Rosh Hashanah 12

ומתוך ששינו מעשיהם שינה הקדוש ברוך הוא עליהם מעשה בראשית והעלה מזל כימה ביום ונטל שני כוכבים והביא מבול לעולם

But because the people changed their actions for the worse, the Holy One, Blessed be He, changed for them the acts of Creation and He caused the constellation of Kima to rise during the day, and He removed two stars from it and He brought a flood to the world.

בשלמא לרבי יהושע היינו דכתיב שני אלא לרבי אליעזר מאי שני שני לדין

The Gemara asks: Granted, according to Rabbi Yehoshua, who holds that the flood began in the month of Iyyar, this is as it is written: “In the second month,” which is referring to the month of Iyyar, the second month from Nisan. But according to Rabbi Eliezer, who holds that the flood began in the month of Marḥeshvan, what is the meaning of “the second month”? The Gemara answers: It means second to the month that includes the day of judgment, which is the month of Tishrei.

בשלמא לרבי יהושע היינו דשינה אלא לרבי אליעזר מאי שינה

The Gemara asks further: Granted, according to Rabbi Yehoshua, who holds that the flood began in the month of Iyyar, this is what it means that He changed the acts of Creation with a flood, as rain does not usually fall in Iyyar. But according to Rabbi Eliezer, who holds that the flood began in Marḥeshvan, what did He change?

כדרב חסדא דאמר רב חסדא ברותחין קלקלו וברותחין נידונו ברותחין קלקלו בעבירה וברותחין נידונו כתיב הכא וישכו המים וכתיב התם וחמת המלך שככה

The Gemara answers: Even according to Rabbi Eliezer a change was made, in accordance with the statement of Rav Ḥisda, as Rav Ḥisda said: They sinned with boiling heat, and they were punished with boiling heat; they sinned with the boiling heat of the sin of forbidden sexual relations, and they were punished with the boiling heat of scalding waters. This is derived from a verbal analogy. It is written here, with regard to the flood: “And the waters abated” (Genesis 8:1), and it is written elsewhere, with regard to King Ahasuerus: “And the heated anger of the king abated” (Esther 7:10), which implies that the word “abated” means cooled. This indicates that at first the waters of the flood had been scalding hot.

תנו רבנן חכמי ישראל מונין למבול כרבי אליעזר ולתקופה כרבי יהושע חכמי אומות העולם מונין אף למבול כרבי יהושע

The Sages taught in a baraita: The Jewish Sages count the years from Creation and the flood in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Eliezer, from Tishrei, and they calculate the cycles of the sun and the moon in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Yehoshua, from Nisan. The sages of the gentile nations of the world, on the other hand, count both the years from Creation and the flood in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Yehoshua, from Nisan.

ולירקות תנא לירקות ולמעשרות ולנדרים לירקות מאי נינהו מעשר ירק

§ The mishna taught: And the first of Tishrei is the new year for vegetables. It is taught in a baraita: The first of Tishrei is the new year for vegetables, and for tithes, and for vows. The Gemara asks: What is meant by the term: For vegetables? It means for the vegetable tithe, i.e., one may not take teruma or tithes from vegetables picked before Rosh HaShana in order to fulfill the obligation for vegetables picked after Rosh HaShana.

היינו מעשרות תנא דרבנן וקתני דאורייתא

The Gemara asks: If so, this is the same as the meaning of the term for tithes, and yet the baraita distinguishes between them. The Gemara answers: The baraita taught first about a tithe that is by rabbinic law, i.e., the vegetable tithe, that its new year is the first of Tishrei, and then it teaches about a tithe that is by Torah law, i.e., the tithe of grain, wine, and oil, that its new year is also the first of Tishrei.

וליתני דאורייתא ברישא איידי דחביבא ליה אקדמה ותנא דידן תנא דרבנן וכל שכן דאורייתא

The Gemara asks: If so, let the tanna of the baraita teach that which is by Torah law in the first clause. The Gemara explains: Since the halakha with regard to vegetable tithes was dear to him, he mentioned it first. He taught first about the tithe that is by rabbinic decree, as it involves a greater novelty, and afterward he taught about the tithe that is by Torah law. The Gemara asks further: And with regard to the tanna of our mishna, who mentioned only vegetables but not tithes, what is his reasoning? The Gemara explains: He taught vegetable tithes, which are by rabbinic decree, and from which one may infer all the more so that the first of Tishrei is the new year for the tithe of grain, wine, and oil, which is by Torah law.

וליתני מעשר אחד מעשר בהמה ואחד מעשר דגן וליתני ירק תרי גווני ירק דתנן ירק הנאגד משיאגד ושאינו נאגד משימלא את הכלי

The Gemara raises a question about the baraita: But let the tanna of the baraita teach: Tithe, in the singular. Why teach tithes in the plural? The Gemara answers: He uses this formulation to include both the animal tithe and the grain tithe. The Gemara asks further: But let him teach: Vegetable, in the singular. Why teach: Vegetables, in the plural? The Gemara answers: He means to include two categories of vegetables, as we learned in a mishna: With regard to a type of vegetable that is usually made into bundles before being sold, the time of tithing is from when it is bundled; and with regard to a type of vegetable that is not usually made into such bundles, the time of tithing is from when one fills a vessel with it.

תנו רבנן ליקט ירק ערב ראש השנה עד שלא תבא השמש וחזר וליקט

§ The Sages taught in a baraita: If one picked vegetables on the eve of Rosh HaShana before the sun had set, so that they belong to the previous year, and then he returned and he picked more vegetables

משתבא השמש אין תורמין ומעשרין מזה על זה לפי שאין תורמין ומעשרין לא מן החדש על הישן ולא מן הישן על החדש אם היתה שניה נכנסת לשלישית שניה מעשר ראשון ומעשר שני שלישית מעשר ראשון ומעשר עני

after sunset, so that they belong to the new year, one may not set aside teruma and tithe from the one to the other, as one may not set aside teruma and tithe from the new crop for the old nor from the old crop for the new. If it was the second year of the Sabbatical cycle going into the third year, the halakha is: From what he picked in the second year he must set aside first tithe, which he gives to a Levite, and second tithe, which he eats in Jerusalem; from what he picked in the third year, he must set aside first tithe and poor man’s tithe, which he gives to one who is needy.

מנא הני מילי אמר רבי יהושע בן לוי כי תכלה לעשר את כל מעשר תבואתך בשנה השלישית שנת המעשר שנה שאין בה אלא מעשר אחד הא כיצד מעשר ראשון ומעשר עני ומעשר שני יבטל

From where are these matters derived that during the third year one must set aside poor man’s tithe and not second tithe? Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: The verse states: “When you have made an end of tithing all the tithes of your produce in the third year, which is the year of the tithe” (Deuteronomy 26:12). This is referring to a year when there is only one of the two tithes that had been given in the previous years. How so? One sets aside first tithe and poor man’s tithe, which is explicitly mentioned in that section, and second tithe is nullified that year.

או אינו אלא אף מעשר ראשון נמי יבטל תלמוד לומר ואל הלוים תדבר ואמרת אליהם כי תקחו מאת בני ישראל את המעשר אשר נתתי לכם מאתם בנחלתכם הקישו הכתוב לנחלה מה נחלה אין לה הפסק אף מעשר ראשון אין לו הפסק

Or perhaps it is not like this, but in fact even first tithe is nullified during the third year and only one tithe is set aside, i.e., the poor man’s tithe. Therefore, the verse states: “Thus speak to the Levites, and say to them: When you take of the children of Israel the tithes which I have given you from them for your inheritance” (Numbers 18:26). The verse juxtaposes the first tithe that is given to the Levites to an inheritance of land: Just as with regard to an inheritance there is no interruption, as by Torah law a landed inheritance cannot be sold in perpetuity, but rather it passes from one generation to the next without interruption, so too, with regard to the first tithe that is given to the Levites there is no interruption, but rather it is taken every year.

תניא אידך כי תכלה לעשר וגו׳ שנה שאין בה אלא מעשר אחד הא כיצד מעשר ראשון ומעשר עני ומעשר שני יבטל יכול אף מעשר ראשון נמי יבטל תלמוד לומר ובא הלוי כל זמן שבא תן לו דברי רבי יהודה

The same halakha is taught in another baraita: The verse states: “When you have made an end of tithing all the tithes of your produce in the third year, which is the year of the tithe.” This is referring to the year when there is only one of the two tithes that had been given in the previous years. How so? One sets aside first tithe and poor man’s tithe, and second tithe is canceled. One might have thought that even first tithe is canceled during the third year. Therefore, the verse states: “And the Levite, because he has no part or inheritance with you, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied” (Deuteronomy 14:29). Whenever the Levite comes, give him; every year you must give the Levite his tithe. This is the statement of Rabbi Yehuda.

רבי אליעזר בן יעקב אומר אינו צריך הרי הוא אומר ואל הלוים תדבר ואמרת אליהם כי תקחו מאת בני ישראל את המעשר אשר נתתי לכם מאתם בנחלתכם הקישו הכתוב לנחלה מה נחלה אין לה הפסק אף מעשר ראשון אין לו הפסק

Rabbi Eliezer ben Ya’akov says: One need not learn this from here but from another source, as it says: “Thus speak to the Levites, and say to them: When you take of the children of Israel the tithes which I have given you from them for your inheritance.” The verse juxtaposes the first tithe to an inheritance of land: Just as with regard to a landed inheritance there is no interruption, so too, with regard to first tithe there is no interruption.

ולנדרים וכו׳ תנו רבנן המודר הנאה מחבירו לשנה מונה שנים עשר חודש מיום ליום ואם אמר לשנה זו אפילו לא עמד אלא בעשרים ותשעה באלול כיון שהגיע יום אחד בתשרי עלתה לו שנה

§ It was taught in the baraita cited above: And the first of Tishrei is the new year for vows. The Sages taught in a baraita: One who is prohibited by a vow from deriving benefit from another for a year counts twelve months from day to day, from the day that the vow was taken. This applies whether one took a vow not to derive any benefit from another for a year, or he was the subject of someone else’s vow prohibiting him from deriving any benefit from that individual’s property for a year. But if, when he took the vow, he said: For this year, then even if he took the vow only on the twenty-ninth of Elul, once the first day of Tishrei, the following month, has arrived, it is counted as a year, and he is permitted to derive benefit from the other.

אפילו למאן דאמר יום אחד בשנה אינו חשוב שנה לצעוריה נפשיה קביל עליה והא אצטער ליה

The Gemara comments: This is true even according to the one who said that one day in a year is not considered a year, since in the case of a vow the person accepted upon himself to suffer affliction, and he has already achieved his goal and suffered affliction, and so he has fulfilled his vow.

ואימא ניסן בנדרים הלך אחר לשון בני אדם

The Gemara asks: But say that a year with regard to vows ends in Nisan. The Gemara answers: The halakha is that with regard to vows, follow the ordinary language of people. The meaning of a vow is understood in accordance with the way that the words are used in common speech, and when people speak of a year, they ordinarily count it from the beginning of Tishrei.

תנן התם התלתן משתצמח התבואה והזיתים משיביאו שליש

We learned in a mishna there (Ma’asrot 1:3): From when is produce obligated in tithes? Fenugreek is obligated from the time when it sprouts. Grain and olives are obligated from the time when they have reached one-third of their growth.

מאי משתצמח משתצמח לזרעים

The Gemara asks: What is the meaning of the phrase: From the time when it sprouts? Fenugreek begins to sprout almost immediately after it is planted. The Gemara answers: It means from the time when it sprouts for seed, i.e., from the time that its seeds are sufficiently developed to sprout into another crop.

התבואה והזיתים משיביאו שליש מנא הני מילי אמר רב אסי אמר רבי יוחנן ומטו בה משמיה דרבי יוסי הגלילי אמר קרא מקץ שבע שנים במועד שנת השמטה בחג הסוכות שנת השמטה מאי עבידתיה בחג הסוכות שמינית היא

It was taught in the mishna: Grain and olives are obligated in tithes from the time when they have reached one-third of their growth. The Gemara asks: From where are these matters derived, that the years of produce follow the first third of their growth? Rav Asi said that Rabbi Yoḥanan said, and some determined that this statement was said in the name of Rabbi Yosei HaGelili: The verse states: “At the end of every seven years, in the time of the year of release, in the festival of Sukkot” (Deuteronomy 31:10). What is the purpose of the Sabbatical Year being mentioned with the festival of Sukkot? The festival of Sukkot is already the eighth year.

אלא לומר לך כל תבואה שהביאה שליש בשביעית לפני ראש השנה אתה נוהג בו מנהג שביעית בשמינית

Rather, it comes to tell you that the halakhot of the Sabbatical Year continue to apply on Sukkot of the following year, as you must treat all produce that reached one-third of its growth in the Sabbatical Year before Rosh HaShana with the sanctity of the Sabbatical Year, even if it fully grows and is able to be used only in the eighth year.

אמר ליה רבי זירא לרב אסי

Rabbi Zeira said to Rav Asi: