3,022. Adding a Fifth to the Owner's Bid

Hilchos Arachin Vacharamin 8:5

The owners of consecrated property have the option to redeem before the property is offered for sale because they add a fifth. However, they need not add a fifth if they outbid other potential redeemers; they need only add a fifth to their original offers. For example, let’s say that the owner offers to redeem a consecrated item for 20 sela and a third party also offers 20 sela. The owner takes precedence because he adds a fifth and pays 25. [As we have discussed, it’s a fifth of the total, not of the principal.] If another person offers 21 sela and the owners remains silent, we sell it to the owner for 25. If the owner outbids the offer of 21 sela, even by a prutah (which is a small denomination), he pays 26 sela and one prutah. i.e., the 21 sela and a prutah that he bid and the five sela that are the added fifth from his original bid. (In other words, he doesn’t add a fifth to his increased bid.) Likewise, if a second bidder offered 22 sela, a third bidder offered 23, a fourth offered 24, a fifth offered 25, and the owner outbid them by even a prutah over 25, he pays 30 sela and one prutah. This comprises the 25 sela and a prutah that he bid, plus the five sela of the added fifth in which he is obligated. This is because the owner need not add a fifth to the bids of the others. Rather, he only adds the fifth of his original bid to his final bid.

Hilchos Arachin Vacharamin 8:6

The previous halacha applies when consecrated property was not appraised by three experts. If three experts appraised the consecrated property and said that it was worth the last amount bid and the owner outbid this amount by even a prutah, then the added fifth in which he is obligated is based on that last bid. In such a case he must pay 31 sela, one dinar and one prutah.