Bechoros, Chapter 8, Mishnah 10. In this Mishnah we conclude the chapter, and effectively leave the laws of a bechor behind us. The final topic this Mishnah addresses is the laws of a sadeh achuzah - an ancestral inheritance. Eretz Yisrael was primarily divided into agricultural plots during the days of Yehoshua bin Nun, when the Land was divided, and the halachah is that these inheritances generally remain within the tribes. Therefore, if a person sells his ancestral inheritance, when the Yovel year arrives once every fifty years, the sadeh achuzah returns to its original owners, to that same family.
The foundation of the law in the Torah:
The verse states: "Ki yamuch achicha umachar me'achuzaso" - a person who becomes impoverished and is forced to sell his ancestral plots. The Torah continues: "Vehayah mimkaro beyad hakoneh oso ad shnas hayovel" - the buyer retains possession of the plot until the Yovel, and then "veyatza bayovel veshav la'achuzaso" - the plot returns to the original owner as part of his ancestral inheritance. We find that when the Yovel year arrives, there is essentially a complete reset regarding ancestral inheritances.
The verse speaks explicitly about a sale, about the law of a sale. The question is what is the halachah regarding other ways in which a sadeh achuzah passes from hand to hand: do they also return in the Yovel, or not? This is what our Mishnah addresses.
The view of Rabbi Meir, the Tanna Kamma:
The verse speaks only of a sale, and no other method is included in this. Meaning, one who received the land in another way - it remains in his possession. Therefore, we learned: "Eilu she'einan chozrin bayovel" - the ways in which a person holds an ancestral inheritance that does not belong to his family, or through an unequal allocation of it, and they do not return when the Yovel arrives:
"Habechorah" - one who received a double portion by virtue of being a bechor, and took a larger portion of his ancestral inheritance than his other brothers, the portion remains in his possession, since this is not a sale.
"Veha'yoresh es ishto" - the halachah is that the sole heir of a married woman is her husband. The Tannaim disagree as to whether this inheritance is miderabanan, and the Tanna Kamma here holds that a husband inherits his wife min HaTorah, and therefore he is not required to return the land, but rather it remains in his possession. It is worth noting that herein lies the most severe problem in terms of the loss of ancestral inheritances: a man from the tribe of Reuven who marries a woman from the tribe of Shimon - upon her death, the property of the family of Shimon passes into the hands of the son of Reuven, and we find that the tribe of Shimon loses land. Nevertheless, according to Rabbi Meir, this is not a sale, and the land does not return.
"Vehamyabem es eishes achiv" - as we saw in the previous Mishnah, the yavam steps into his brother's shoes by marrying his widow, and therefore takes a larger portion than his other brothers, as he receives the portion that his brother was supposed to receive or had already received. This portion remains in his possession.
"Vehamatanah" - one who gives his sadeh achuzah, his ancestral inheritance, as a gift - he has given it and does not receive it back. The verse spoke of a sale, and here there is no sale.
The view of the Chachamim:
"Vachachamim omrim: matanah kemacher" - the Chachamim disagree and hold that the law of a gift is like the law of a sale. The source of their words is a drashah, and as is typical of drashos, it is technical: they derive from an extra word that the ancestral fields that return to their original owners include not only a sale but also a gift.
The view of Rabbi Eliezer:
"Rabbi Eliezer omer: kulan chozrin bayovel" - Rabbi Eliezer takes the opposite approach to that of Rabbi Meir, and holds that all these methods are judged like the law of a sale. He too has a drashah regarding a sale and a gift, and he establishes that the double portion of the bechor, the portion taken by the yavam, and the land that comes to a person through his wife - they are all halachically equivalent to a gift, and therefore they return. As for inheriting a wife, he takes the view that a husband inheriting his wife is miderabanan, and therefore the land certainly returns.
It goes without saying that this will create complex logistical and halachic difficulties: after fifty years, a person who is a bechor, or whose grandfather was a bechor, is required to redistribute his plots with his cousins. This is indeed a logistical challenge, but this is the halachah according to Rabbi Eliezer, and as we will conclude at the end - also the practical halachah.
The opinion of Rabbi Yochanan ben Beroka:
"Rabbi Yochanan ben Beroka omer: hayoresh et ishto yachazir livnei hamishpacha viyinakeh lahem min hadamim" - Rabbi Yochanan ben Beroka says: One who inherits his wife returns it to the family members and deducts the money from them. According to his opinion, a person inherits his wife on a Torah level, yet the Sages intervened because of the injustice involved: The wife's family has a family burial plot where they have buried their relatives for generations, and now this plot has come into the possession of a person from another family. Is it possible that they would be forced to bury their dead in a stranger's courtyard, or that they would no longer have a place of burial? Therefore, the Sages established that one who inherits his wife, if a family burial plot is included in his inheritance, is obligated to return it to the family members.
However, since by law the land truly belongs to him, he is not obligated to give it up for free, and he has the right to sell it and receive payment for it. If the burial plot he inherited from his wife is worth a million dollars, he is permitted to say to the family members: "I am returning the family burial plot to you, and you will pay me a million dollars." To this, Rabbi Yochanan ben Beroka adds one restriction, a small deduction: Since on a rabbinic level the husband is obligated to bury his wife, and he is the one who must bear its expenses, the value of the land used for his wife's burial must be deducted from the payment. In other words, if a burial plot costs ten thousand dollars, the husband says to his wife's family members: "This is the inheritance of your ancestors that I inherited from your family member, and its value is a million dollars, but burying a wife costs ten thousand dollars, and her burial is incumbent upon me - therefore, you will pay me nine hundred and ninety thousand dollars."
It is worth noting that there is no explicit mention of ancestral fields in the Mishnah, and this is how the Gemara explains its wording. Here is the wording of the Mishnah with the explanatory addition: "Hayoresh et ishto yachazir livnei hamishpacha" - one who inherits the ancestral field of his wife's family is obligated to return this portion to her family; "viyinakeh lahem min hadamim" - and he deducts from the payment he receives as compensation for returning that ancestral land, which belongs to him by law and even on a Torah level, everything that his wife's burial cost him, as this is a separate obligation incumbent upon him.
The Halachah - The Ruling of the Rambam:
The Rambam rules that everything returns, and this ruling is quite surprising:
The firstborn: He is obligated to return his extra portion in an ancestral field, in the ancestral inheritances. This law is limited only to ancestral inheritances and does not apply to houses in walled cities and the like, nor does it refer to returning cash in a bank account, which he keeps for himself. But regarding ancestral inheritances, he must make an accounting when the Yovel year arrives and recalculate, so that the brothers receive an equal portion of their family's ancestral inheritance in the long term.
The yavam: Who took an extra portion - is obligated to return it.
The gift: The giver receives it back.
One who inherits his wife: The Rambam holds that a husband's inheritance of his wife is on a rabbinic level and not a Torah level, and it would stand to reason to say that all the more so the ancestral inheritance should return to the wife's family, since from the outset the husband only acquired it on a rabbinic level. Nevertheless, the Rambam rules that, as is the way of the Sages in many places, they sought to strengthen their words and say: Since we said that the husband inherits his wife - we meant it. And because they sought to strengthen their decree, the Sages established that the husband's inheritance of his wife's lands remains in his possession and does not return in the Yovel year.
This is the ruling of the Rambam, and with this we conclude the eighth chapter of Tractate Bechoros.