Bekhorot 99
הני עשרין וחד נכי דנקא הוי
But is not this the sum of twenty-one zuz minus a danka?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Subtract a sixth of twenty-four from twenty-four leaving twenty, and then deduct a sixth of the remaining zuz (each zuz contains six danka) making a total of twenty and five-sixths zuz viz., twenty-one zuz minus a danka, whereas the amount required for redemption is five sela's, or twenty zuz, one sela' four zuz.');"><sup>2</sup></span>
דל שתותא וזוזא והנך לפדיון הבן
But even so the amount is twenty zuz minus a danka?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' For a sixth of twenty-five zuz is four and a sixth, which after deduction leaves twenty and five-sixths zuz. Deduct again one zuz and you have twenty zuz minus one danka, which is less than the prescribed amount.');"><sup>3</sup></span>
דהוי להו עשרין מתקלי במתקלי דינרא דאינון עשרין ותמניא זוזי ופלגי ופלגא דנקא
is the amount for the redemption of the first-born which is twenty times the weight of a [Tyrian] denar, and which makes twenty-eight and a half zuz and a half danka.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' According to the Arabian denar, because seven Tyrian denars make ten Arabian denars, therefore fourteen Tyrian denars make twenty Arabian denars. The remaining six denars (to complete the twenty denars i.e., the twenty zuz, a denar being identified with a zuz) make eight and a half denars and a half of a danka i.e., a dupondium. For since every denar contains twelve dupondia and the proportion between a Tyrian and an Arabian coin is as ten to seven, one Tyrian denar will therefore be seventeen and a seventh dupondia, a surplus of five and one-seventh dupondia over the Arabian standard. Consequently, for the remaining six Tyrian dears we have a surplus, according to the Arabian standard, of thirty-one dupondia minus a negligible amount. These thirty-one dupondia make two and a half denars plus one dupondium. Therefore six Tyrian denars make eight and a half Arabian denars plus one dupondium and together with the fourteen Tyrian denars which equal twenty Arabian denars, we have thus in twenty Tyrian denars the equivalent of twenty-eight and a half Arabian denars plus a half of a danka viz., one dupondium.');"><sup>6</sup></span>
(שמות ל, יג) עשרים גרה השקל ומתרגמינן
renders 'twenty ma'ah', and it has been taught: Six ma'ah silver make one denar.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Therefore three denars make eighteen ma'ah and a third of a denar makes two ma'ah, as each denar contains six ma'ah, a shekel thus amounting in all to twenty ma'ah.');"><sup>9</sup></span>
עשרין מעין ותניא
An objection was raised: Does not the holy sela' contain forty-eight dupondia?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' If a man sanctifies his field in the year of Jubilee, Scripture lays it down that he redeems it according to the standard of a homer of barley seed for fifty shekels of silver, and this is explained as meaning that he pays forty-nine sela's and forty-nine dupondia for the forty-nine years of the Jubilee. The question therefore arises, does not the holy sela' etc., since a holy sela' contains only forty-eight dupondia, and therefore it comes about that he redeems the field for fifty shekels plus a dupondium.');"><sup>10</sup></span>
מיתיבי
The dupondium is an agio [an addition] to the units!<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' The Baraitha after all says that the holy sela' contains forty-eight dupondia, which are four Tyrian denars, for each denar contains twelve dupondia. This Baraitha will therefore raise a difficulty as regards Rab's opinion.');"><sup>12</sup></span>
והלא סלע של קדש ארבעים ושמנה פונדיונין פונדיון זה מה טיבו קילבון לפרוטרוט
- [The Baraitha] refers to the period after the sela' had been increased in value.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' A sixth was added to the value of a biblical sela' and it was made a Tyrian sela' containing twenty-four ma'ah, i.e., four denars.');"><sup>13</sup></span>
בתר דאוסיפו עילוייהו
For it was taught in a Baraitha: [Scripture says:] 'A shekel is twenty gerahs', for thus we learn that a shekel contains twenty gerahs, whence [do we deduce] that if he wished to increase [the number of ma'ah] he is at liberty to do so?
{ויקרא כז } יהיה
[To guard against such an inference] the text states: 'The same Is twenty gerahs.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Lit., 'twenty gerahs it is' (Num. XVIII, 16) . The word being used here in the restrictive sense.');"><sup>15</sup></span>
{במדבר יח } הוא
He sent him word: 'Let the Master return to me the extra third of a sela' from the redemption-money sent'.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Each sela' containing three and a third denars, five sela's therefore making seventeen denars minus a third. Consequently, in sending him seventeen denars there was an addition of a third of a denar.');"><sup>17</sup></span>
רב אשי שדר ליה שבסר זוזי לרב אחא בריה דרבינא בפדיון הבן שלח ליה
He replied to him: 'Let the Master send me another three zuz which were added to the biblical sela'.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Because a sela' has four denars, five sela's therefore making twenty denars. You therefore owe me another three denars to make up the twenty denars.');"><sup>18</sup></span>
לישדר לי מר תלתא יתירתא דאיכא עלוייהו
Said R'Hanina: Every silver [coinage] [kesef] mentioned in the Pentateuch without any qualification means a sela', in the Prophets litrae,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Twenty-five sela's.');"><sup>19</sup></span>
לשדר לי מר תלתא אחרינא דאוסיפו עילוייהו
except the silver [coinage] mentioned in the transaction of Ephron, for although it is mentioned in the Bible without qualification, it means centenaria, because Scripture says: Four hundred shekels of silver current money with the merchant,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Gen. XXIII, 16. Intimating that wherever there were merchants, these shekels were accepted as such.');"><sup>21</sup></span>
אמר רבי חנינא
and there is a place where the shekels are called centenaria.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Where as many as a hundred sela's are given for a shekel. Hence the 'silver' (kesef) mentioned there in the Ephron transaction, although it is not explicitly stated, must mean centenaria.');"><sup>22</sup></span>
כל כסף האמור בתורה סתם סלע דנביאים ליטרין דכתובין קינטרין
Said R'Oshaiah: [The Rabbis] proposed to hide all the silver and gold in the world on account of the silver and gold of Jerusalem,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' To save those in the Temple treasury, which were holy and forbidden to be used by strangers, becoming mixed with the gold and silver belonging to the Gentiles.');"><sup>23</sup></span>
חוץ מן כספו של עפרון שאע"פ שכתוב בתורה סתם קינטרין דכתיב
until they found a text from the Torah which made their use permissible, because Scripture says: For the robbers shall enter into it and profane it.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Ezek. VII, 22. Implying that when the robbers came and took the Temple monies they profaned them and they became hullin, devoid of any sanctity.');"><sup>24</sup></span>
(בראשית כג, טז) ארבע מאות שקל כסף עובר לסוחר ואיכא דוכתא דקא קרו לקינטרא תיקלא
But is Jerusalem the greater portion of the world?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' That we should forbid the use of all silver and gold in the world for fear of using that of Jerusalem.');"><sup>25</sup></span>
א"ר אושעיא
- Rather Abaye said, The Rabbis] proposed hiding the Hadrianic and Trajanic denars which were rubbed off<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' These coins were from Jerusalem and the majority of them came from Jerusalem.');"><sup>26</sup></span>
ביקשו לגנוז כל כסף וזהב שבעולם מפני כספה וזהבה של ירושלים עד שמצאו לו מקרא מן התורה שהוא מותר שנאמר
on account of the sacred coinage of Jerusalem,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' With which sacred things were redeemed (R. Gershom) ; v. A.Z., Sonc. ed., p. 267 notes.');"><sup>27</sup></span>