Responsa for Makkot 25:4
חוזר לשררה שהיה בה כו': תנו רבנן (ויקרא כה, מא) ושב אל משפחתו ואל אחוזת אבותיו ישוב למשפחתו הוא שב ואינו שב למה שהחזיקו אבותיו דברי ר"י ר"מ אומר אף הוא שב למה שהחזיקו אבותיו אל אחוזת אבותיו כאבותיו
He returns to the position that he had previously occupied etc.: The Rabbis taught [in a baraisa regarding a freed Jewish slave], (Leviticus 25,41) "And he shall return to his family and to his ancestral holdings he shall return" [this implies that] to his family he returns but that he does not return to his ancestral positions. These are the words of Rebbi Yehuda. Rebbi Meir says, He even returns to the positions of his ancestors [as the Torah says] "to his ancestral holdings" [which implies] like his ancestors.
Teshuvot Maharam
Q. A customarily bought the honors connected with the second scroll of the Law of the synagogue. This time, however, the community sold these honors to B for half a pound. Now A seeks to exercise his priority rights in the acquisition of such honors.
A. If, when the community sold the honors to B, A was in a position to pay half a pound for them but failed to do so, he forfeited his rights to them when he consented to their being sold to B. Therefore, if witnesses testify that A had originally consented to such sale together with the rest of the community, A has no claim to these honors. Or, in the absence of such testimony, if witnesses testify to B's undisturbed possession — since B claims that A had consented to the sale — the honors belong to B. However, if, when the honors were sold to B, A could not afford to buy them, but now that he has the means he wants to recoup his rights and privileges, A is entitled to his rights of priority.
SOURCES: Cr. 209; Mord. B.B. 533; Tesh. Maim. to Shoftim, 7; Mordecai Hagadol p. 109c.
A. If, when the community sold the honors to B, A was in a position to pay half a pound for them but failed to do so, he forfeited his rights to them when he consented to their being sold to B. Therefore, if witnesses testify that A had originally consented to such sale together with the rest of the community, A has no claim to these honors. Or, in the absence of such testimony, if witnesses testify to B's undisturbed possession — since B claims that A had consented to the sale — the honors belong to B. However, if, when the honors were sold to B, A could not afford to buy them, but now that he has the means he wants to recoup his rights and privileges, A is entitled to his rights of priority.
SOURCES: Cr. 209; Mord. B.B. 533; Tesh. Maim. to Shoftim, 7; Mordecai Hagadol p. 109c.
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