Rosh Hashanah

. The fruit of such a plantation is forbidden until the fifteenth of Shebat,1 whether as "uncircumcised" in [the year of] "uncircumcision", or as fourth year fruit in the fourth year’,2 What is the ground for this ruling? — R. Hiyya b. Abba said in the name of R. Johanan (though some trace it back to the authority of R. Jannai): Scripture says, And in the fourth year. . . and in the fifth year.3 There are occasions when fruit appears in the fourth year and it is still forbidden on account of uncircumcision’, and there are occasions when fruit appears in the fifth year and it is still forbidden on account of ‘fourth year’. Shall I say that that is not [in agreement with] R. Meir,4 since R. Meir has affirmed5 that one day in the year is reckoned as a year, as it has been taught: ‘Par [bullock] is mentioned in the Torah without further qualification and means an animal twenty-four months and one day old. So R. Meir. R. Eleazar says, it means an animal twenty-four months and thirty days old. For R. Meir used to say: Wherever ‘egel [calf] is mentioned in the Torah without further qualification, it means of the first year; [‘egel]6 ben bakar [young ox] means, of the second year; par [bullock] means, of the third year’! — You may still say [it is in agreement with] R. Meir. When R. Meir said that one day in a year is counted as a year, he meant at the end of a period,7 but not at the beginning.8 Raba said: Cannot we apply here an argument a fortiori,9 [to wit]: Seeing that in the case of a niddah,10 though the beginning of the [seventh] day is not reckoned as concluding her period,11 the end of the [first] day yet counts for the beginning of her period,12 in the case of [a period of] years where one day is counted [as a whole year] at the end,13 one day. [The reference here is to Niddah who according to Biblical law was allowed to cleanse herself when seven days had passed from her first menstrual flow, provided it ceased on the seventh day before sunset. This law was later replaced by the more stringent Rabbinic rule necessitating a period of seven clean days after a single blood issue.]