Rosh Hashanah 13

ודלמא לא עייל כלל וקאמר רחמנא תשמט ותיזיל עד חג הסוכות

But perhaps the verse is referring to produce that did not grow at all during the seventh year, and nevertheless, the Merciful One states in the Torah that all the halakhot of the Sabbatical Year continue to apply until the festival of Sukkot of the eighth year.

לא סלקא דעתך דכתיב וחג האסיף בצאת השנה מאי אסיף אילימא חג הבא בזמן אסיפה הכתיב באספך

The Gemara answers: It should not enter your mind to say this, as it is written: “And the festival of gathering, which is at the end of the year, when you have gathered in your labors out of the field” (Exodus 23:16). What is the meaning of “gathering”? If we say that it means: A Festival that comes at the time of gathering the crops, isn’t it already written: “When you have gathered in your labors”? There is no need to repeat this a second time.

אלא מאי אסיף קציר וקים להו לרבנן דכל תבואה שנקצרה בחג בידוע שהביאה שליש לפני ראש השנה וקא קרי לה בצאת השנה

Rather, what is meant here by “gathering”? It means harvesting. And the Sages have an accepted tradition that any grain that reaches full growth so that it is harvested on the festival of Sukkot is known to have reached one-third of its growth before Rosh HaShana, and the Torah calls that period of the year until Sukkot “at the end of the year,” thereby indicating that it is still subject to the halakhot governing the previous year.

אמר ליה רבי ירמיה לרבי זירא וקים להו לרבנן בין שליש לפחות משליש אמר ליה לאו אמינא לך לא תפיק נפשך לבר מהלכתא כל מדות חכמים כן הוא

§ Rabbi Yirmeya said to Rabbi Zeira: And are the Sages able to discern precisely between produce that reached one-third of its growth and produce that reached less than one-third of its growth? Rabbi Zeira said to him: Do I not always tell you that you must not take yourself out of the bounds of the halakha? All the measures of the Sages are like this; they are precise and exact.

ארבעים סאה הוא טובל בארבעים סאה חסר קורטוב אינו יכול לטבול בהן כביצה מטמא טומאת אוכלין כביצה חסר שומשום אינו מטמא טומאת אוכלין

For example, one who immerses himself in a ritual bath containing forty se’a of water is rendered pure, but in forty se’a less the tiny amount of a kortov, he cannot immerse and become pure in them. Similarly, an egg-bulk of impure food can render other food ritually impure, but an egg-bulk less even the tiny amount of a sesame seed does not render food ritually impure.

שלשה על שלשה מטמא מדרס שלשה על שלשה חסר נימא אחת אינו מטמא מדרס

So too, a piece of cloth three by three handbreadths in size is susceptible to ritual impurity imparted by treading, but a piece of cloth three by three handbreadths less one hair [nima] is not susceptible to ritual impurity imparted by treading.

הדר אמר רבי ירמיה לאו מילתא היא דאמרי דבעו מיניה חברייא מרב כהנא עומר שהקריבו ישראל בכניסתן לארץ מהיכן הקריבוהו אם תאמר דעייל ביד גוי קצירכם אמר רחמנא ולא קציר גוי

Rabbi Yirmeya then said: What I said is nothing, and my question had no basis, as it can be demonstrated that the Sages know how to determine that produce has reached one-third of its growth. As Rav Kahana was once asked by the other colleagues of the academy as follows: With regard to the omer offering that the Jewish people brought when they first entered Eretz Yisrael in the days of Joshua, from where did they bring it? If you say that this omer offering was brought from grain that grew in the possession of a gentile, there is a difficulty, as the Merciful One states in the Torah: “You shall bring an omer of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest” (Leviticus 23:13), from which it can be derived that it must be your harvest, grown in the possession of a Jew, and not the harvest of a gentile.

ממאי דאקריבו דלמא לא אקריבו לא סלקא דעתך דכתיב ויאכלו מעבור הארץ ממחרת הפסח ממחרת הפסח אכול מעיקרא לא אכול דאקריבו עומר והדר אכלי מהיכן הקריבו

The Gemara first questions the assumption of Rav Kahana’s colleagues: From where is it known that the Jewish people actually brought an omer offering that year? Perhaps they did not offer it at all. The Gemara rejects this argument: It should not enter your mind to say this, as it is written: “And they did eat of the produce of the land on the next day after Passover” (Joshua 5:11), which teaches: Only on the next day after Passover did they eat from the new grain, but initially they did not eat from it. Why? It is because they first brought the omer offering on the sixteenth of Nisan as is required, and only afterward did they eat from the new grain. Therefore the question remains: From where did they bring the omer offering?

אמר להן כל שלא הביא שליש ביד גוי

Rav Kahana said to them: Anything that came into the possession of a Jew and did not reach one-third of its growth in the possession of a gentile is fit to be harvested for the sake of the omer offering.

ודלמא עייל ולא קים להו אלא קים להו הכא נמי קים להו

Rabbi Yirmeya concludes his proof: But there, too, one might ask: Perhaps the grain had in fact already reached one-third of its growth, but they could not discern with certainty between grain that had reached one-third of its growth and grain that had not. Rather, you must say that they were able to discern with certainty. Here, too, you can say that the Sages can discern with certainty between produce that has reached one-third of its growth before Rosh HaShana and produce that has not.

ודלמא לא עייל כלל אבל היכא דעייל ריבעא בין שליש לפחות משליש לא קים להו

The Gemara asks: This is not absolute proof, as perhaps the Jewish people brought the omer offering from grain that did not grow at all before they conquered the land, and the distinction was evident to all. But where produce reached one quarter of its growth, the Sages cannot discern with certainty the difference between one-third and less than one-third.

לא סלקא דעתך דכתיב והעם עלו מן הירדן בעשור לחדש ואי סלקא דעתך דלא עייל כלל בחמשה יומי מי קא מליא

The Gemara answers: It should not enter your mind to say this, as it is written: “And the people came up from the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month” (Joshua 4:19). And if it enters your mind to say that the grain had not grown at all before the Jewish people entered the land, could it have reached full growth in just five days?

אלא מאי דעייל רבעא או דנקא אכתי בחמשה יומי מי קא מליא אלא מאי אית לך למימר ארץ צבי כתיב בה הכא נמי ארץ צבי כתיב בה

The Gemara rejects this argument: Rather, what can one say? That the grain had reached one quarter or one-sixth [danka] of its growth before the Jewish people conquered the land? This too is difficult, as one can still ask: Could the grain have reached full growth in just five days? Rather, what have you to say? One could say that with regard to Eretz Yisrael it is written: “The land of the deer” (Daniel 11:41), implying that the grain of Eretz Yisrael ripens with the swiftness of a deer. Here, too, one can say that “the land of the deer” is written with regard to Eretz Yisrael and applies to the ripening of the grain, so that it can ripen in just a few days.

מתקיף לה רבי חנינא ומי מצית אמרת דהאי אסיף קציר הוא והכתיב באספך מגרנך ומיקבך ואמר מר בפסולת גורן ויקב הכתוב מדבר

§ Rabbi Ḥanina strongly objects to the proof brought from the verse in Exodus cited above, which refers to Sukkot as the festival of gathering: How can you say that this “gathering” means harvesting? But isn’t it written: “You shall observe the festival of Sukkot seven days, after you have gathered in from your threshing floor and from your winepress” (Deuteronomy 16:13), and the Master said about this: The verse speaks here of the waste of the threshing floor and the winepress, which is used to make the roof of the sukka. If so, the gathering mentioned with regard to the festival of Sukkot is referring not to harvesting but to gathering straw from the threshing floor.

אמר רבי זירא הא מילתא הואי בידן ואתא רבי חנינא שדא ביה נרגא

Rabbi Zeira said about this: This matter was in our hands, i.e., I thought that we had solid proof that the years for produce follow the first third of its growth, but Rabbi Ḥanina came and cast an axe upon it, cutting it down, as Rabbi Ḥanina’s objection has totally nullified the proof.

אלא מנלן כדתניא רבי יונתן בן יוסף אומר ועשת את התבואה לשלש השנים

The Gemara asks: Rather, from where do we derive that the years for produce follow the first third of its growth? The Gemara answers: As it is taught in a baraita that Rabbi Yonatan ben Yosef says: The verse states: “And it shall bring forth fruit for the three years” (Leviticus 25:21);

אל תקרי לשלש אלא לשליש

do not read it as “for three [lishelosh]” but as: For one-third [lishelish]. And learn from here that the year for tithes is determined by the date on which the produce reaches one-third of its growth.

והא מיבעי ליה לגופיה כתיב קרא אחרינא וזרעתם את השנה השמינית ואכלתם מן התבואה ישן עד השנה התשיעית

The Gemara raises a difficulty: But the phrase is necessary for the meaning of the verse itself, to teach that the sixth year will be blessed so that it yields three years’ worth of produce. The Gemara answers: It is written in another verse: “And you shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of old produce until the ninth year” (Leviticus 25:22), so that the latter verse teaches about the three years’ worth of produce, and the first verse is available to derive the halakha with regard to one-third growth.

תנן התם האורז והדוחן והפרגין והשומשמין שהשרישו לפני ראש השנה מתעשרין לשעבר ומותרין בשביעית ואם לאו אסורין בשביעית ומתעשרין לשנה הבאה

§ We learned in a mishna there: Rice, millet, poppy, and sesame that took root before Rosh HaShana are tithed in accordance with the outgoing year, meaning that second tithe is set aside in the first, second, fourth, and fifth years of the Sabbatical cycle, and poor man’s tithe is set aside in the third and sixth years, and they are permitted even if the following year is a Sabbatical Year. If they did not take root before Rosh HaShana, they are prohibited if it is the Sabbatical Year, and in ordinary years they are tithed in accordance with the incoming year.

אמר רבה אמור רבנן אילן בתר חנטה תבואה וזיתים בתר שליש ירק בתר לקיטה הני כמאן שוינהו רבנן

Rabba said: Say that the Sages said that the tithe year of a tree follows the time of the formation of its fruit, that of grain and olives follows the time that they reach one-third of their growth, and that of vegetables follows the time of their picking. The question may therefore be raised: With regard to these crops, i.e., rice, millet, poppy, and sesame, to what did the Sages equate them? Their tithe year is determined neither by their formation, nor by the time when they reach one-third of their growth, nor by their picking.

הדר אמר רבה מתוך שעשויין פרכין פרכין אזלי רבנן בתר השרשה

Rabba then said: The reason for their uniqueness with regard to tithing is that since these crops do not ripen all at once, but rather, they ripen and are gathered little by little over an extended period of time, if their year were to follow the time of their picking, people might set aside tithes from that which was picked before Rosh HaShana for that which was picked after Rosh HaShana. Therefore, the Sages decreed that their tithe year follows the time of their taking root, which is the same for the entire field.

אמר ליה אביי ויצבור גורנו לתוכו ונמצא תורם מן החדש שבו על החדש שבו מן הישן שבו על הישן שבו

Abaye said to him: Why should they have made such a decree? There is a better alternative: Let one pile the entire stock onto his threshing floor, into the middle of it, mix the stock together well, and then set aside teruma and tithes, and consequently it will turn out that he has set aside teruma and tithes from the new crop in the mixture for the new crop in it, and from the old crop in the mixture for the old crop in it.

מי לא תניא רבי יוסי בן כיפר אמר משום רבי שמעון שזורי פול המצרי שזרעו לזרע מקצתו השריש לפני ראש השנה ומקצתו השריש לאחר ראש השנה אין תורמין ומעשרין מזה על זה לפי שאין תורמין ומעשרין לא מן החדש על הישן ולא מן הישן על החדש

Abaye continued: Isn’t it taught in a baraita: Rabbi Yosei ben Keifar said in the name of Rabbi Shimon Shezuri: If the cowpea plant was planted for seed, not to be eaten as a vegetable but for the seeds, the beans themselves, either for eating or planting, and some took root already before Rosh HaShana, while some took root only after Rosh HaShana, one may not set aside teruma or tithes from this for that, as one may not set aside teruma or tithes from the new crop for the old or from the old crop for the new.

כיצד הוא עושה צובר גורנו לתוכו ונמצא תורם ומעשר מן החדש שבו על החדש שבו ומן הישן שבו על הישן שבו

How, then, should one act so that he not err and set aside teruma and tithes incorrectly? He should pile the entire stock onto his threshing floor, into the middle of it, mix the stock together well, and then set aside teruma and tithes, and consequently it will turn out that he has set aside teruma and tithes from the new crop in the mixture for the new crop in it, and from the old crop in the mixture for the old crop in it. Why not do the same for rice, millet, poppy, and sesame?

אמר ליה רבי שמעון שזורי קאמרת רבי שמעון שזורי סבר יש בילה

Rabba said to Abaye: You are speaking of the opinion of Rabbi Shimon Shezuri? You cannot raise an objection from what he says, as Rabbi Shimon Shezuri holds that there is mixing. He assumes that the old and new were thoroughly mixed, so that the teruma and tithes set aside from the mixture have the same proportions of old and new crops as did the original crops.

ורבנן סברי אין בילה

But the Sages hold that there is no mixing; they do not assume that the old and new became thoroughly and evenly mixed. Therefore, piling the entire stock, mixing it together, and then setting aside teruma and tithes will not ensure that they are set aside correctly.

אמר רבי יצחק בר נחמני אמר שמואל הלכה כרבי יוסי בן כיפר שאמר משום רבי שמעון שזורי מתקיף לה רבי זירא ומי אמר שמואל הכי והאמר שמואל לכל אין בילה חוץ מיין ושמן

Rabbi Yitzḥak bar Naḥmani said that Shmuel said: The halakha is in accordance with the statement of Rabbi Yosei ben Keifar that he said in the name of Rabbi Shimon Shezuri. Rabbi Zeira strongly objects to this: And did Shmuel actually say this? But didn’t Shmuel say: There is no mixing for anything except for wine, oil, and other liquids? In the case of liquids he holds that everything is entirely mixed together, but not in the case of solids. How, then, could he have ruled in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Shimon Shezuri?

אשתמיטתיה הא דאמר שמואל הכל הולך אחר גמר פרי

The Gemara answers: Rabbi Zeira forgot that which Shmuel said: In all cases, the tithe year follows the time of the full ripening of the produce. Therefore, all of the cowpea seeds may be tithed together, whether the plants from which they grew took root before or after Rosh HaShana. This is not due to Rabbi Shimon Shezuri’s rationale that there is mixing, but because all of the beans reach full ripening at the same time, and consequently, they are all considered produce of the incoming year.