Commento su Levitico 27:18

ואם אחר היבל יקדיש BUT IF HE SANCTIFY [HIS FIELD] AFTER (i. e. some years after) THE JUBILEE, — and similarly, of course, if he dedicated it from the year of (i. e. immediately after) the Jubilee, — and in either case it remained for a time in the possession of the treasurer and then this man comes to redeem it some years after the Jubilee,

And it remains in the possession of the [Temple] treasurer. Explanation: When the verse says, “The kohein shall calculate the money,” and that he does not give the whole fifty shekels, this is not only when the dedication was after the jubilee year. It also applies when the dedication was immediately after the jubilee year in a case where the redeemer only came to redeem it a few years after his dedication. The verse wrote one case and the same applies to someone who came a few years after his dedication.

וחשב לו הכהן את הכסף על פי השנים הנותרת THEN THE PRIEST SHALL RECKON FOR HIM THE MONEY ACCORDING TO THE YEARS THAT ARE LEFT — it must be according to a reckoning. How is it to be done? You see, it (Scripture) has fixed the value of forty-nine years at fifty shekels, that is, one shekel for each year and one additional shekel for all of them (for all the years together). Now a shekel is forty-eight pundion; that gives one selah (shekel) and one pundion for each year, except that there is one pundion short for all the years (reckoning the price per year as the Torah prescribes, he pays forty-nine shekels and forty-nine pundion, equal to fifty shekels and one pundion whereas really he should pay fifty shekels, which is one pundion less than the calculation based upon the yearly rate. Our Rabbis said that that pundion is the commission for the money-changing (Bekhorot 50a), and therefore if he comes to redeem the field some years after the Jubilee, he must give a selah and a pundion for each year of those years that remain until the Jubilee year (Sifra, Bechukotai, Chapter 10 10; Arakhin 24b).

A kalbon (small sum). I.e., an additional amount for each sela [acquired in exchange for smaller coins, because small coins are more valuable]. פרוטרוט is similar to the word פרוטה (the small perutah coin), i.e., small coins [lit. little by little].

ונגרע מערכך AND THERE SHALL BE ABATED FROM THE VALUATION the number of years that have elapsed from the Jubilee year until the year when the redemption takes place.

That are from the jubilee year. Because it was in the hands of the Temple during those years, we count from [after] those years. Because the amount the redeemer must give is only according to number [of years] from the year of redemption until the jubilee year, when the redeemer eats its fruits. But not according to the number of years from the jubilee year until the year of redemption when he does not eat its fruits.