๐พ Archived View for scholasticdiversity.us.to โบ scriptures โบ jewish โบ t โบ Or%20HaChaim%20on%20Levitiโฆ captured on 2024-05-10 at 13:14:40. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
15 โ[1] ** ืืืกืคืจ ืฉื ืื ืืืจ ืืืืื, "according to the number of years after the Jubilee year, etc,"** We must establish first of all why the Torah speaks of the years "after the Jubilee," rather than "the number of years until the Jubilee year," seeing that the years the purchase is in effect are part of those years? Secondly, why did the Torah change its wording in the middle of a verse? The Torah describes the transaction as a purchase,ืืงื ืชื, when speaking of the number of years which determines the purchase price, i.e. making the purchaser the principal figure. When the Torah speaks of the number of harvests, however, it switches and describes the transaction as a sale, i.e. ืืื ืืืืจ ืื, "he sells to you?"
โ[2] We have the following *Mishnah in Massechet Arachin* folio 29: "When someone sells a field in the Jubilee year he is **not allowed** to redeem it until at least 2 years have elapsed seeing that the Torah stipulates that the sale has to be in effect for "a number of harvests," i.e. not less than two harvests. If one of those two years happens to be a year of drought so that no harvest is brought in, or it was the *shemittah year* (when the harvest is public property), such a year does not form part of the two years we have just mentioned. Rabbi Eliezer says that if the seller sold the field immediately before New Year's day while it had not yet been harvested the buyer may enjoy 3 harvests before the seller can redeem the field." Thus far the *Mishnah*. When the Talmud elaborates on this, it is pointed out that the *Mishnah* did not say that redemption of the field in less than two years would be legally ineffective, but said only that the "seller is **not allowed** to redeem it." This means that there is both a negative and a positive commandment, the positive commandment being that one must allow the purchaser to enjoy the field for at least two harvests. The wording of the Torah applies the positive commandment also to the purchaser, not merely to the seller having to allow the purchaser to enjoy possession for a minimum of two harvests ; this is based on the word ืชืงื ื "you shall purchase." We also find a *Baraitha* in that connection which states as follows: "if the purchaser enjoyed only one harvest prior to the Jubilee year one allows him to enjoy the harvest of an additional year after the Jubilee year." As a result of the foregoing we have four separate ืืืืืช, rulings, on the subject which are based on our verse. 1) It is a commandment applicable to both seller and buyer that the sale be valid for no less than two years as stated in the Torah. 2) If there were three harvests within the space of two years they all belong to the purchaser. 3) If there was a year of drought so that there was no harvest, the purchaser is entitled to another year. 4) If the Jubilee year occurs during one of the two years the purchaser contracted for, this year is considered as null and void and the purchaser continues in possession for another year. Maimonides rules in accordance with what we have just stated in chapter 11 of his treatise *Shemittah Veyovel.*
โ[3] Keeping the above in mind the wording of the Torah can be fully appreciated. The words ืืืกืคืจ ืฉื ืื ืืืจ ืืืืื mean "the number of years that have to be completed in the event the Jubilee year does not require the present owner of the field to relinquish it." The Torah then changed its wording from buyer to seller in order to make the law apply to the purchaser as well. Both seller and buyer are responsible for the sale not to remain effective for less than the time legislated by the Torah. The Torah mentions both the number of years and the number of harvests (pl) in order to allow for the eventuality of a drought or the Jubilee year which would result in the number of harvests being less than the number of years contracted for.
โ[4] We need to understand the reason why G'd does not permit the buyer to return the field he purchased to the seller before two (harvest) years have passed. Since when is it forbidden for a person to waive financial claims in favour of someone else? The answer to this peculiar piece of legislation must be sought in the Torah's looking askance at anyone who sells land which is his heritage in the Holy Land. *Torat Kohanim* on verse 25: "if your brother becomes poor and sells part of his ancestral heritage, etc." explains that a person is not permitted to sell his field and to use the proceeds to invest in livestock or chattels. They base this on the fact that the Torah described permission to sell as due only to poverty, i.e. ืื ืืืื. The Torah hopes to dissuade a potential seller of his ancestral property from selling if he is aware that he will not be able to redeem it for at least two years.
โ[5] Another reason may be connected to a ruling by Maimonides in chapter 11 of *Hilchot Shemittah Veyovel* that if someone sold his field for a period of 60 years such a field does not revert to the seller in the Jubilee year. The only purchases which are reversed in the Jubilee year are lands sold without a specific time frame, or a piece of property sold "forever." The author of *Kesseph Mishneh* does not quote the origin for Maimonides' ruling. Perhaps Maimonides derived it from a nuance in our text here. When the Torah writes ืืืกืคืจ ืฉื ืื ืืืจ ืืืืื the meaning may be that if the seller mentions a specific number of years that the sale is to be in force, be it 40 years or 60 years, ืืืืจ ืื, "he may go ahead and sell it to you." -The additional words ืืืืจ ืื mean that the sale is effective for the number of years contracted. In such a situation the Jubilee year does not override the agreement reached between buyer and seller. The words ืืืกืคืจ ืฉื ื ืชืืืืืช explain why such a sale can remain effective beyond the Jubilee year, i.e. seeing that the seller sold a number of harvests he did not contravene Torah law not to sell soil. The Torah's principal concern is that a Jew must not sell the land which is his heritage in the land of Israel.
Version: Or Hachayim, trans. Eliyahu Munk
Source: http://www.urimpublications.com/or-hachayim-commentary-on-the-torah-5-vols.html
License: CC-BY