Arachin, Chapter 1, Mishnah 1. Before we open the mishnah itself, we need to understand what this masechet is about, because the whole tractate revolves around a particular kind of donation to the Beit Hamikdash.
Maintaining the Beit Hamikdash required funds. The daily service, together with the korbanot, was covered by the machatzit hashekel, the yearly half shekel given by every man. Yet the expenses did not stop there. The structure itself demanded ongoing repair, and bedek habayit, the upkeep of the House, needed its own source of income. That source was voluntary giving. A person would consecrate to the Beit Hamikdash an object, a field he owned, or a quantity of money. From the moment of that declaration the item bore kedushat damim (sanctity of value), and it passed into the hands of the treasury. Those who administered the funds would sell it off and direct the proceeds toward whatever needs the Beit Hamikdash had.
Two Ways to Pledge a Person's Value
Masechet Arachin deals with a specific category of such donations: a person who obligates himself to give his own worth, or someone else's worth, to the Beit Hamikdash. There are two distinct ways this can be done.
One form is a vow of damim, literal worth. Here the person undertakes to give what a human being would genuinely command as a price were he sold as a slave. That figure obviously varies from one man to the next: physique, health, years and skills all enter the reckoning. The formula for such a vow runs "Damai alai" ("I owe my own worth") or "Demei peloni alai" ("I owe the worth of so-and-so"). The instant those words are spoken the obligation takes hold. Whoever the vow concerned is then evaluated in his present condition, and that amount goes to the Beit Hamikdash.
The second is a pledge of erech, a fixed amount the Torah assigns to a person according to age and gender. Here nothing about the individual matters: whether he is robust or frail, wealthy or destitute, the sum is set objectively. The Torah gives four age brackets, and within each one a figure for a male and a figure for a female:
- A boy of one month up to five years: five shekalim; a girl of those years: three.
- A boy of five up to twenty: twenty shekalim; a girl: ten.
- A man of twenty up to sixty: fifty shekalim; a woman: thirty.
- Beyond sixty: fifteen shekalim for a man; ten for a woman.
A baby who has not yet reached thirty days has no erech whatsoever. This form of pledge binds like any other vow, and its formula runs "Erki alai" ("I owe my erech") or "Erech peloni alai" ("I owe the erech of so-and-so"). One may pledge his own erech or that of another person, and the figure follows the age and gender of whoever the vow addressed.
A Concession for the Poor
With an erech vow there is a way out for an ani, a poor man who cannot cover the sum he pledged. He comes before a kohen, who assesses what he is able to afford, and payment of that reduced amount discharges the vow entirely. Even if his circumstances later improve and he becomes wealthy, he owes nothing further, since the kohen fixed a new figure for him.
The closing chapters of the masechet turn to a different subject, the laws of buying and selling land in Eretz Yisrael. We will deal with that when we reach it.
The Mishnah
With that background we can enter the mishnah, which lays out who is able to make these pledges and who is able to be the object of them.
"Hakol maarichin vene'erachin, nodrim venidarim." Anybody is capable of declaring an erech, whether his own or that of another person, and anybody's erech may be declared by someone else. I am permitted to state that my own erech goes to the Beit Hamikdash, or that the erech of a certain individual does. So too with "nodrim venidarim": any person may vow a human being's market worth, and any person's market worth may be vowed by another. My pledge can be whatever price I would command if sold, or whatever price so-and-so would command, and the treasury receives that sum.
"Kohanim, levi'im, veyisraelim, nashim va'avadim." This applies across the board: kohanim, levi'im and yisraelim, and women and slaves as well.
Tumtum and Androgynos
The mishnah now turns to a person whose gender cannot be established. A tumtum is one whose private area is covered over by a layer of skin, so that it cannot be determined whether the person is male or female. An androgynos is born with both male and female features.
"Nodrim venidarim." Such a person is competent to vow the market worth of another, since a pledge of that kind holds good regardless of which gender he ultimately proves to be. And his own market worth may be vowed by somebody else, for he genuinely possesses monetary value. Even with his gender unresolved, we are able to estimate his going price in a sale and arrive at a number.
"Uma'arichin, aval lo ne'erachin." He is competent to declare the erech of another person and take payment of it upon himself, but his own erech cannot be declared by anyone. The mishnah supplies the reason: "she'eino ne'erach", an erech attaches only to a "zachar vadai unekeivah vada'it", one whose maleness or femaleness is beyond question. Where it remains unknown which of the two we are dealing with, the information the Torah demands is missing, and the sum cannot be established.
Cheresh, Shoteh and Katan
"Cheresh, shoteh, vekatan." A cheresh is one who can neither hear nor speak; a shoteh is one who lacks sound mind; a katan is a minor.
"Nidarim vene'erachin." Their market worth may be vowed by another, and their erech may likewise be declared by another at the amount the Torah fixes, assuming naturally that they have passed thirty days, since before that no erech exists at all.
"Aval lo nodrim velo maarichin, mipnei she'ein bahem da'at." But they cannot make such vows themselves, neither a vow of another's value nor an erech vow of their own value, because they lack legal understanding. They are not held accountable for their actions, and therefore any vow or oath they pronounce has no legal force.
An Infant Under a Month
"Pachot miben chodesh, nidar aval lo ne'erach." With a child who has not yet completed a month, his market worth may be vowed: a person is able to declare that whatever a two week old baby would fetch in a sale belongs to the Beit Hamikdash. His erech, however, cannot be pledged, for a child of fewer than thirty days is assigned no erech in the Torah.