Arakhin

One [Baraitha] taught: ‘He may not borrow and redeem. and may not redeem by halves’? — This is no difficulty: one is in accord with the Rabbis. the other with R. Simeon.1 MISHNAH. IF ONE SOLD A HOUSE AMONG THE HOUSES IN A WALLED CITY. HE MAY REDEEM IT AT ONCE AND AT ANY TIME DURING TWELVE MONTHS.2 IT IS A KIND OF [RECEIVING] INTEREST, AND YET NOT INTEREST.3 IF THE SELLER DIED, HIS SON MAY REDEEM IT. IF THE PURCHASER DIED, IT MAY BE REDEEMED FROM HIS SON. ONE CAN RECKON THE YEAR ONLY FROM THE TIME THAT HE SOLD IT, AS IT IS SAID: WITHIN THE SPACE OF A . . . YEAR.4 SINCE IT SAYS: A ‘FULL’ [YEAR] THE INTERCALARY MONTH IS INCLUDED THEREIN.5 RABBI SAYS: HE IS ALLOWED A YEAR AND ITS INTERCALARY [DAYS].6 IF THE [LAST] DAY OF THE TWELVE MONTHS HAS ARRIVED AND IT WAS NOT REDEEMED. IT BECOMES HIS ABIDING [POSSESSION], NO MATTER WHETHER HE BOUGHT IT OR RECEIVED IT AS A GIFT, AS IT IS SAID: IN PERPETUITY.7 GEMARA. Our Mishnah will not be in accord with Rabbi, for it was taught: Rabbi said, Yamim8 [days] that means no less than two days! How do the Rabbis explain ‘yamim’? — They need it for [the indication]: From the day to the day.9 And whence does Rabbi know the rule ‘from the day to the day’? — He derives it from: ‘Within a whole year after it is sold’. And the Rabbis? — This [verse] is needed to teach that one considers only the year after his sale and not the universal [calendar] year, and the word yamim indicates that twenty-four astronomical hours are meant.10 For if [we had only] ‘within a whole year after it is sold’ [to go by], one might have assumed that is must be [a full year] from day to day, but need not be from [exact] hour to [exact] hour, therefore the Divine Law wrote: ‘Yamim’. Whence does Rabbi know that it must be from ‘hour to hour’? — He derives that from ‘full’ [year]. And the Rabbis? — That is necessary for [the inclusion of] its intercalary [days]. But Rabbi, too, requires that for its intercalary [days]? — That indeed is so, but that [the year must be full] from day to day and from hour to hour he derives from: ‘Within a whole year after it is sold’. IT IS A KIND OF INTEREST, etc. But was it not taught: This is real interest, except that the Torah has permitted it [in this case]? — R. Johanan said: This is no difficulty: One [teaching] is in accord with R. Judah, the other with the Sages. For it was taught: If one had a creditor's claim of one maneh against his neigh bour and the latter pledged unto him the sale of his field,11 then, if the seller has the usufruct, it is permitted, but if the purchaser has the usufruct, it is forbidden.12 R. Judah says: Even if the purchaser has the usufruct, it is permitted.13 Said R. Judah; It happened with Boethus b. Zunin that with the approval of R. Eleazar b. Azaryah he pledged his field's sale, and the purchaser had the usufruct. They said to him, [Would you adduce] evidence from there? The seller had the usufruct, not the purchaser. Wherein do they differ? — They differ with respect to one-sided usury.14 The first Tanna holds one-sided usury to be forbidden, whilst R. Judah is of the opinion that one-sided usury is permitted strengthening of his rights in another direction. He finds this principle verified not only in the case of him who sells his field of possession, or his field acquired by purchase, but also in the case of one who sells a house in the walled city (v. Tosaf.). The Rabbis, however, dispute his view. V. Kid. Sonc. ed., p. 97 n. 3. of the purchase without any deduction for rent. Yet it is not interest, for if the owner does not exercise his right of redemption, the buyer has inhabited what is his house in perpetuity. hence the intercalary month is included. Rabbi, however, holds ‘a full year’ to be the solar year, consisting of 365 days, which is composed of the 354 days of the lunar year of the Jewish calendar, plus the eleven days difference between the lunar and the solar year. days before the seller could redeem it. Our Mishnah, however, taught that redemption is permitted without any delay. to the end of the calendar year. It is the whole year after the purchase that the Torah stipulates. to that very hour, the hour included. none-sided interest which is permitted.