year] to be distributed to the Kohanim.

If his son redeemed it, it reverts to his father in the Jubilee. Similarly, if his son redeems it, it goes back to the father, because the son is the eventual inheritor of the land.

If another person, or a relative redeemed it, and he redeemed it from his hand, it goes out [to the priests]. However, if other people, and even other relatives redeem the land, it is theirs only temporarily until the Jubilee at which point it becomes the property of the priests, as is stated in the final verse.

גאלה כהן – from the hand of the treasurer.

If one of the priests redeemed it, and it was still in his possession, he cannot say: “Since it goes out to the priests in the Jubilee, and since it is now in my possession, therefore it belongs to me.” Rather, it goes out of his possession to all his fellow priests. If one of the priests redeemed the land before the Jubilee, he is treated just like any other person. It is his until the Jubilee and then it becomes the possession of all the priests. He cannot claim that since he is a priest, at the Jubilee it should become his sole possession.

לא יאמר הגואל – but if an Israelite redeemed it, it goes out to me and to my colleagues on the Jubilee [year], now that it is under my hand that I redeemed it, there is no Kohen who is more appropriate for me than me.

ולא נגאלה – it was not redeemed from the hand/domain of the Temple, neither by its owners or by anyone else.

Introduction The rabbis now debate what happens to the land if it is not redeemed before the Jubilee. This is explained in verses 20-21, “But if he does not redeem the land, and the land is sold to another, it shall no longer be redeemable: when it is released in the jubilee, the land shall be holy to the Lord, as land proscribed; it becomes the priest's holding.”

הכהנים נכנסים לה – Kohanim of the priestly watch (one of the twenty-four such groups – each for a week at a time) when the Jubilee comes in contact with it, they enter into it, and it is irredeemable in their hands.

If the Jubilee arrived and it was not yet redeemed then the priests enter into possession of the land and they pay its value, the words of Rabbi Judah. According to Rabbi Judah, while the priests do get the rights to the land, they must pay for the Temple for the land. It seems that he holds that when a person dedicates his field to the Temple, the Temple must receive compensation. It is not sufficient for the priests to take over.

ונותנים את דמיה למקדש – for they derive/learned "קודש" (i.e., Leviticus 27:14: “If anyone consecrates his house to the LORD”) "קודש" (i.e., Leviticus 27:21: “when it is released in the jubilee it shall be holy to the LORD”) from one who dedicates/sanctifies his house. It is written here regarding an ancestral land (Leviticus 27:21): “when it is released in the jubilee, the land shall be holy to the LORD,” and it is written regarding one who consecrates his house (Leviticus 27:14): “If anyone consecrates his house to the LORD,” just as the house does not leave from the possession of the Temple without payment of money, as it is written there (Leviticus 27:14): “the priest shall assess it”, for a house does not go out to the Kohanim but rather is redeemed with money, so also the ancestral field does not go out from being devoted to the Temple without money. Therefore, when another person redeems it, the monies go to the Sanctuary for the repair of the Temple, and when the Jubilee [year] arrives, it goes out without payment to the Kohanim, and if it was not redeemed, the Kohanim give the sum of fifty Shekels and take it.

Rabbi Shimon says: they enter [into possession] but they do not pay [its value]. According to Rabbi Shimon, the priests do not need to pay for the land. It becomes “holy” by virtue of it becoming their possession.

ר' שמעון נכנסין אבל לא נותנין – that he derived/learned "קודש" (i.e., Leviticus 23:20): “[The priest shall elevate these] – the two lambs [together with the bread of first fruits as an elevation offering before the LORD;] they shall be holy to the LORD/קדש יהיו לה', for the priest.”) "קודש" (i.e., Leviticus 27:14) from the lambs of Atzeret/Shavuot, as it is written with them (Leviticus 23:20): “they shall be holy to the LORD for the priest.” Just as there they are done gratuitously, even here, it is done gratuitously. And it is satisfactory for him that the ancestral field is derived from the lambs for Atzeret/Shavuot, for both of them are from the twenty-four gifts to the priesthood, and he doesn’t derive it from one who dedicates his home [to the Temple] and it is not given ever to the Kohanim. But for Rabbi Yehuda, it is satisfactory that the ancestral field is derived from one who dedicates/sanctifies his home [to the Temple] for both of them are the holy things devoted to the repair of the Temple. And it is not derived from the lambs for Atzeret which are the holy things of the Altar. But the Halakha is according to Rabbi Yehuda.

Rabbi Eliezer says: they neither enter [into possession] nor pay [its value]. But it is called an abandoned field until the second Jubilee. If the second jubilee has arrived and it was not yet redeemed, it is called a ‘twice abandoned field’ until the third Jubilee. The priests never enter into possession of the field until someone else had redeemed it. Verses 20-21 state that “if the land is sold…it becomes the priest’s holding.” The implication is that if the land is never sold to another person, it does not become the property of the priest. This is Rabbi Eliezer’s position. The land can remain abandoned through several Jubilees and not become the possession of the priests until someone buys the land and then the next Jubilee year arrives.

שדה רטושין – an abandoned/left-behind field. Like (Hosea 10:14): “When mothers and babes were dashed to death together.”

עד שיגאלנה אחר – when it leaves from hand on the Jubilee, Kohanim can enter it. And the reason of Rabbi Eliezer, as it is written (Leviticus 27:21): “when it is released in the jubilee, the land shall be holy to the LORD, [as land proscribed; it becomes the priest’s holding],” which implies that when it leaves from the hand of he redeemer like the law of the rest of people who purchase land that leaves [his hand] in the Jubilee, in that Biblical verse, it states that it will be for the Kohanim, but when it leaves from the hand of that which belongs to the Sanctuary, is not implied. For still the Biblical verse does not teach us that something dedicated to the Temple breaks forth from his power in the Jubilee year.

הלוקח שדה מאביו, מת אביו ואח"כ הקדישה הרי היא כשדה אחוזה – for prior to his dedicating/sanctifying it (i.e., his hand), it fell to him as an inheritance. Therefore, if he comes to redeem it, he redeems a Bet Kor for fifty shekels like an ancestral land, but he does not redeem it, but another redeems it, and it goes to the Kohanim in the Jubilee year (see Leviticus 27:16: “If anyone consecrates to the LORD any land that he owns/שדה אחוזתו, it assessment shall be in accordance with the seed requirements: fifty shekels of silver to a HOMER of barley seed.”).

If one bought a field from his father, and his father died and afterwards he consecrated it, it is considered a field of possession. A field that is not a “field of possession” reverts to its original owner during the Jubilee, as is stated in Leviticus 27:22-24. When a son buys a field from his father, it is questionable whether that field is considered a “field of possession” because it might eventually become his possession, or whether we treat this as a field that was purchased. If the father dies and then the son consecrates the field, it is considered a field of possession because even if the son had not bought the field, it would have become his (or at least partly his) before he consecrated it.

הרי היא כשדה מקנה – for we follow after the time that it was dedicated/sanctified. But if he comes to redeem it, he redeems the field according to its worth like the law of an acquired field, but if he himself did not redeem but another person redeemed, it returns to him on the Jubilee [year]. For at the time it was dedicated/sanctified, its actual body was not his, for in the future it would return to his father in the Jubilee like all other sales, and like others who dedicate/sanctify an acquired field, since the person who redeems it from the hand of the treasurer restores/returns it on the Jubilee to whomever has the possession of the land [through inheritance], which is to the father of this one, for he inherits the power of his father. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Meir.

If he consecrated it and afterwards his father died, then it is considered a field acquired by purchase, the words of Rabbi Meir. Rabbi Judah and Rabbi Shimon say: it is considered a field of possession, as it is said: “And if a field which he has, which is not a field of his possession” (Leviticus 27:22) a field which is not capable of becoming a field of his possession, thus excluding a field which is capable of becoming a field of possession. However, if he consecrated it before his father died, there is a debate as to the status of the field. According to Rabbi Meir it is considered a field acquired by purchase. If he redeems it, he need not add an extra fifth, as is the rule with a field of possession. And if he doesn’t redeem it, during the Jubilee it reverts to its original owners. Rabbis Shimon and Judah disagree and derive through a midrash that any field that could become one’s through inheritance cannot be put into the category of a purchased field. Therefore, even if he dedicates the field purchased from his father before his father dies, it still retains the status of a “field of possession.” If he redeems it he will need to add an extra fifth, and if he doesn’t redeem it, it will become the possession of the priests during the Jubilee year.

שדה מקנה – that he dedicated/sanctified it and another redeemed it, it does not out to the Kohanim on the Jubilee [year], for a person does not dedicate/sanctify something that is not his, and the land was not his other than until the Jubilee.

A field acquired by purchase does not go out to the priests in the year of the Jubilee, for no man can consecrate an object not belonging to him. A field that is purchased does not really belong to the purchaser because the field will eventually revert to the original owner’s possession during the following Jubilee. Therefore, it never becomes the possession of the priests. The purchaser cannot truly consecrate it because it was never his.

כהנים ולוים מקדישים לעולם – and even during the actual year of Jubilee itself. But an Israelite who dedicated/sanctified his field in the Jubilee year itself, it is not sanctified.

Priests and Levites may consecrate [their fields] at any time and redeem at any time, both before and after the jubilee. There are special laws concerning a priest or Levite who dedicates his field. They may dedicate their field even within two years of the Jubilee (compare with mishnah one) and they can redeem their own field even after the Jubilee. This is different from an Israelite who can never redeem his field after the Jubilee.

וגואלין לעולם – what is not the case for an Israelite who does not redeem [his field] after the Jubilee, as it is it written (Leviticus 27:20): “[But if he does not redeem the land,] and the land is sold to another, it shall no longer be redeemable,” but a Kohen or a Levite that sanctified [to the Temple] land that he inherited from his forefathers, he can always redeem it, and even if a Jubilee [year] passed on it and it was not redeemed, he can redeem it after the Jubilee, as it is written (Leviticus 25:32): “[As for the cities of the Levities, the houses in the cities that they hold -] the Levities shall forever have the right of redemption.”