One who sells his field at a time that the Yovel is in force is not permitted to redeem [it] before two years, as it says: According to the crop-years shall he sell to you (Lev. 25:15). [If] it was a year of wind-blast, or yellowing, or [if it was] a Shemittah year, it is not included for him in the count. [If] he plowed it, or let it lie fallow, it is included for him in the count. R’ Elazar says: [If] he sold it to him before Rosh Hashanah, when it was full of produce, he may garner from it three crops in two years.

[If] he sold it to the first one for a maneh, and the first one [then] sold it to a second one for two hundred [zuz], he reckons only with the first one; as it says: To the man to whom he had sold it (Lev. 25:27). [If] he sold it to the first one for two hundred [zuz], and the first one sold it to the second one for a maneh, he reckons only with the latter; as it says: To the man — that is, to the man occupying it. He may not sell a distant [field] in order to redeem one nearby, [or] a poor one in order to redeem a good one. He may not borrow in order to redeem [it], nor may he redeem [it] by halves. But in the case of the Temple treasury, all of them are permitted. This is the stringency of the common [man] over the Temple.

[If] one sells a house of the houses of walled cities, he may redeem [it] immediately, and he may redeem [it] all twelve months. This is like a kind of interest, but it is not interest. Should the seller die, his son may redeem [it]. Should the buyer die, he may redeem [it] from his son. He counts the year for it only from the time he sold [it] to him; as it says: Until a full year has elapsed for him (Lev. 25:30). When [Scripture] says: full, [it comes] to include the intercalary month. Rabbi says: He must give him a year and its intercalary [days].

[If] the [final] day of the twelve months arrived and it was not redeemed, it would become permanently his. [This applies] both to the buyer and the recipient of a gift; as it says: In perpetuity (Lev. 25:30). Originally, he would hide on the [final] day of the twelve months so that it should become permanently his. Hillel the Elder enacted that he should deposit his money in the chamber, and break [down] the door and enter. Whenever the other one so desires, he may come and take his money.

Whatever is within the wall is [treated] according to [the law of] the houses of walled cities, with the exception of the fields. R’ Meir says: Even the fields. A house built into the [city] wall — R’ Yehudah says: It is not [treated] according to [the law of] the houses of walled cities. R’ Shimon says: The outer wall is its [city] wall.

A city whose roofs constitute its wall, or one that was not surrounded by a wall from the time of Joshua the son of Nun, is not [treated] according to [the law of] the houses of walled cities. These are the houses of walled cities: Three courtyards consisting of two houses each, surrounded by a wall since the days of Joshua the son of Nun; for example, Old Katzra of Tzipporim, Chakra of Gush Chalav, Old Yodphas, Gamla, Gedod, Chadid, Ono, and Jerusalem; and the same for all that are like them.

The houses of the open towns are accorded the advantages of the houses of walled cities, and the advantages of fields: They may be redeemed immediately, and they may be redeemed for the entire twelve months like houses; and they go out in Yovel, and with the deduction of money, like fields. These are the houses of open towns: Two courtyards consisting of two houses each, even if they are surrounded by a wall from the time of Joshua the son of Nun, are judged as houses of open towns.

[If] a Yisrael inherited from his maternal grandfather, a Levi, he does not redeem according to this order. And so, too, [if] a Levi inherited from his maternal grandfather, a Yisrael, he does not redeem according to this order. As it says (Lev. 25:33): For the houses of the cities of the Leviim — unless he is [both] a Levi and in the cities of the Leviim; [these are] the words of Rabbi. The Sages, however, say: These matters were stated only concerning the cities of the Leviim. We may not make a field into a clearing, nor a clearing into a field, nor a clearing into a city, nor a city into a clearing. R’ Eliezer said: To what does this apply? To the cities of the Leviim. But in cities belonging to Yisraelim we may make a field into a clearing, but not a clearing into a field; [and we may make] a clearing into a city, but not a city into a clearing; lest they destroy the cities of Yisrael. The Kohanim and the Leviim may sell at any time, and redeem at any time; as it says (Lev. 25:32): The Leviim shall have an eternal [right of] redemption.