Arachin, Chapter 8, Mishnah 2. This chapter deals with consecrated property and the way it is transferred out of the hands of the Beit Hamikdash. Our mishnah takes up the auction itself: bids are offered on a field, and then a bidder changes his mind. What happens to the treasury, and what happens to the man who backed out?
The mishnah walks us up a ladder of offers. "Amar echad", one man spoke first: "harei hee sheli", let this field be mine, "be'eser sela'im", at a price of ten sela'im. A second called out "be'esrim", twenty. A third said "bishloshim", thirty. A fourth said "be'arba'im", forty. And a fifth said "bachamishim", he wanted it for fifty. The field, of course, goes to whoever offered the most, in this case the man standing at fifty.
The highest bidder backs out
The highest bidder backs out
So the treasury turns back to the man who had offered forty and asks him to take the field. Even when that sale goes through at forty, the treasury does not settle for forty, because it was entitled to fifty. It collects ten sela'im from the one who bid fifty and forty from the one who actually buys the field, and in the end it loses nothing.
Underlying all of this is a foundational rule of hekdesh: "amirato lagavoah", a person's spoken word to the Temple treasury, "kimesirato lehedyot", carries the same weight as a physical handover between two private parties. In dealings between one Jew and another, property moves only through an act of acquisition; with hekdesh, speech by itself does the work and binds the speaker.
Working down the list
Working down the list
"Chazar bo shel arba'im": the treasurer now turns to the man who had said forty, and he too pulls back. Here as well, "memashkenin minechasav ad eser", we enter his holdings and extract ten sela'im. The field is then offered to whoever had bid thirty, and those ten sela'im cover exactly the new gap. Tally it up: ten from the fifty bidder, ten from the forty bidder, and thirty from the man who actually buys, so the treasurer once more holds the entire fifty sela'im that were owed to hekdesh.
"Chazar bo shel sheloshim": should the bidder at thirty likewise decline to take the field, "memashkenin minechasav ad eser", ten further sela'im are seized from what he owns, seeing as the field will now change hands for twenty.
When no bidder is left
When no bidder is left
Follow the arithmetic. Suppose the field is put up again and brings only five sela'im, and that is the price at which it is sold. Ten sela'im each have already been collected from the bidders of fifty, forty, thirty and twenty, which comes to forty. The purchaser has handed over five. That leaves five sela'im missing from the fifty the treasurer was expecting, so we collect an additional five from the man who bid ten to cover the difference.
When the owner matches an outside bid
"Chazar bo shel eser": even the man at ten now walks away, and not a single bidder remains willing to complete the purchase. In that situation, "mocherin otah beshavyah", the field is put back on the market and sold for its actual worth, to the best offer that can be found. And then "venifra'im", payment is exacted, "mishel eser et hamotar": whatever falls short of his ten is recovered from the man whose bid had been ten.