✦ ❖ ✦
DAAT · LEVEL 1 — INTRODUCTION

Siman קנ״ג · Building and using the synagogue

דיני בניין בית הכנסת — building and consecrating a synagogue; the ladder of sanctity (מעלין בקדש ואין מורידין); selling בית הכנסת and using the proceeds; village (כפר) or city (כרך); שבעה טובי העיר במעמד אנשי העיר; the sacred objects (כלי הקודש) and one accustomed to a mitsva
סימן קנ״ג · כ״ב סעיפים
דיני בניין בית הכנסת
🌱 Introductory level · Beginners
✦ ❖ ✦

This siman teaches the laws of the synagogue (בית הכנסת): how it is built and consecrated; the great principle מעלין בקדש ואין מורידין (in sanctity one rises, one does not descend) that governs the sale of the synagogue and its objects and the use of the proceeds; the difference between a village (כפר) and a city (כרך); the authority of the שבעה טובי העיר במעמד אנשי העיר; the status of the sacred objects (כלי הקודש); and one accustomed to a mitsva. Hebrew text, fluent English translation and explanation of the כ״ב seifim, with a section of practical cases.

Topic: Building and using the synagogue — בניין, מכירה, מעלין בקדש, כפר וכרך, שבעה טובי העיר, כלי הקודש
Source: שולחן ערוך אורח חיים סימן קנ״ג · כ״ב סעיפים

Compiled by: רב יוסף חיים סממה
DAAT · daattorah.com

Our Sages taught (מגילה כ״ו.): מעלין בקדש ואין מורידין — in matters of sanctity one rises, one does not descend. This principle is the thread of the siman: the synagogue and its objects have קדושה, and when one sells them or uses their proceeds, one may only move from a lesser sanctity to a greater one. We study here at the level of principle; for personal conduct, one refers to the custom and to the ruling of the Rav.

📑 Study outline

A. The כ״ב seifim — building and consecrating, the ladder of sanctity, selling the synagogue, village or city, the individual and gifts, פדיון שבויים, forbidding one s share, the sacred objects, one accustomed to a mitsva
1. Practical case — selling a village or a city synagogue (כפר or כרך)
2. Practical case — the proceeds of the sale: rise but do not descend in sanctity
3. Practical case — שבעה טובי העיר במעמד אנשי העיר : who may decide?
+ Comprehension questions and going further

A. The synagogue — the כ״ב seifim

בֵּית הַכְּנֶסֶת — the synagogue — a place of קדושה. Hence the whole siman: above it stands the בית המדרש (house of study), holier still; its objects form a ladder of sanctity (synagogue → תיבה/היכל → מטפחת → ספרים → ספר תורה); and one may never descend a holy thing to a lesser sanctity — מעלין בקדש ואין מורידין.

Séifim 1 & 8 — Building and consecrating

מותר לעשות מבית הכנסת בית המדרש, אבל לא מבית המדרש בית הכנסת. בנו בית סתם והקדישוהו אחר כך לבית הכנסת — דינו כבית הכנסת, ואינו קדוש עד שיתפללו בו.
Séif 1: one may make a synagogue into a beit hamidrash (house of study), but not the reverse. Séif 8: if they built an ordinary building and then consecrated it as a synagogue — its status is that of a synagogue, but it is sanctified only once one has prayed in it.
The בית המדרש is holier than the synagogue: one may therefore raise a synagogue to the rank of a house of study, but not lower a house of study to a synagogue (מעלין בקדש ואין מורידין). And the sanctity of a place takes hold through use: it is the prayer that consecrates — even that of passing guests — once the place was designated for it.

Séifim 2–6 — The ladder of sanctity and the proceeds of the sale

בני העיר שמכרו בית הכנסת — יכולים ליקח בדמיו תיבה; מכרו תיבה — מטפחת; מכרו מטפחת — ספרים; מכרו ספרים — ספר תורה. אבל איפכא, להורידן מקדושתן — אסור. ומוכרים בית הכנסת ואפילו ספר תורה להספקת תלמידים או להשיא יתומים בדמיו.
Séifim 2–6: when the townspeople have sold the synagogue, they may acquire with the proceeds a תיבה (the ark in which the ספר תורה is placed); if they sold the תיבה — a מטפחת (the scroll s wrapping); the מטפחת — ספרים (Chumashim, Neviïm, Ketuvim); the ספרים — a ספר תורה. But the reverse — lowering them from their sanctity — is forbidden. And one may sell the synagogue and even a ספר תורה to support students or to marry off orphans with the proceeds.
There is a hierarchy: synagogue < תיבה/היכל < מטפחת < ספרים < ספר תורה. With the proceeds one only rises (toward the holier); one never descends. The remainder (מותר הדמים) follows the same rule (séif 5), and a ספר תורה found to contain an error has the status of a חומש (séif 3). Two purposes even permit selling a ספר תורה: תלמוד תורה and marrying off orphans (séif 6).

Séifim 7 & 9 — Village (כפר) or city (כרך) · שבעה טובי העיר

בית הכנסת של כפרים — נמכר, ושל כרכים — אינו נמכר. ומכרו אנשי הכפר — הלוקח עושה בו מה שירצה, חוץ ממרחץ ובורסקי ובית הטבילה ובית הכסא; ואם מכרוהו שבעה טובי העיר במעמד אנשי העיר — עושה הלוקח אף אלו הארבעה.
Séifim 7 & 9: the synagogue of a village (כפר) may be sold, but that of a large city (כרך) may not — because people come to it from elsewhere and it was not made for its inhabitants alone. When the villagers have sold it, the buyer does with it as he wishes, except four degrading uses: bathhouse, tannery, ritual bath and latrine; but if the שבעה טובי העיר (seven notables) sold it במעמד אנשי העיר (in the presence of the community), the buyer may even those four uses.
A village synagogue belongs to its inhabitants alone: it is saleable, but the money keeps its sanctity — unless the שבעה טובי העיר במעמד אנשי העיר sold it, in which case the community may use the proceeds as it wishes. A city synagogue is not saleable (it belongs to the wider public). The presence of the notables and the community is the strongest degree of authority.

Séifim 10–12 — The individual, gifts, exchanges and loans

יחיד בשלו — אפילו ספר תורה — יש מתירים למכרו ולעשות בדמיו כל מה שירצה, כל שלא הקדישו לקרות בו ברבים. ולבנים ועצים מבית הכנסת ישן שסתרו — נותנים במתנה ומחליפים, אבל אין ממשכנים ואין משכירים ואין משאילים אותם.
Séif 10: an individual, with what is his — even a ספר תורה — some permit him to sell it and use the proceeds as he wishes, as long as he has not consecrated it for public reading. Séif 11: the bricks and beams of an old synagogue that was demolished may be given as a gift or exchanged, but not pledged, rented or lent (for they would remain in their sanctity with nothing for it to transfer to). Séif 12: one who has an agreement with the community that he alone and his descendants shall build the synagogue cannot sell that right to another.
A private possession not dedicated to the public retains a latitude that communal property lacks. Gift and exchange are allowed (as they yield an equivalent benefit, like a sale), but pledge, rental and loan are not — except lending a ספר תורה to read from, which does not lower it (Rama). And a personal right tied to the synagogue is not transferable.

Séifim 13 & 14 — פדיון שבויים and the gift of land

גבו מעות לבניין בית הכנסת ובא להם דבר מצוה — מוציאין בו המעות. קנו אבנים וקורות — אין מוכרים אלא לפדיון שבויים; ואם בנו וגמרו — אין מוכרים את בית הכנסת, אלא גובים לפדיון מן הציבור.
Séif 13: if they collected money to build a synagogue and a mitsva presented itself, they use the money for it; but if they already bought stones and beams, they sell them only for פדיון שבויים (the ransom of captives); and if they built and finished, they do not sell the synagogue but collect for the ransom from the community. Séif 14: Reuven who gave land to build a synagogue and it could not be built — the details of the right to retract depending on whether he lives in the town or not.
As long as it is only money that was collected, it may be redirected to another mitsva; but once it has become stones and beams designated for the building, only the supreme mitsva of ransoming captives prevails; and once the synagogue is built and finished, one does not sell it even for that — one collects separately. The gift of land (séif 14) depends on the giver s original intent.

Séifim 15–17 — One cannot forbid one s share

אין אדם יכול לאסור חלקו מבית הכנסת ולא מן הספרים, ואם אסר — אינו כלום. והמשאיל ביתו לבית הכנסת — אינו יכול לאוסרו על יחיד מחמת מריבה, אלא אם כן יאסרנו על כל הקהל כאחד.
Séif 15: no one may forbid his share of the synagogue or of the books; if he forbade it — it is of no effect. Séif 16: one who lent his house to serve as a synagogue and is in a quarrel with one of the community cannot forbid it to him alone, unless he forbids it to the whole community together (unless he stipulated from the outset that he could object). Séif 17: one who has had a synagogue in his house for many years — the community has no right to move it elsewhere.
The synagogue belongs to the collective: an individual therefore cannot forbid his own portion (a נדר has no hold on what is not exclusively his). Even one who lent his own house cannot punish a single member out of resentment; and a long-established use is not moved at the community s whim.

Séifim 18–21 — The sacred objects (כלי הקודש)

כלי הקודש של כסף שרגילים להביא לבית הכנסת בחגים — אין מוציאים אותם לחולין ולמכרם. ואין לוקחים מעילים שנשתמש בהם הדיוט לתשמיש קדושה.
Séif 18: silver sacred objects that one is accustomed to bring to the synagogue on the festivals — one may not render them profane or sell them, and the community may seize them so they remain sacred. Séif 19: a writing found after someone s death attesting that he consecrated objects, even without witnesses and without having handed them to the community — it is nonetheless a הקדש. Séif 20: a ספר תורה established to have belonged to Reuven s forefathers — the community cannot take hold of it. Séif 21: one does not buy, for sacred use, cloaks that a layman used; and one does not make a thing of mitsva from the wages of sin (אתנן).
A regular use (the festivals) fixes the sanctity of the silver objects, which can no longer be made profane. Consecration (הקדש) takes hold even by a mere writing found; what has remained a family possession does not become communal; and one keeps away from sacred use anything bearing a trace of degradation or sin (מעילים, אתנן).

Séif 22 — One accustomed to a mitsva

אדם הרגיל במצוה — כגון גלילה — ואירעו אונס או עוני, ונתנו הקהל המצוה לאחר: אם היה בידו לתת ולא חפץ — איבד זכותו; אבל אם לא היה בידו לתת, ועתה שיש בידו רוצה לחזור — חוזר למצוותו.
Séif 22: one accustomed to a certain mitsva — for example the גלילה (rolling up the ספר תורה) — whom a mishap or poverty struck, so that the community gave the mitsva to another, and who then grew wealthy and wishes to recover it: if, when it was given to the second, he had the means to give what he used to give each year and did not want it, agreeing with the community to give it to another — he has forfeited his right; but if at that time he did not have the means, and now that he does he wishes to reclaim it and give as before — he returns to his mitsva.
An acquired right to a mitsva (like the גלילה) is retained as long as one has not voluntarily renounced it. If he gave up the mitsva while he could still assume it — he has lost it; but if he let it go out of sheer constraint (poverty), he recovers it as soon as he is able again.
The siman in one sentence: the synagogue and its objects have קדושה; one may make it a בית המדרש but not the reverse, and it is consecrated by prayer; with the proceeds of a sale one only rises in sanctity (מעלין בקדש ואין מורידין); a village synagogue is saleable (fully by the שבעה טובי העיר במעמד אנשי העיר), a city one is not; one may neither forbid one s share nor lower the sacred objects from their sanctity; and a right to a mitsva is lost by renunciation, not by constraint.

Practical cases

Case 1 — Selling a synagogue: village or city?

Situation: a community wants to sell its old synagogue. May it, and may the buyer put it to any use?
Conduct: a village synagogue (כפר), made for its inhabitants alone, may be sold; but the buyer will not put it to a degrading use (bathhouse, tannery, מקוה, latrine) — unless it was sold by the שבעה טובי העיר במעמד אנשי העיר. A large city synagogue (כרך), to which people come from elsewhere, is not saleable. For the practical application, one follows one s Rav.

Case 2 — The proceeds of the sale

Situation: they sold a holy object (e.g. a מטפחת) and wish to use the money. To what may they apply it?
Conduct: only to a higher sanctity — מעלין בקדש ואין מורידין. With the price of a מטפחת one buys ספרים or a ספר תורה, never the reverse. The remainder follows the same rule. Two purposes even permit selling a ספר תורה: תלמוד תורה and marrying off orphans. For the details, one follows one s Rav.

Case 3 — שבעה טובי העיר במעמד אנשי העיר

Situation: who has the authority to decide on the sale and the use of the proceeds — any official, or the whole community?
Conduct: the strongest degree is that of the שבעה טובי העיר במעמד אנשי העיר — seven notables acting in the presence (and with the consent) of the community. There, one may use the proceeds for any purpose and the buyer even for the four degrading uses. Without this presence, the money keeps its sanctity. For concrete cases, one follows one s Rav.

Comprehension questions

Check your understanding:
  1. Why may one make a synagogue into a בית המדרש but not the reverse (séif 1)?
  2. What is the ladder of sanctity of the objects, and what does מעלין בקדש ואין מורידין mean (séifim 2–6)?
  3. What is the difference between a כפר synagogue and a כרך one regarding sale (séifim 7 & 9)?
  4. What does the presence of the שבעה טובי העיר במעמד אנשי העיר add (séifim 7 & 9)?
  5. When does one who was accustomed to a mitsva recover it, and when has he lost it (séif 22)?

Going further

If you wish to deepen this siman:
Continue to the next simanSiman 154 →
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
DAAT · רב יוסף חיים סממה

סימן קנ״ג · כ״ב סעיפים · Level 1 — Introduction
♥ Support DAAT
📖Join the khavroutha