Musar for Arakhin 56:32
לאו תנאי היא
IF [THEY HAD BEEN] CONSECRATED AS A VOW, HE MUST GIVE THEIR VALUE,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' If he vowed to bring an offering and after designating an animal for the purpose he devoted it, since if that animal died or was stolen he would be liable to replace it, the animal is still regarded as being in his possession and the animal is devoted. As, however, an animal once designated as an offering may never be used for any other purpose, the devoter must pay its full value to the priest, whilst the animal itself is to be sacrificed for the purpose to which it originally had been designated by its owner. The same would apply if the sacrifice in question had not been vowed but obligatory.');"><sup>19</sup></span>
Shenei Luchot HaBerit
All the elements of time described above, played a part in the labours which the Torah describes Jacob as performing for Laban, and in the wedding feast described in our פרשה. The "days" we spoke of are the seven days of the wedding feast. Rashi already explained that when Laban asked Jacob: מלא שבוע זאת, "complete the week of this one" (Leah), he referred to the seven-day wedding feast. He bases himself on the half vowel Sheva instead of the full vowel kametz that we would have expected under the letter ש (Genesis 29,27). This is why the Jerusalem Talmud Moed Katan states that this instance is the origin of the custom to entertain the groom and bride for seven days starting with the wedding. You also find the time unit "month" mentioned here, when Jacob stayed with Laban for a month (29,14) before starting to be recompensed for any services performed. The time unit "year" is mentioned in the agreement that Jacob was to serve seven years for Rachel. This unit of seven years is the forerunner of the unit שמטה as a time unit or cycle of seven years (29,18). Just as the release from monies owed takes effect only at the end of the שמטה year, so Rachel was not promised to Jacob till the end of the seven years' service.
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