Комментарий к Бехорот 4:6
הַנּוֹטֵל שְׂכָרוֹ לָדוּן, דִּינָיו בְּטֵלִים. לְהָעִיד, עֵדוּתָיו בְּטֵלִין. לְהַזּוֹת וּלְקַדֵּשׁ, מֵימָיו מֵי מְעָרָה וְאֶפְרוֹ אֵפֶר מִקְלֶה. אִם הָיָה כֹהֵן וְטִמְּאָהוּ מִתְּרוּמָתוֹ, מַאֲכִילוֹ וּמַשְׁקוֹ וְסָכוֹ. וְאִם הָיָה זָקֵן, מַרְכִּיבוֹ עַל הַחֲמוֹר. וְנוֹתֵן לוֹ שְׂכָרוֹ כַּפּוֹעֵל:
Если судить за вознаграждение, его решения недействительны. [Если взять плату] для дачи показаний, его показания недействительны. [Если взять плату], чтобы посыпать [пепел красной телицы] или смешать [их с водой], вода подобна пещерной воде, а пепел - пепел обычного огня. Если священник стал нечистым, чтобы есть Терума [тот, кто взял плату], его нужно накормить, дать ему выпить и помазать его. Если человек был пожилым, его нужно перевезти на осле и дать ему заработную плату, как работнику (без работы).
Bartenura on Mishnah Bekhorot
הנוטל שכר לדון דיניו בטלים – as it is written (Deuteronomy 4:5): “See, I have imparted to you laws and rules as the LORD my God has commanded me, [for you to abide by in the land that you are about to enter and occupy.],” just as I [do it] gratuitously, so you [do them] gratuitously. But among the Rabbis of Ashkenaz, I saw scandalous behavior in this matter , that an ordained Rabbi, the head of a Yeshiva, is not embarrassed to take ten gold coins in order to be [present] for half-an hour for the writing and delivery of one Get/Jewish bill of divorce, and the witnesses that affix their names on the Get [receive] two gold coins or one gold coin for each of them at the very least, and this is not a Rabbi in my eyes, but rather a thief and a violent man who attained it by force, because he knows that we don’t give a Get in his city without his permission, and he who gives the Get against his will needs to give him all that he desires. |But I am worried regarding [this] Get/Jewish bill of divorce that it is invalid, for it is taught in our Mishnah, that a person who takes a reward to judge, his judgments are invalid; to testify, his testimony is invalid.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Bekhorot
Introduction
This mishnah continues to deal with a judge or other official who takes payment for performing his work.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Bekhorot
If one takes payment to act as a judge, his judgments are void; to give evidence, his evidence is void; to sprinkle or to sanctify, the waters are considered cave waters and the ashes are considered burned ashes. If one takes payment in order to fulfill legal or ritual functions, his actions are void. To sprinkle refers to a priest who sprinkles the red heifer waters on an impure person. To “sanctify” means to place the ashes in water. “Cave waters” and “burned ashes” are the way that the mishnah says that the water and ashes are invalidated from purifying the impure. All of these are functions that people must perform without taking payment.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Bekhorot
לקדש – to mix the dust of the sin-offering in fresh water in a vessel.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Bekhorot
If he was a priest and he was made unclean regarding his terumah, he must give him food and drink and rub him with oil. The mishnah now notes that while a priest or sage should not take a wage for rendering their services, they are not obligated to incur a loss. We should note that there will be a fine line between preventing a loss and rendering payment. The first part is concerned with a priest who loses his ability to eat terumah. Normally, a priest eats terumah which he receives as a gift from Israelites. The fact that he receives terumah from Israelites seems to be, at least partially, a payment for his rendering priestly services. If while rendering one of the services mentioned in section one a priest becomes impure, the person who requested his services must provide him with food, drink and oil from his own expense. This is not payment for the services but rather compensation for the loss of the priest’s ability to eat, drink and anoint with terumah.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Bekhorot
אפר מקלה – the ashes of a portable stove on feet is called calcined ashes/hearth ash (i.e., a symbol of mourning, supplication), that is to say, mere ashes that have no sanctity.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Bekhorot
And if he was an old sage, he mounts him on a donkey. If an old sage comes to render any of these services, the person requesting his help must give him a donkey to ride around on. The old man doesn’t have to walk around himself if this would be difficult for him. Providing transportation is no considered paying for the sage’s services.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Bekhorot
אבל אם היה – this person who sees/examines the firstlings, or this one who is a judge, or the witness, or the one sanctifies is a Kohen, and the person who goes with him pardons him in the place of defilement and defiled him from consuming his heave offering, and makes him lose out that he needs to acquire non-sacred produce and to eat, and the value of non-consecrated are more expensive than the value of the heave offering, for non-sanctified produce is appropriate for all, but heave offering is not appropriate other than for pure Kohanim.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Bekhorot
He also pays him as he would a workman. Finally, and quite importantly, the person requesting the judge or priest’s help must pay him the wages that he would have been earning in his regular profession had he not been rendering judgment etc. Thus if the priest/sage was a laborer making five dollars an hour, then he would have to be paid five dollars for every hour taken up with the person’s case. If he worked in a more lucrative profession, he would earn the higher wage. This is not considered to be paying him for services rendered, but rather compensating him for wages he cannot earn.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Bekhorot
מאכילו – this one who brings him gives him to drink and anoints him.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Bekhorot
ונותן לו שכרו כפועל – if he was customarily [engaged] in heavy and difficult labor, and he earns a great deal, we estimate how much a person like this wishes to take that is less than one he would earn with heavy labor and to be engaged in this work which is easier, and such we give him,. For it is permitted fo each judge to take a salary for his idleness, for the idleness is known and recognized/familiar, and he takes from the two litigants equally, but more than this is forbidden.
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