Pesachim 56a — the Talmud in English

b.

And

they were

eating beneath the shedding trees

[deciduous trees, such as a palm that sheds its fruits]

on Shabbat,

the fruits that fall from the trees. And in the Gemara it will be explained what prohibition there is in this matter.

c.

And

they were

giving the peah

to the poor even

for vegetables.

And vegetables are never liable for peah. And it follows that he causes the poor to stumble through this. For peah is exempt from the tithe. And the poor will come to eat even the peah of vegetables without the tithe. And it follows that they are eating untithed produce.

And

for all these three matters,

the Sages protested against them.

Gemara:

The Sages taught: King Hezekiah did six things. For three, they agreed with him

the Sages.

And for three, they did not agree with him.

And these are they: a. He

dragged

the

bones

of Ahaz

his father on a bier of ropes,

and did not bury him honorably, for he did not carry him on a dargesh and a fine bier. And he did so so that it would be an atonement for him. And also because of the sanctification of the Name, so that he would be disgraced for his wickedness, and the wicked would be chastened by this.

b. He

crushed

the

bronze serpent

that Moses had made, because Israel was erring after it and worshipping it.

c. He

concealed the book of remedies,

because Israel would be healed immediately through it. And their hearts would not be submissive to the Lord over their illnesses.

And

for these three matters

they agreed with him.

And for three

matters

they did not agree with him.

And these are they:

a. He

cut off

the

doors

of the

Sanctuary, and sent them to the king of Assyria. And they did not agree with him

on this.

b. He

blocked

the

waters

of the spring of the

upper Gihon,

so that the kings of Assyria would not come upon Jerusalem and find water to drink.

And they did not agree with him

on this, because he ought to have trusted in the Holy One, blessed is He, who had promised him: “And I shall protect this city to save it.”

c. He

intercalated

the month of

Nisan

and established it as a second Adar,

when

the time had already entered for

Nisan,

since many of the people had still not purified themselves from the impurities of idolatry that they had held since the days of his father, the wicked Ahaz. And they could not offer the Paschal offering at its appointed time. And therefore he intercalated the year, so that the Paschal offering would be postponed for a month, and they would have enough time by then to offer it in purity.

And they did not agree with him

on this, since one does not intercalate the year after the beginning of Nisan. For it is written: “This month shall be for you the beginning of months.” And we expound: “This” month alone shall be the beginning of months—Nisan—and there is no Nisan after Nisan.

We learned in the Mishna:

They graft palm trees throughout the entire day, etc.!

And we raised an objection concerning it:

How did they do this?

Rav Yehuda said: They brought moist myrtle

[they brought moist myrtle],

and date-palm beer

[beer made from the fruit of a certain tree],

and barley flour, which was placed in a vessel and forty days had not passed over it

[barley flour placed in a vessel, from whose grinding forty days had not yet passed],

and they boiled them

[and boiled them all together],

and cast them

into that beverage

into the heart of the palm tree

[and cast it into the heart of the palm tree]. And this beverage is beneficial for the palm tree to endure.

And every

tree

that stood within four cubits of it

[of the palm tree into which this beverage was put],

if they did not do this for it

also

so,

and they did not give it this beverage as well, it would

wither

[dry out]

immediately.

Rav Aha, son of Rava, said:

This is not the grafting taught in the Mishna. Rather, they would

place the male palm shoot onto the female palm.

They would graft a branch of a male palm, which produces fruit, onto a female palm tree, which does not produce fruit.

We learned in the Mishna:

And they would join the Shema.

And we raised an objection concerning it:

How did they do this?

Rav Yehuda said:

They would

say

“Hear, Israel: the Lord is our God, the Lord is One,” and they would not interrupt

but rather immediately continued to say, “And you shall love.”

And it is proper to prolong the word “One,” and to interrupt between accepting the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven in the first verse of the Shema and the second verse, which is stated in the language of a command.

Rava said: They would interrupt

between “Hear” and “And you shall love.”

But they would say, “Today shall be upon your heart”,

without an interruption between “today” and “upon your heart.”

For

it would

imply

that only

today

would be

upon your heart. And not

also

tomorrow upon your heart.

The Sages taught: How did

the people of Jericho

join the Shema? —

They would

say

“Hear, Israel: the Lord is our God, the Lord is One,” and they would not interrupt

after it. Rather, they immediately began to say, “And you shall love” —

the words of Rabbi Meir.

Rabbi Yehuda says: They would interrupt

between “Hear” and “And you shall love.”

But they would not say

after it

“Blessed is the Name of the glory of His Kingdom forever and ever.”

And we raised an objection concerning it:

And we, for what reason do we say it?

And we answer: The reason for saying it is

as Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish expounded.

For Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish said:

It is written:

“And Jacob called his sons and said, Gather yourselves and I shall tell you

what will happen to you at the end of days.”

Jacob wished to reveal to his sons the end of days,

what the Holy One, blessed is He, is destined to return His right hand before Him, after He had turned it behind Him because of the enemy.

And the Divine Presence departed from him.

He said: Perhaps, Heaven forbid, there is in my bed

[among my sons]

a blemish, as with Abraham, from whom there emerged

a wicked son like

Ishmael, and my father Isaac, from whom there emerged

a wicked son like

Esau?!

And because of this the Divine Presence departed from me.

His sons said to him: Hear, Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One!

They turned to their father and

said

to him: Hear, our father Israel:

just as there is no other in your heart

other than

One, so there is nothing in our heart

other than

One,

and there is no blemish in us.

At that moment our father Jacob began,

and acknowledged

and said: Blessed is the Name of the glory of His Kingdom forever and ever!

The Rabbis said: What shall we do?

If

we say it,

“Blessed is the Name of the glory of His Kingdom forever and ever,” in the recitation of the Shema, this is not proper. For

Moses our teacher did not say it

in the section of the “Shema.”

And if

we do not say it,

it is also not proper not to say it. For

our father Jacob said it.

Therefore,

they instituted that it should be said quietly

[in a whisper].

Rabbi Yitzhak said, the school of Rabbi Ami said: A parable

To what is the matter comparable? —

To a princess who smelled

pot-scrap delicacies

[the remains of roasted meat in a pot] and craved it.

If you say

that she craves it, then

it is a disgrace for her

to eat the remains of a pot. And if

you do not say it, she suffers

bodily because of her craving.

Her servants began bringing it to her secretly

so that she would eat from the pot-scrap delicacies, so that she would not be disgraced.

Rabbi Abbahu said:

And now

they instituted that it should be said

[“Blessed is the Name of the glory of His Kingdom forever and ever”]

aloud, because of the grievance of the sectarians!

So that they should not say about us that we add to the recitation of the Shema something improper, and therefore we say it quietly.

And in Nehardea, where there are no

sectarians

there, until now

also

they say it

“Blessed is the Name of the glory of His Kingdom forever and ever,”

quietly.

The Sages taught: The people of Jericho did six things. Three

things

with the approval of the Sages, and three

things

not with the approval of the Sages.

And

three

these

they did

with the approval of the Sages:

a.

They grafted palm trees throughout the entire day

of the fourteenth of Nisan. b.

And they joined the Shema.

c.

And they harvested grain before the Omer,

for there is no Torah prohibition against harvesting before the Omer from a place from which the Omer is not brought. And the grain of Jericho was not fit for meal offerings, since it was grain of the valleys. And they were not concerned lest they come to eat from grain forbidden by the prohibition of “new,” because people separate themselves from the prohibition of “new” throughout the entire year, and do not stumble through it.

And

three

these

they did

not with the approval of the Sages:

a.

They piled

the grain

before

the offering of

the Omer!

And one should not do so, lest they come to eat from it and stumble through eating the prohibition of “new.” And although the Sages were not concerned about this with harvesting, there it is because there is a loss of the grain if they wait to harvest it until after the Omer. But with a pile, where there is no loss if they wait with it until after the Omer, the Sages were concerned about a mishap.

b.

And they made breaches in

the fences of

their gardens and their orchards,

in order

to feed

the

fallen fruit

[the fruits that fall]

to the poor in years of drought, on Shabbatot and Festivals.

And it is forbidden to eat the fallen fruit on Shabbat, as will be explained below.

c. They

permitted

benefiting from

shoots

[branches]

of

the trees of

consecrated property, of carob and of sycamore,

which were added to them after they had consecrated them —

the words of Rabbi Meir.

Rabbi Yehuda said to him: If they were doing the first three matters with the approval of the Sages,

the three initial matters,

let everyone do so!

For it is established for us that one should not do all the matters stated.

Rather, both these and those they were doing not with the approval of the Sages. For three

of them

they protested against them. And for three

of them

they did not protest against them.

And these

are the matters

against which they did not protest:

a.

They grafted palm trees throughout the entire day.

b.

And they joined the Shema.

c.

And they harvested and piled before the Omer.

And these

are the matters

against which

the Sages

protested:

a.

They permitted shoots of consecrated property, of carob and of sycamore.

b.

And they made breaches in their gardens and orchards, to feed fallen fruit to the poor on Shabbatot and Festivals, in years of drought.

c. And

they gave peah

in the field to the poor even

for vegetables.

And

in these

the Sages protested against them.

But even the first three were not with the approval of the Sages.

And we raise a difficulty: Did Rabbi Yehuda hold that harvesting before the Omer was not with the approval of the Sages?

But we learned: The people of Jericho

were

harvesting

their grain

before

the offering of

the Omer, with the approval of the Sages.

And they were

piling

the grain

before the Omer, not with the approval of the Sages.

But

the Sages did not protest against them,

even regarding the pile.