Study Bekhorot folio 50A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
רבי יוחנן אומר: דינרא הדריינא טריינא שייפא דמזבנא בעשרים וחמשה זוזי, דל מינייהו שתותא והנך לפדיון הבן. הני עשרין וחד נכי דנקא הוי!
R' Yoḥanan says: If one wishes to know how much to give for the redemption of the firstborn son, take the worn-out gold dinars of Hadrian and Trajan, which are sold at 25 dinars, and deduct from them 1/6th. And these that remain are the 5 sela that one must give for the redemption of the firstborn son, i.e., 20 dinars, as there are 4 dinars in a sela. The Talmud challenges: After deducting one- 6th from 25, one is not left with 20 dinars, but 21 dinars less 1/6th [danka] of a dinar.
Rather, deduct 1/6th and another dinar, and these that are left are for the redemption of the firstborn son. The Talmud challenges: But the calculation is still inexact, as this sum is 20 dinars less 1/6th of a dinar. Rather, first deduct one dinar, and from the remainder, i.e., 24 dinars, deduct 1/6th, and these that are left are the 5 sela coins that one must give for the redemption of the son. The Talmud notes that these are a weight of 20 matkalei of the small golden dinars known as matkalei, which are worth 20-8½ dinars, and half of a 6th of a dinar, in Arabian silver dinars.
אמר רבא: סילעים דאורייתא תלתא ותילתא הוי, דכתיב: ״עשרים גרה השקל״, ומתרגמינן: ״עשרין מעין״, ותניא: שש מעה כסף דינר.
§ Rava says: The biblical sela coins, i.e., the shekels that must be given for the redemption of the firstborn son, are each 3⅓ dinars in weight, not 4 dinars. As it is written: “The shekel is 20 gera” (Exodus 30:13), and we translate “20 gera” as 20 ma’a. And it is taught in a baraita: 6 silver ma’a equal a dinar. If so, 20 ma’a, which is equal to the sela of the Torah, is worth 3⅓ dinars.