Commentary for Kiddushin 40:14
או דילמא היכא דגלי גלי היכא דלא גלי לא גלי
But you said: 'if his value increased, [his redemption is] out of the money that he was bought for'! - Suppose he was dear [when bought], then slumped, then rose again.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' He was bought for two hundred, and then slumped to a hundred, whereupon the slave refunded fifty for half redemption, not yet having served at all, and then his value rose again to two hundred.');"><sup>21</sup></span> 'It will be found to his disadvantage': If he bought him for two hundred [zuz], he [the slave] refunded a hundred, half of his value, and then slumped to a hundred.
Daf Shevui to Kiddushin
The word “his redemption” is used both in the case of the walled city and in the case of redeeming an ancestral field. When it came to the ancestral field, there was a midrash that taught that in order to be redeemed, the whole field must be redeemed. It cannot be half-redeemed. So do we apply this law to the walled city as well? Or do we say that the Torah specified in the case of the ancestral field that it cannot be half-redeemed, but it did not specify this in the case of the walled city, therefore it can be half-redeemed.
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