WEEKLY DAFootnotes #16
Bava Kama 107-113; Issue #16
Week of 25 Cheshvan - 2 Kislev 5762 / 11-17 Nov. 2001
DIVIDING UP THE SACRED DUTIES
The unfamiliar names Yehoyariv and Yedayah mentioned in our Mishnah recall for us the historical chapter of how the kohanim were divided up into "mishmarot" in the Beit Hamikdash.
A Jew who falsely denied a monetary claim against him and took an oath to strengthen his lie is directed by the Torah how to achieve atonement when he confesses his sin. He must pay the money in question to the claimant plus a "chomesh" (literally a fifth but actually a quarter, i.e., a fifth of the principle plus chomesh) and offer an asham sacrifice. Should the claimant die, he makes this payment to the claimant's heirs. But if the claimant is a convert who fathered no children since his conversion and therefore has no heirs, the payment must be made to the kohanim who are on duty at that time in the Beit Hamikdash.
If he gave the money to the mishmar of Yehoyariv and later brought his sacrifice to the mishmar of Yedayah, states the Mishnah, he has fulfilled his obligation.
The background for these names is a passage in the Torah (Devarim 18:18) which alludes to the arrangement made in dividing up the kohanim into "mishmarot" - sections - which would rotate weekly in performing their priestly duties. Rashi there refers to the gemara (Mesechta Ta'anit 27a) which relates that Moshe made the first such division into eight mishmarot - four from each of the two surviving sons of Aharon, Elazar and Itamar. Hundreds of years later the Prophet Shmuel and King David increased the number to twenty-four. When lots were drawn for the order, Yehoyariv and Yedayah gained first and second place (Divrei Hayamim I 24:7).
The aforementioned gemara offers us an interesting historical footnote to the order of the mishmarot. When Ezra led the return to Eretz Yisrael from Babylonian exile, most Jews remained behind in the comparative comfort of Babylon, including most of the kohanim. Of the four who did make aliya, twenty-four mishmarot were formed by the prophets among them. Since Yedayah was among those who came, this mishmar was granted primacy in service in the Second Beit Hamikdash over Yehoyariv who would come to Eretz Yisrael only at a later stage.
Bava Kama 110a
THE AGE OF FATHERHOOD
What does the chapter of returning stolen money to a convert have to do with the age when a male is capable of fathering a child?
"If there shall not be to this man an heir to whom the money can be returned," says the Torah (Bamidbar 5:8) "then it must be returned to Hashem by giving it to the kohanim."
This is the compensation to the claimant, or to his heirs, required of one who falsely denied a claim, took an oath to reinforce his lie and subsequently confessed his sin. Where there are no heirs, payment goes to the kohanim.
The Sage Ravina raised the question regarding a woman convert. Since the Torah specified man in this passage, was it intended to exclude women, and therefore the repentant sinner may keep the money if the claimant was a woman convert who died without heirs?
Rabbi Aharon solved this problem by citing a beraita which deduces from a double expression of "returning" in the above passage that the law regarding a woman convert is the same as that regarding a man. Then why does the Torah use the term man?
This is to teach us that only if the convert claimant was an adult (bar mitzvah age) must a search be made to ascertain whether he married following conversion and fathered an heir. Should the convert die before reaching adulthood there is no need to make such a search, because he would have been physically incapable of fathering a child, as pointed out by the Sage Rabbah in Mesechta Sanhedrin (69a).
Bava Kama 109b
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