Megillah, Daf Kaf Zayin, Part 3

 

משנה. אין מוכרין את של רבים ליחיד מפני שמורידין אותו מקדושתו, דברי רבי מאיר. אמרו לו: אם כן אף לא מעיר גדולה לעיר קטנה.

 

They may not sell [something] belonging to a community because this lowers its sanctity, the words of Rabbi Meir.

They said to him: if so, it should not be allowed to sell from a larger town to a smaller one.

 

According to Rabbi Meir there is an additional restriction when it comes to selling holy items. The community cannot sell an item belonging to the community to an individual. So if the synagogue owns scrolls and they wish to sell them to buy a Torah, they may not sell the scrolls to an individual. This means that according to Rabbi Meir there seems to be holiness in the community. The item is more holy because it is owned by a community, an entity which has greater holiness than an individual. Alternatively, an item is holier if it is used by more people.

The other sages respond that it is problematic to quantify holiness based on the number of people within an entity. If a community is holier than an individual, than a large community is holier than a small community. Since this doesn t make sense, the sages reject Rabbi Meir s halakhah altogether.

 

גמרא. שפיר קאמרי ליה רבנן לרבי מאיר!

ורבי מאיר: מעיר גדולה לעיר קטנה – מעיקרא קדישא, השתא נמי קדישא, מרבים ליחיד ליכא קדושה.

 

GEMARA. The rabbis gave a good response to R. Meir?

And R. Meir [what would he say]?

[To sell] from a large town to a small one [is unobjectionable], because if it was holy to begin with, it is still holy now.

But if it goes from a community to an individual, there is no holiness left.

 

The mishnah concludes with the rabbis’ words; no response from R. Meir is offered. The Talmud says that R. Meir could have responded that when something holy is sold from a large to a small community, it still remains holy. Any community is holy, no matter how small. However, if it is sold from a community to an individual, then it loses its holiness. Holiness is vested in the community, regardless of its size. But not in an individual.

ורבנן: אי איכא למיחש כי האי גוונא נמי איכא למיחש, משום +משלי י"ד+ ברב עם הדרת מלך.

 

And what about the rabbis? If there is cause for concern, then there would be cause for concern in this case as well because "The glory of the king is in the presence of the multitudes" (Proverbs 14:28).

 

The rabbis stick to their guns, citing the verse from Proverbs that would imply that the more people there are to praise "the king," i.e. God, the better. If one could not sell to an individual then even a sale to a smaller community would be prohibited. But since we know we do not prohibit sales to smaller communities, sales to individuals are allowed as well.