Parallel
פסחים 56
Soncino English Talmud · Berean Standard Bible
AND THEY ATE THE FALLEN FRUIT FROM BENEATH [THE TREE] ON THE SABBATH, AND THEY GAVE PE'AH FROM VEGETABLES; AND THE SAGES FORBADE THEM. GEMARA. Our Rabbis taught: Six things King Hezekiah did; in three they [the Sages] agreed with him, and in three they did not agree with him — He dragged his father's bones [corpse] on a rope bier, and they agreed with him; he crushed the brazen serpent, and they agreed with him; [and] he hid the book of remedies, and they agreed with him. And in three they did not agree with him: He cut [the gold off] the doors of the Temple and sent them to the King of Assyria, and they did not agree with him; and he closed up the waters of Upper Gihon, and they did not agree with him; and he intercalated [the month of] Nisan in Nisan, and they did not agree with him. THEY GRAFTED PALM TREES ALL DAY. How did they do it? — Said Rab Judah: They brought a fresh myrtle, the juice of bay-fruit and barley flour which had been kept in a vessel less than forty days, and boiled them together and injected [the concoction] into the heart of the palm tree; and every [tree] which stands within four cubits of this one, if that is not treated likewise immediately withers. R. Aha the son of Raba said: A male branch was grafted on to a female [palm tree]. THEY ‘WRAPPED UP’ THE SHEMA’. What did they do? — Rab Judah said, They recited, Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is One and did not make a pause. Raba said: They did make a pause, but [the meaning is] that they said [And these words, which I command thee] this day shall be upon thy heart, which implies, this day [shall they be] upon thy heart, but to-morrow [they shall] not [be] upon thy heart. Our Rabbis taught: How did they ‘wrap up’ the shema’? They recited ‘Hear O Israel the Lord our God the Lord is One’ and they did not make a pause: this is R. Meir's view. R. Judah said: They did make a pause, but they did not recite, ‘Blessed be the name of His glorious Kingdom for ever and ever.’ And what is the reason that we do recite it? — Even as R. Simeon b. Lakish expounded. For R. Simeon b. Lakish said: And Jacob called unto his sons, and said: Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you [that which shall befall you in the end of days]. Jacob wished to reveal to his sons the ‘end of the days’, whereupon the Shechinah departed from him. Said he, ‘Perhaps, Heaven forfend! there is one unfit among my children, like Abraham, from whom there issued Ishmael, or like my father Isaac, from whom there issued Esau.’ [But] his sons answered him, ‘Hear O Israel, the Lord our God the Lord is One: just as there is only One in thy heart, so is there in our heart only One.’ In that moment our father Jacob opened [his mouth] and exclaimed, ‘Blessed be the name of His glorious kingdom for ever and ever.’ Said the Rabbis, How shall we act? Shall we recite it, — but our Teacher Moses did not say it. Shall we not say it — but Jacob said it! [Hence] they enacted that it should be recited quietly. R. Isaac said, The School of R. Ammi said: This is to be compared to a king's daughter who smelled a spicy pudding. If she reveals [her desire], she suffers disgrace; if she does not reveal it, she suffers pain. So her servants began bringing it to her in secret. R. Abbahu said: They [the Sages] enacted that this should be recited aloud, on account of the resentment of heretics. But in Nehardea, where there are no heretics so far, they recite it quietly. Our Rabbis taught: Six things the inhabitants of Jericho did, three with the consent of the Sages, and three without the consent of the Sages. And these were with the consent of the Sages: They grafted palm trees all day [of the fourteenth], they ‘wrapped up’ the shema’, and they harvested before the ‘omer. And these were without the consent of the Sages: They stacked [the corn] before the ‘omer, and they made breaches in their gardens and orchards to permit the poor to eat the fallen fruit in famine years on Sabbaths and Festivals, and they permitted [for use] the branches of carob and sycamore trees belonging to hekdesh: this is R. Meir's view. Said R. Judah to him, If they did [these things] with the consent of the Sages, then all people could do so! But they did both without the consent of the Sages, [save that] three they forbade them [to do], and three they did not forbid them [to do]. And it is these which they did not forbid them: They grafted palm trees the whole day, and they ‘wrapped up’ the shema’, and they stacked [the corn] before the ‘omer. And it is these which they forbade them to do: They permitted [for use] branches of hekdesh of carob and sycamore trees, and they made breaches in their garden and orchards to permit the poor to eat the fallen fruit in famine years on Sabbaths and Festivals; they gave pe'ah from vegetables; and the Sages forbade them. Yet does R. Judah hold that the reaping was not with the consent of the Sages? Surely we learned: The inhabitants of Jericho reaped before the ‘omer with the consent of the Sages and stacked before the ‘omer without the consent of the Sages, but the Sages did not forbid them to do it.
—
Whom do you know to maintain [that] they forbade and did not forbid? R. Judah. Yet he teaches, They reaped with the consent of the Sages? — Then according to your reasoning, [surely] these are four! Rather, delete reaping from this. ‘And they permitted the branches of carob and sycamore trees of hekdesh.’ They said: Our fathers sanctified nought but tree trunks, hence we will permit [for use] the branches of hekdesh of carob and sycamore trees. Now we discuss the growth which came after that; so that while they held as he who rules, There is no trespass-offering [due] when [one benefits from] what grows, the Rabbis held, Granted that there is no trespass-offering [due], there is nevertheless a prohibition. ‘And they made breaches [etc.]’ ‘Ulla said in the name of R. Simeon b. Lakish: The controversy is in respect of [the dates of] the upper branches, for the Rabbis held, We forbid them preventively, lest he go up and cut them off, while the inhabitants of Jericho held, We do not forbid them preventively, lest he go up and cut them off. But as for the dates which are among the lower branches, all agree that it is permitted. Said Rabbah to him, But they are mukzeh? And should you say, [that is] because they [the dates] were fit for [his] ravens, [I would rejoin], — seeing that that which is ready for man is not ready for dogs, for we learned, R. Judah said, If it was not nebelah from the eve of the Sabbath, it is forbidden, because it is not of that which is ready, then shall what is ready for birds be [regarded as] ready for human beings? — Yes, he replied. That which is ready for human beings is not ready for dogs, for whatever is fit for a man, he does not put [it] out of his mind; [but] that which is ready for birds is [also] ready for human beings, [for] his mind is [set] upon it. When Rabin came, he said in the name of R. Simeon b. Lakish: The controversy is in respect of [the fallen dates] among the lower branches, the Rabbis holding, That which is ready for birds is not ready for man, while the men of Jericho hold, That which is ready for birds is ready for man. But [the fallen dates] on the place are permitted now that they have fallen to earth, for since none grow there, there was never any fear that he might go up and cut off the growing dates. — Though this explanation removes several difficulties, Tosaf. observes that it raises a practical difficulty: how is one to distinguish between those which fell down before the Festival and those which fell on the Festival itself, and those which had fallen on the upper branches in the first place and those which had first fallen on the lower branches? upper branches, all agree that they are forbidden; we forbid [them] preventively, lest he ascend and cut off [some dates]. AND THEY GAVE PE'AH FROM VEGETABLES. Yet did not the inhabitants agree with what we learned: They stated a general principle in respect to pe'ah: whatever is an eatable, and is guarded, and its growth is from the earth, and is [all] gathered simultaneously, and is collected for storage, is subject to pe'ah. ‘Whatever is an eatable’ excludes the aftergrowth of woad and madder; ‘and is guarded’ excludes hefker; ‘and its growth is from the earth’ excludes mushrooms and truffles; ‘and is [all] gathered simultaneously’ excludes the fig tree; ‘and is collected for storage excludes vegetables! — Said Rab Judah in Rab's name: The reference is to turnip tops, and they differ [in respect to what] one collects for storing by means of something else: one Master holds, If he takes it in for storage by means of something else it is designated storage; while the other Master holds, What he takes in for storage by means of something else is not designated storage. Our Rabbis taught: At first they used to leave Pe'ah for turnips and cabbages. R. Jose said: Also for porret. While another [Baraitha] taught: They used to give pe'ah for turnips and porret; R. Simeon said: For cabbage too.
—