Rosh Hashanah 14a — the Talmud in English

And we say:

And it was necessary:

It was necessary for Shmuel to teach us all three of these statements, because one statement cannot be derived from the other:

For if he had taught us

Shmuel

“The halakha is in accordance with Rabbi Shimon Shezuri”—

I might have said

I would have said that Shmuel’s reason is

because he holds: “There is mixing” [

as Rabbi Shimon Shezuri himself holds].

Therefore

he informs us

Shmuel

“For everything there is no mixing,

except for wine and oil.”

And if he had taught us

Shmuel only the statement

“For everything there is no mixing”—

I might have said,

I would have said that concerning the Egyptian bean, part of which took root before Rosh Hashanah and part of which took root afterward,

he holds like the Rabbis,

according to Shmuel, that one can separate teruma and tithes from it only if one separates for it from another place.

Therefore

he informs us

Shmuel that

the halakha is in accordance with Rabbi Shimon Shezuri,

that it is possible to separate teruma from the granary itself.

And if he had taught us

Shmuel only

these two

the two statements alone—

I might have said

that

there is a difficulty from Shmuel against Shmuel!

I would have said that one should raise a difficulty from Shmuel’s statement, “The halakha is in accordance with Rabbi Shimon Shezuri,” against Shmuel’s own statement, “There is no mixing.” For Rabbi Shimon Shezuri holds that there is mixing!

Therefore

he informs us

Shmuel that

everything follows the completion of the fruit.

And if he had taught us,

and if Shmuel had taught us only the statement

“Everything follows the completion of the fruit,”

we would not have understood on our own that the halakha is in accordance with Rabbi Shimon Shezuri, that it is possible to tithe what took root before Rosh Hashanah together with what took root afterward.

For indeed, we would have known that it is possible to tithe what took root before Rosh Hashanah together with what took root afterward. But

I might have said

that what Shmuel said, “Everything follows the completion of the fruit,” means that

even grain [

grain and wine ]

and olives as well,

they too are included in “everything,” and even with regard to them one follows the completion of the fruit.

Therefore

he informs us

Shmuel that

the halakha is in accordance with Rabbi Shimon Shezuri

only

in that concerning which he disputes.

And this is so because, since the Egyptian bean is tithed according to the year after the year in which the fruit was completed, what Shmuel said, “Everything follows the completion of the fruit,” means only with regard to legumes, concerning which Rabbi Shimon Shezuri disputed with the Rabbis.

But with grain and olives one follows the bringing of one-third of ripening.

And we challenge this:

Then let him teach us these two!

For it would have been sufficient for Shmuel to teach us the two statements above:

A. The halakha is in accordance with Rabbi Shimon Shezuri.

B. Everything follows the completion of the fruit.

And consequently, we would have understood from his words that there is no mixing. For since Shmuel said that the halakha is in accordance with Rabbi Shimon Shezuri, why did he need to say that everything follows the completion of the fruit? Necessarily, Shmuel came to say that although the halakha is in accordance with Rabbi Shimon Shezuri, this is not because there is mixing, but because one follows the completion of the fruit [and there is never mixing].

And if so, what Shmuel said

“For everything there is no mixing” \-

what need have I of it,

for what purpose did he say it?

And we answer:

This he informs us,

Shmuel, the end of his words, “except for wine and oil,”

for with wine and oil there is mixing.

Up to this point it has been explained in the Gemara why with grain one follows one-third of ripening, and with legumes one follows the taking root.

And now the Gemara brings a beraita that explains why with the fruits of a tree one follows the blossoming, and with vegetables one follows the picking:

It was taught: Rabbi Yosei the Galilean says:

It is stated [Deuteronomy 16]:

“When you gather in from your threshing floor and from your winepress.”

The verse comes to say that the other species of fruits and vegetables are learned from the threshing floor and the winepress.

Just as the threshing floor and the winepress are distinctive

in this respect:

that

they

grow from the water of the previous year.

For since the bringing of one-third of their ripening is considered the completion of their growth, as in a pressing circumstance it is possible to harvest them and eat them once they have brought one-third,

and it is their way to bring one-third in the previous year [before the year in which they are picked], it follows that they grew through the water of the previous year.

And

therefore the Torah said that they are

tithed according to

the

previous year.

Likewise, everything

that

grows from the water of the previous year,

which refers to the fruits of a tree, for all the growth of the fruits is brought about by the water of the previous year, when the fruits blossomed, and all the fruit grows from the sap that the tree raised before the blossoming—these are

tithed

according to the

previous year.

Vegetables are excluded,

for they are not tithed according to the previous year, because

they

are

growing from

the

water of the coming year.

For the completion of the growth of vegetables is not when they bring one-third, since when the vegetable is harvested it grows again.

Rather, the completion of the growth is only at the time of picking.

And

therefore they are

tithed according to

the

coming year,

which is the year in which they are picked, for they grew through the water of that year.

Rabbi Akiva says:

The Sages expounded the verse in another manner:

“When you gather in from your threshing floor and from your winepress”—

the verse comes to say that the other species of fruits and vegetables are learned from the threshing floor and the winepress.

Just as the threshing floor and the winepress

are

distinctive

in this respect:

that

they

grow from “the majority of water”—

from rainwater, which is the majority of the water used for irrigation.

And

therefore the Torah said that they are

tithed according to

the

previous year.

Likewise, everything

that

grows from the majority of water,

rainwater, that is, the fruits of a tree—these are

tithed according to

the

previous year.

Vegetables, which

do not have sufficient rainwater for them, but they

grow from “all water”,

that is, they are watered even with drawn water, are excluded.

And

therefore they are

tithed according to the coming year.

And we inquire concerning this: Since according to both Rabbi Yosei the Galilean and Rabbi Akiva the fruits of a tree are tithed according to the previous year [the year of blossoming], and vegetables are tithed according to the year in which they are picked, if so

what is the difference between them?

What practical halakhic difference is there between them?

Rabbi Abbahu said: The sterilized onions,

small onions that do not grow to the size of the other onions,

and the Egyptian bean—

there is a difference between them.

And in the manner

that we learned

in tractate Sheviit [2:9]:

The sterilized onions and the Egyptian bean

from which he withheld

water,

which he did not irrigate,

thirty days before Rosh Hashanah,

they are

tithed according to the past,

according to the law of the previous year.

And

if this was the Rosh Hashanah of the Sabbatical year, they are

permitted in the Sabbatical year [

because they belong to the previous year].

But if not [

if he did not withhold water from them thirty days before Rosh Hashanah], they are

forbidden in the Sabbatical year, and tithed according to

the law of the

coming year.

And this beraita is according to Rabbi Yosei the Galilean, who holds that things growing from the water of the previous year are tithed according to the past. And since he withheld water from them thirty days before Rosh Hashanah, it follows that they grew from the water of the previous year.

But according to Rabbi Akiva, who holds that species of fruits growing from all water are tithed according to the coming year, the sterilized onions and the Egyptian bean too are tithed according to the law of the coming year, since they too were irrigated.

We learned in the Mishna:

On the first of Shevat is the Rosh Hashanah for the tree,

with regard to the tithes of the fruits of the tree, for one does not tithe from fruits that grew before the first of Shevat for fruits that grew afterward. And this is according to the words of Beit Shammai. But Beit Hillel say: on the fifteenth of it [of Shevat].

And we inquire concerning this:

What is the reason?

What is the reason that the first of Shevat is the Rosh Hashanah for the tree?

Rabbi Elazar said, Rabbi Oshaya said: Since

already

have gone out

have fallen

the majority of the rains of the year,

and through their force the sap rises in the trees, and the fruits blossom.

And still the majority of the season

of the rainy days

is outside,

for it has not yet arrived.

And immediately we are astonished:

What is he saying?

Is it because the majority of the season of the rainy days is outside that the time of the tree’s blossoming has arrived!

On the contrary, it would have been fitting to say that the Rosh Hashanah for the tree should be in Adar, when the majority of the rainy season has passed!

And we answer:

This is what he is saying: Even though the majority

of the season

of the rainy days

is outside,

nevertheless the Rosh Hashanah for the tree is on the first of Shevat —

since there have gone out

have fallen

the majority of the rains of

the

year.

And the Gemara brings a beraita connected with the dispute between Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel: when is the Rosh Hashanah for the tree:

The Sages taught:

There was an incident involving Rabbi Akiva, who picked an etrog

which is a fruit of a tree

on the first of Shevat

of the third year of the Sabbatical cycle,

and he applied to it two tithes: