Eruchin 4:4 - 5:1

ילד – (who pledged the valuation of an elder) from age twenty until age sixty, for his value is fifty Shekel.

נותן כזמן הערך – as it is written (Leviticus 27:17): “[If he consecrates his land as of the jubilee year,] its assessment stands,” he does not give other than according to the time of the valuation.

יום שלשים כלמטה – if he stated that the valuation of so-and-so a minor child is upon me, and that minor was on that day was thirty [days old], it is like it is below that, and he did not say anything, for there is no valuation for less than a month [old], and thus it is written (Leviticus 27:6): “If the age is from one month [to five years, the equivalent for a male is five shekels of silver, and the equivalent for a female is three shekels of silver].”

מבן ששים שנה ומעלה – implying that the sixtieth year was completed, and then he is judged like someone sixty [years old], but in the sixtieth year, he is judged as a child.

הן אם עשינו – in astonishment. Meaning to say, and if this the case, if we made the sixtieth [year] like it is lower than this to be stringent for a valuation of an adult one should lessen from athe age of sixty for fifty Sela, but for someone older than age sixty, it is not other than fifteen [Sela].

כלמטה ממנה להקל – that the valuation is more for someone who is twenty years old, an adult who is a less than twenty years, old, and similarly, with someone who is five [years old]. As it is written in Biblical verses.

רבי אליעזר אומר (the foregoing applies so long as they are a month and a day more than the years [which are prescribed]) - Always the fifth year and the twentieth year and the sixtieth year are like less than that age. That we derive from an analogy comparing from the usage of the word "למעלה" and "למעלה". It is stated here (Leviticus 27:7): “If the age is sixty years or over/מבן-ששים שנה ומעלה, [the equivalent is fifteen shekels in the case of a male and ten shekels for a female],” and it is stated (Numbers 18:16): “Take as their redemption price from the age of one month up/ופדויו מבן חודש ומעלה [the money equivalent of five shekels by the sanctuary weight which is twenty gerahs],” just as there it is it is one month and one day, for a firstling is not redeemed any younger than from one month and one day, so even here, until he adds on to the sixty months and one day. And the fifth year and the twentieth year we derive from an analogy – שנה שנה /a year, a year (see the Mishnah), from the sixtieth year, as the first Tanna/teacher derives above, but the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Eliezer.

האומר משקלי עלי כו', אם כסף כסף – if he specified silver, he gives his weight in silver, but if he specified gold, he gives his weight in gold. But surely it comes to tell us that if he didn’t specify, but rather stated merely, “my weight is upon me,” he exempted himself from anything, as long as there will be a thing that is similar to it that is ordinarily weighed in that place. And even pitch/tar and even onions and the people of the place are accustomed to sell them by weight, and one of the people of that place said merely: “my weight is incumbent on me [as a pledge to the Temple]” but did not specify, he gives his weight in pitch/tar or in onions and is further exempt.

ומעשה באמה של ירמטיה – It explains in the Gemara (Tractate Arakhin 19a) that our Mishnah is deficient and should be read as follows, and if he is a prominent person, even though he has not expressly stated, we estimate in accordance with his honor, and it happened with the mother of the Yirmatia, a woman whose name was such, that said, “I vow the weight of my daughter,” and she went up to Jerusalem and weighed her, and then she paid her weight in gold, because she was estimated in wealth.

משקל ידי עלי – how does he weigh his hand, for if he wants he makes it heavy and if he wants, he makes it lighter?

ומכניסה עד מרפקו (pokes his hand in up to his elbow) – KUDO in the foreign tongue, because in vows one follows the language of human beings and at tht time, they would call the hand from the arm to the elbow, and when one places one’s hand into the jar filled with water, the water that is in the jar will spill out according to the place of the hand that one entered into it until the elbow (i.e., the water is displaced), and he goes back and places the flesh, sinews and bones of a donkey, for the weight of the flesh of a donkey is like the weight of the flesh of a human being, and there will be in that flesh sinews and bones according what is in the hand [of a human being] for the weight of the bones and sinews is not equivalent to the weight of the flesh, and he places into it until it returns and is filled up like it was, for now there is volume like the measurement of his hand, and he weighs the flesh and these sinews and this is the weight of his hand.

היאך אפשר לכוין בשר כנגד בשר – for perhaps here is in the flesh of a donkey that place that he places into the jar more sinews and bones from what is in the hand [of a human being] or less, and it is found that the weight is not equivalent. And the Halakha is according to Rabbi Yossi.