Super Daf › Bekhorot 50 › Gems from the Daf
Daf prep · Bekhorot 50 · בכורות נ׳
Before you learn Bekhorot 50
Where we left off
The previous daf established that redemption of the firstborn requires high-grade Tyrian silver. The Gemara continues immediately, calculating the value of five sela coins using various contemporary currencies.
The question going in
How do we precisely calculate biblical silver amounts using historical weights and contemporary gold or silver coins?
Know before you start
- כסף צורי וכסף מדינה (Tyrian silver and provincial silver): Tyrian silver has high purity and serves as the standard for biblical payments. Provincial coinage is worth only one-eighth of Tyrian coinage,.
- פדיון הבן (Redemption of the firstborn): A father must redeem his firstborn son for five sanctuary shekels. Each holy sela corresponds to four silver dinars, yielding twenty dinars in total.
- עשרים גרה (Twenty gera): The Torah defines the sanctuary shekel as twenty gera. Tradition translates gera as a silver מעה (ma'ah), a coin worth one-sixth of a dinar.
Who's who
- Rabbi Yoḥanan (רבי יוחנן, Amora): He proposes calculating the redemption sum from worn Roman gold dinars.
- Rava (רבא, Amora): He asserts that the original biblical sela was worth only three and a third dinars.
- Rav Ashi (רב אשי, Amora): He tests whether redemption follows Rava's original biblical rate or the augmented rabbinic standard.
- Rav Asi (רב אסי, Amora): He defines when payments must use Tyrian silver versus provincial silver.