Arachin, Chapter 6, Mishnah 2. This chapter deals with the tension between hekdesh and the ordinary debts a person carries, and our mishnah continues directly from the principle laid down in the previous one.
There we learned that when a person consecrates his property to hekdesh while that property already stands under a lien to somebody else, the lien is not erased. If he owes his wife her ketubah, or he owes money to a lender, those claimants can still reach the property even after it has been given over to the Beit Hamikdash. On the level of de'oraita, Torah law, the earlier claim simply outranks the later consecration.
The chachamim, however, were uneasy about how this would look, and they built a procedure around it so that nobody would draw the wrong conclusion from what he sees.
The Text of the Mishnah
The mishnah opens: "Hamakdish nechasav," one who dedicates his holdings to hekdesh, "vehayta alav ketubat ishah," while an obligation of a wife's ketubah rests upon him, and along with it "uva'al chov," the claim of a creditor. Two distinct liabilities are in play: the sum he committed to his wife in her marriage document, due upon divorce or upon his death, and money he borrowed and has not returned. Both attached themselves to his assets long before those assets were handed over to the sanctuary.
"Ein ha'ishah yechola" - the wife has no power "ligbot ketubatah min hahekdesh," to recover her marriage settlement from assets that now belong to hekdesh. The lender is in the same position: "velo ba'al chov" - nor may he take "et chovo," the loan owed him, from that source. No claimant presents himself at the treasury of the Beit Hamikdash and removes from there what is coming to him.
"Ela podeh." Instead, a redemption takes place, and the one who carries it out is the man himself, the husband or the borrower who dedicated the assets to begin with. He buys them back from hekdesh, and he does so "al menat liten," with the stipulation that he pass them along: "la'ishah ketubatah," to his wife in settlement of her marriage document, or "uleva'al chov et chovo," to the man who lent him money, in satisfaction of that loan.
Why the Chachamim Required a Redemption
The concern was one of appearances. If bystanders watched a creditor collect his money straight out of consecrated property, they would conclude that consecrated property is available to settle debts in general. They would have no way of knowing that in this particular case the lien predated the consecration. So the chachamim ruled that nothing passes directly from hekdesh to the claimant. The property must first return to the one who consecrated it, through an act of redemption, and only then does he use it to pay what he owes.
A Token Redemption
But on the level of de'oraita the creditor could have collected with no redemption at all. The redemption here is not a real transfer of value out of hekdesh, it is a procedural pass-through. Therefore the chachamim did not require the full redemption price.
"Hikdish tish'im maneh," the assets he dedicated were worth ninety maneh, "vehayah chovo," while what he owed amounted to "me'ah maneh," a full hundred. "Mosif od dinar," one further dinar enters the reckoning. The claimant, whether it is the wife or the lender, places a single dinar in the man's hand (he has nothing left of his own to work with), and the sum owed him rises by that amount. "Upodeh bo et hanechasim halalu": with that lone coin he redeems the entire consecrated estate, "al menat liten," on the stipulation that it move onward, going to his wife in settlement of her marriage document or "uleva'al chov et chovo," to the lender against the loan.
Ordinarily, a person who redeems what he himself consecrated must pay its full value. Here a single dinar suffices, because by Torah law he need not redeem it at all. The redemption is a safeguard instituted by the chachamim, a way of routing the property back through the owner's hands rather than letting it move straight from hekdesh to the claimant. The form of a normal redemption is preserved, but since its whole purpose is to serve as a pass-through, one dinar is enough.