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בכורות 50:1
Soncino English Talmud · Berean Standard Bible
R. Johanan Says: Take a Trajanic or Hadrianic denar which is rubbed off and bought for twenty-five zuz, and deduct a sixth from it, and the remainder is the amount for the redemption of the first-born. But is not this the sum of twenty-one zuz minus a danka? — Rather deduct a sixth together with a zuz and the remainder is the amount for the redemption of the first-born. But even so the amount is twenty zuz minus a danka? — Rather deduct [first] a zuz and then a sixth and the remainder is the amount for the redemption of the first-born which is twenty times the weight of a [Tyrian] denar, and which makes twenty-eight and a half zuz and a half danka. Said Raba: The biblical sela’ contains three and a third [denars], because Scripture says: A shekel is twenty gerahs, which the Targum renders ‘twenty ma'ah’, and it has been taught: Six ma'ah silver make one denar. An objection was raised: Does not the holy sela’ contain forty-eight dupondia? What business has the [extra] dupondium here? The dupondium is an agio [an addition] to the units! — [The Baraitha] refers to the period after the sela’ had been increased in value. For it was taught in a Baraitha: [Scripture says:] ‘A shekel is twenty gerahs’, for thus we learn that a shekel contains twenty gerahs, whence [do we deduce] that if he wished to increase [the number of ma'ah] he is at liberty to do so? The text states: ‘[Twenty gerahs] shall be [the shekel]’. You might perhaps think that he can decrease [the number of ma'ah]? [To guard against such an inference] the text states: ‘The same Is twenty gerahs. R. Ashi sent seventeen zuz to R. Aha b. Raba for the redemption of the first-born. He sent him word: ‘Let the Master return to me the extra third of a sela’ from the redemption-money sent’. He replied to him: ‘Let the Master send me another three zuz which were added to the biblical sela’. Said R. Hanina: Every silver [coinage] [kesef] mentioned in the Pentateuch without any qualification means a sela’, in the Prophets litrae, in the Hagiographa centenaria, except the silver [coinage] mentioned in the transaction of Ephron, for although it is mentioned in the Bible without qualification, it means centenaria, because Scripture says: Four hundred shekels of silver current money with the merchant, and there is a place where the shekels are called centenaria. Said R. Oshaiah: [The Rabbis] proposed to hide all the silver and gold in the world on account of the silver and gold of Jerusalem, until they found a text from the Torah which made their use permissible, because Scripture says: For the robbers shall enter into it and profane it. But is Jerusalem the greater portion of the world? — Rather Abaye said, The Rabbis] proposed hiding the Hadrianic and Trajanic denars which were rubbed off on account of the sacred coinage of Jerusalem, until they found a text from the Torah making their use permissible because it is said: ‘For the robbers shall enter into it and profane it’.
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