Study Bava Metzia folio 54A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
הבעלים נותנין עשרים ושש. עשרים ושנים – הבעלים נותנין עשרים ושבע. בעשרים ושלש – הבעלים נותנין עשרים ושמונה. בעשרים וארבע – הבעלים נותנין עשרים ותשע.
the owner gives a payment of 26 dinars. Were they to enable the other person to purchase it for 21 dinars, the Temple treasury would incur a loss, as the principal plus 1/5th paid by the owner is greater than the payment of the other person, who must pay only the principal. Were the owner to pay only 20 for the principal and add 1/5th, the principal paid by the owner is less than the sum offered by the other person. Therefore, the owner pays the principal proposed by the other person and then adds the payment of 1/5th that he was obligated to pay based on his own offer, i.e., 5 dinars, for a total of 26. Likewise, if the other person offers 22 dinars, the owner gives 27; if the other person offers 23, the owner gives 28; if the other person offers 24, the owner gives 29.
עשרים וחמש – הבעלים נותנין שלשים, לפי שאין מוסיפין חומש על עילוי של זה. שמע מינה חומשא מלבר. שמע מינה.
If the other person offers 25 dinars, the owner gives 30, due to the fact that the owner does not add 1/5th based on the raise in the offer of this other person, but only on the principal according to his own offer. It is clear from these calculations that a principal of 20 plus an addition of 1/5th equal 25 dinars. Learn from it that 1/5th is calculated from without, meaning 1/4th of the value of the redeemed item. The Talmud affirms: Learn from it that this is the halakha.
כתנאי: ״ויסף חמשתו עליו״, שיהא הוא וחומשו חמשה, דברי רבי יאשיה. רבי יונתן אומר: חמישיתו חומשו של קרן.
The Talmud comments: The two sides of this dilemma are parallel to a dispute between tanna’im, as it is taught in a baraita that it is written: “And should add to it 1/5th part thereof” (Leviticus 27:27). This means that the item and its additional 1/5th payment will total 5 parts; 1/5th is calculated from without; this is the statement of R' Yoshiya. R' Yonatan says: Its 1/5th means 1/5th of the principal; 1/5th is calculated from within.