Arachin, Chapter 8, Mishnah 4. The next several mishnayot of this chapter turn to the laws of cherem, a form of consecration that a person brings about simply by declaring over an item, "Let this be cherem."
The kedushah of cherem can move in one of two directions, and which direction it takes depends entirely on what the person had in mind when he spoke. One variety is assigned to the kehunah. The other is assigned to the funds set aside for the upkeep of the Beit Hamikdash.
A cherem designated for the kohanim is handed over to a kohen. From the moment of the declaration until it reaches the kohen's hands it carries holiness; once the kohen takes possession of it, the holiness departs and the item is his ordinary property.
A cherem designated for the Beit Hamikdash is transferred to the Temple treasury. The treasury sells the item and the proceeds go toward the maintenance of the Beit Hamikdash.
The Limits of What May Be Declared Cherem
Our mishnah teaches that a person's power to create cherem is not unlimited. "Macharim adam mitzono umibekaro": a person may declare some of his flock or some of his herd to be cherem. "Me'avadav umishifchotav haKena'anim": and some of his Kena'ani slaves and maidservants, who are the property of their Jewish owner and therefore subject to his declaration. "Umisdeh achuzato": and some of his ancestral fields.
Look closely at each of the three phrases and you will find the same small qualifier attached: from. He may consecrate a portion of his flock, a portion of his herd, a portion of his servants and maidservants, a portion of his inherited land. What he may not do is empty out an entire category of his holdings and place all of it under cherem. In each category something must remain in his own hands.
"Ve'im hecherim et kulan": should he pronounce the declaration over every last one of them, "einan muchramin", the kedushah does not settle on them at all. It makes no difference whether the subject was every servant he owns, every animal in his possession, or all of his ancestral fields. The words fail entirely, and not even a part of the property becomes consecrated.
The proof lies in the language of the pesukim, which attach the prefix mi again and again: "mikol asher lo me'adam uvehemah", from everything that belongs to him, of man and of animal. Scripture could have written that all he owns may be consecrated; instead it wrote that consecration comes out of all that he owns. Only a share of a man's holdings may be given over, never the totality. And so the mishnah signs off: "Divrei Rebbi Elazar." Such is Rebbi Elazar's ruling, that no complete classification of one's property can be turned into cherem.
The Lesson of Rebbi Elazar ben Azaryah
"Amar Rebbi Elazar ben Azaryah." A second Tanna now draws an ethical lesson out of this halachah. "Mah im lagavoah": if with regard to Heaven itself, "ein adam rashai", a person is granted no license, "lehacharim et kol nechasav", to place the sum of his assets under cherem, then "al achat kamah vekamah", all the more so must it be, "sheyehei adam chayav", that a person carries an obligation, "liheyot chas al nechasav", to be protective of what he owns rather than give it all away.
The argument runs from the greater to the lesser. If the Torah does not allow a person to give away everything he owns to Hashem Himself, he certainly may not distribute everything he owns to ordinary people, even to the poor. Rebbi Elazar ben Azaryah is teaching that a person must be all the more careful when giving away his holdings to others: what is closed off even in the direction of Heaven is surely closed off in the direction of human recipients. That is the principle that emerges from this mishnah.