Arakhin

But they as well as their outskirts are to be torn down?1 — R. Ashi said: It is necessary to teach [the law] for one might have assumed that before they are torn down, if any [of the houses] therein have been sold, they should become perpetual possessions, therefore we are informed [that is not so]. Our Rabbis taught: As a field devoted the possession there of shall be the priest's:2 what does that teach? Whence do we know that if a priest consecrated a field obtained by him as [a field of] devotion that he cannot say: Since it anyway goes out to the priests [in the Jubilee year] and now is in my possession, it shall be my own, a fortiori: If I acquire title to what belongs to others, how much more [can I acquire title] to what belongs to me, therefore it is said: ‘As a field devoted the possession thereof shall be to the priest’.3 Now what are we learning from [the words]: ‘As a field devoted’? Behold the text came to teach and now it itself is illuminated thereby: we compare the field acquired [by the priest] as [a field of] devotion to an Israelite's field of possession. Just as an Israelite's field of possession goes out of his hand and is distributed among the priests, so also does the field which he acquired as [a field of] devotion go out of his hand to be distributed among his brethren the priests. The Master said: ‘If I acquire title to what belonged to others’. But how can that be compared? There he simply acquires title to it, but here he takes himself? — Rami b. Hama said: It is necessary [to state that]: You might have assumed since it is written: And every man's hallowed things shall be his,4 that this also is like his ‘hallowed things’. But how can you compare these? His hallowed things are not in his possession,5 whereas this is in his possession!6 Rather said R. Nahman: It is necessary to teach this, for you might have assumed since it is written: For that is their perpetual possession.7 that this too,8 is his possession;9 therefore the text ‘his possession’ informs us that [the law applies] only to his possession but not to anything obtained by him as devotion. he keeps it back for himself without any authority.