Pesachim 56a (נו.) — the Talmud in English

b.

And

they were

eating beneath the trees shedding fruit

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

on Shabbat,

the fruit that fell from the trees. The Gemara will explain what prohibition is involved.

c.

And

they were

giving pe'a

to the poor, even

for vegetables.

Vegetables are never subject to the obligation of pe'a. Consequently, he causes the poor to stumble in this matter. For pe'a is exempt from tithes, and the poor might come to eat even the pe'a of vegetables without tithing it. They would thereby be eating untithed produce.

And

concerning all three of these matters,

the Sages protested against them.

Gemara:

The Sages taught: King Hezekiah did six things. For three of them the Sages acknowledged him,

the

and for three of them they did not acknowledge him.

These are they: a. He

dragged

the

bones

of

his father Ahaz on a bier of ropes,

and did not bury him honorably, as he did not transport him on a dargesh or an attractive bier. He did so so that this would bring him atonement. It was also for the sake of the sanctification of God's Name: that he be disgraced for his wickedness, and that the wicked would take warning from it.

b. He

crushed

the

copper serpent

that Moses had made, because the Israelites had gone astray after it and worshipped it.

c. He

concealed the book of remedies,

because the Israelites were immediately healed through it, and their hearts were not subdued before God on account of their illnesses.

And

concerning these three matters,

they acknowledged him.

And for three

matters

they did not acknowledge him.

These are they:

a. He

cut off

the

doors

of the

Heikhal and sent them to the king of Assyria. And they did not acknowledge him

for this.

b. He

blocked

the

waters

of the spring of the

Upper Gihon,

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

And they did not acknowledge him

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

c. He

intercalated

the month of

Nisan

and designated it as the second Adar,

at

a time when

Nisan

had already begun, because many of the people had still not purified themselves from the ritual impurities of idolatry that they had retained from the days of his father, the wicked Ahaz. They could not offer the Paschal offering at its appointed time. Therefore, he intercalated the year, so that the offering would be postponed for a month, allowing them sufficient time to offer it in a state of purity.

And they did not acknowledge him

for this, since one may not intercalate the year after the beginning of Nisan, as it is written: “This month shall be for you the beginning of months.” And we derive: “This” month alone shall be the beginning of months, Nisan; there cannot be another Nisan after Nisan.

We learned in the Mishna:

“They graft date palms throughout the entire day, and so on!”

And we raised a difficulty concerning it:

How did they do this?

Rav Yehuda said: They would bring fresh myrtle

[they brought fresh myrtle],

and date-palm beer

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

and barley flour that had been placed in a vessel and forty days had not yet elapsed since it was ground

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

and they would boil them

[they boiled them all together],

and they would cast them

into that beverage

into the heart of the date palm

[and cast it into the heart of the date palm]. This beverage enables the date palm to survive.

And any

tree

that stood within four cubits of it

[of the date palm into which this beverage had been placed],

if they did not do this to it

as well

in this manner,

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

wither

[dry out]

immediately.

Rav Aha, son of Rava, said:

That is not the grafting mentioned in the Mishna. Rather, they would

place the male date-palm branch on the female date palm.

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

We learned in the Mishna:

“And they would join the recitation of the Shema.”

And we raised a difficulty 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 would immediately continue by saying, “And you shall love.”

It is proper to prolong the pronunciation of “One” and to pause 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 imperative.

Rava said: They would interrupt

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

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

without interrupting 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 recitation of 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 saying, “And you shall love” —

the statement of Rabbi Meir.

Rabbi Yehuda says: They would interrupt

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

However, they would not say

after it

“Blessed is the Name of His glorious kingdom forever and ever.”

And we raised a difficulty:

And we, what is the reason that 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: Assemble yourselves, and I shall tell you

what will befall you in the end of days.”

Jacob wished to reveal to his sons the End of Days,

what the Holy One, blessed be He, would in the future bring His right hand before Him, after having drawn it behind Him because of the enemy.

But the Divine Presence departed from him.

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

[among my sons]

a disqualified one, as there was in Abraham, from whom there emerged

a wicked son like

Ishmael, and in my father Isaac, from whom there emerged

a wicked son like

Esau?!

And for that reason 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 god

in your heart but

the

One,

so too there is no disqualification among us.

At that moment our father Jacob began,

and acknowledged it

and said: Blessed is the Name of His glorious kingdom forever and ever!

The Sages said: What shall we do?

If

we say it,

“Blessed is the Name of His glorious kingdom forever and ever,” in the recitation of the Shema, this is inappropriate, since

Moses our teacher did not say it

in the passage of the Shema.

And if

we do not say it,

it is also inappropriate not to say it, since

our father Jacob said it.

Therefore,

they instituted that it should be said quietly

[in an undertone].

Rabbi Yitzhak said in the name of the school of Rabbi Ami: This may be compared

to what?

To a princess who smelled

the remnants of meat in a pot

[the remnants of roasted meat in a pot], and desired them.

If you say

that she desires them,

it is disgraceful for her

to eat remnants from a pot. But if

you do not say it, she suffers

physically because of her desire.

Her servants began bringing it to her discreetly

to eat from the remnants in the pot, so that she would not be disgraced.

Rabbi Abbahu said:

But now

they instituted that it should be said

[“Blessed is the Name of His glorious kingdom forever and ever”]

aloud, because of the grievance of the sectarians!

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

But in Nehardea, where there are no

sectarians

there, until now

also

they say it

“Blessed is the Name of His glorious kingdom forever and ever,”

quietly.

The Sages taught: The people of Jericho performed six practices. Three

practices

were with the approval of the Sages, and three

practices

were not with the approval of the Sages.

And

these

were

what they did

with the approval of the Sages:

a.

They grafted date palms throughout the entire day

of the fourteenth of Nisan. b.

And they joined the recitation of the Shema.

c.

And they harvested grain before the Omer,

since there is no prohibition by Torah law against harvesting before the Omer from a place from which the Omer is not brought. The grain of Jericho was not fit for meal offerings, since it was grain of the valleys. They also did not fear that people might come to eat grain prohibited by the prohibition of hadash, because people keep apart from the prohibition of hadash throughout the year and do not stumble over it.

And

these

were

what they did

not with the approval of the Sages:

a.

They piled up

the grain

before

the offering of

the Omer!

One may not do so, lest people come to eat from it and stumble by eating what is prohibited as hadash. Although the Sages did not have this concern regarding harvesting, there the reason is that there would be a loss of the grain if they waited to harvest it until after the Omer. But regarding a pile, there is no loss if they wait until after the Omer, and therefore the Sages were concerned about the possibility of error.

b.

And they breached openings in the

fences

of their gardens and orchards,

in order

to feed

the

fallen fruit

[the fruit that fell]

to the poor during years of famine, on Shabbatot and Festivals.

It is prohibited to eat fallen fruit on Shabbat, as will be explained below.

c.

And they permitted

benefit from the

shoots

[branches]

of

the

consecrated carob and sycamore trees,

which had grown after they had consecrated them —

the statement of Rabbi Meir.

Rabbi Yehuda said to him: If they performed the first three practices with the approval of the Sages,

then

let everyone perform them!

But it is established for us that none of all the practices mentioned may be performed.

Rather, both these and those were performed without 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 practices

against which they did not protest:

a.

They grafted date palms throughout the entire day.

b.

And they joined the recitation of the Shema.

c.

And they harvested and piled up grain before the Omer.

And these

are the practices

against which

the Sages

protested:

a.

They permitted the shoots of the consecrated carob and sycamore trees.

b.

And they breached openings in their gardens and orchards in order to feed fallen fruit to the poor on Shabbatot and Festivals, during years of famine.

c. And

they gave pe'a

in the field to the poor, even

for vegetables.

And

regarding these

the Sages protested against them.

But even the first three were performed without the approval of the Sages.

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

But we learned: The people of Jericho

would

harvest

their grain

before

the offering of

the Omer, with the approval of the Sages.

And they would

pile up

the grain

before the Omer, without the approval of the Sages.

But

the Sages did not protest against them,

even regarding the pile.