ראש השנה 12 — Soncino English Talmud

¹, and because they perverted their ways, the Holy One, blessed be He, changed for them the work of creation, and caused the constellation of Pleiades to rise at daybreak and took away two stars [from it] and brought a flood on the world’. Now accepting the view of R. Joshua, we can understand why the word ‘second’ is used; but on R. Eliezer's view, what is meant by ‘second’? — [It means], the second to [the day of] judgment. Again, on R. Joshua's view we see what change there was in the work of creation; but on R. Eliezer's view what change was there? — The answer is found in the dictum of R. Hisda; for R. Hisda said: With hot liquid they sinned and with hot liquid they were punished. ‘With hot liquid they sinned’, namely, in [sexual] transgression. ‘With hot liquid they were punished’: it is written here , and the waters assuaged, and it is written elsewhere, and the wrath of the king was assuaged. Our Rabbis taught: ‘The wise men of Israel follow R. Eliezer in dating the Flood and R. Joshua in dating the annual cycles, while the scholars of other peoples follow R. Joshua in dating the Flood also’. AND FOR VEGETABLES. A Tanna taught: ‘For vegetables and for tithes and for vows’. What is meant by vegetables? The tithe of vegetables? But this is the same as ‘tithes’? — [The Tanna] mentions first a tithe prescribed by the Rabbis and then those prescribed by the Torah. But let him mention those prescribed by the Torah first? — Since he was specially pleased with the others, he mentions them first. And our Tanna [ — why does he not mention tithes]? — He mentions a tithe prescribed by the Rabbis, and [leaves us to infer] a fortiori those prescribed by the Torah. Why does not the Tanna here say simply ‘tithe’ [in the singular]? — He desires to include both the tithe of cattle and the tithe of cereals. Then why does he not say vegetable’ [in the singular]? — He refers to two kinds of vegetables, as we have learnt: ‘[Tithe is to be given from] vegetables which are commonly made up into bundles, from the time they are so made up, and from those which are not commonly so made up, from the time when he fills a vessel with them. Our Rabbis taught: If one gathered herbs on the eve of New Year before sunset, and then gathered some more^ᵃ^ᵇ^ᶜ^ᵈ^ᵉ^ᶠ^ᵍ^ʰ^ⁱ^ʲ^ᵏ^ˡ^ᵐ

^ᵃnote:There seems to be some confusion in the text here. To make it astronomically correct we should read (with the Seder Olam) in the dictum of R. Joshua, ‘When Pleiades rises at daybreak’, and in the dictum of R. Eliezer, ‘sets at daybreak’.
^ᵇnote:Because we find Nisan called the first month in the Torah.
^ᶜnote:Which is also recognized by Scripture as the beginning of a year in the text, ‘The eyes of the Lord are upon it (the Land of Israel) from the beginning of the year’.
^ᵈnote:Seeing that it was the season of rain.
^ᵉnote:In connection with the Flood.
^ᶠnote:Gen. VIII, 1.
^ᵍnote:Esth. VII, 10.
^ʰnote:I.e., the years of Noah and the calendar from Tishri; Tishri being the New Year for years.
^ⁱnote:They hold that the world was created in Nisan, v. supra p. 30, n. 5.
^ʲnote:Tithes for all other kinds of produce apart from vegetables are derived by the Rabbis from biblical texts. But v. Tosaf. s.v. tb, .
^ᵏnote:Because they were a rabbinic innovation.
^ˡnote:I.e., tithes for vegetables.
^ᵐnote:Apparently a non-Jew is meant (Tosaf.).

²after sunset, terumah and tithe are not given from one lot for another, because terumah and tithe are not given from the new for the old nor from the old for the new. If it was at the meeting point of the second and third years [of the septennial cycle], from that [which is plucked in] the second year first and second tithe [have to be given], [and from that which was plucked in] the third year, first tithe and the tithe of the poor. Whence this rule? — R. Joshua b. Levi says: [It is written], When thou hast made an end of tithing all the tithe of thine increase in the third year, which is the year of the tithe. This means the year in which there is only one tithe. How is then one to act? [He gives] the first tithe and the tithe of the poor, and the second tithe is omitted. Is this correct, or should the first tithe also be omitted? — [Not so], because it says, Moreover thou shalt speak unto the Levites and say unto them, When ye take of the children of Israel the tithe which I have given you from them for your inheritance. The text here compares the tithe [of the Levites] to an inheritance, [to signify that] just as an inheritance is to be held uninterruptedly, so their tithe is to be given without interruption. It has been taught to the same effect: ‘When thou hast made an end of tithing etc.’ [This means] a year in which there is only one tithe. How is one to act? [He gives] first tithe and tithe of the poor, and the second tithe is omitted. Should perhaps the first tithe also be omitted? — [Not so], because it says, and the Levite shall come, which means to say, every time he comes give him. So R. Judah. R. Eliezer b. Jacob says: We have no need [to appeal to this text]. It says, Moreover thou shalt speak unto the Levites and say unto them, When ye take from the children of Israel the tithe which I have given you from them for your inheritance. The text here compares the tithe to an inheritance, to signify that just as an inheritance is held uninterruptedly, so the tithe is to be given without interruption. AND FOR VOWS. Our Rabbis taught: If one is interdicted by vow to have no benefit from another person for a year, he reckons twelve months from day to day. If he said ‘for this year’, then even if he made the vow on the twenty-ninth of Elul, as soon as the first of Tishri arrives a year is completed for him; and this even on the view of those who say that one day in a year is not counted as a year. For he undertook to mortify himself, and he has mortified himself. But why not say [that his year ends in] Nisan? — In respect of vows, follow the ordinary use of language. We have learnt elsewhere: ‘Fenugrec [becomes liable to tithe] from the time when it grows; produce and olives, from the time when they have grown a third’. What is meant by ‘from the time when it grows’? — From the time when it grows sufficiently for resowing. ‘Produce and olives from the time when they are a third grown’. Whence this rule? — R. Assi said in the name of R. Johanan (some trace it back to the name of R. Jose the Galilean): Scripture says: At the end of every seven years, in the set time of the year of release, in the feast of Tabernacles. Now how comes the year of release to be mentioned here? The feast of Tabernacles is already the eighth year? It is in fact to intimate to us that if produce has grown a third in the seventh year before New Year, the rules of the seventh year are to be applied to it in the eighth year. Said R. Zera to R. Assi:^ⁿ^ᵒ^ᵖ^ᵠ^ʳ^ˢ^ᵗ^ᵘ^ᵛ^ʷ^ˣ^ʸ^ᶻ^ᵃᵃ^ᵃᵇ^ᵃᶜ^ᵃᵈ

^ⁿnote:V. Glos.
^ᵒnote:Lit., ‘if the second entered into the third’. In the second year a tithe was taken to Jerusalem to be consumed there; in the third year a tithe was given to the poor, but not taken to Jerusalem. The first tithe which went to the Levites was given every year. v. infra.
^ᵖnote:I.e., tithe of the Levites and tithe for Jerusalem.
^ᵠnote:Deut. XXVI, 12.
^ʳnote:I.e., one of the two regular tithes.
^ˢnote:Num. XVIII, 26.
^ᵗnote:Deut. XIV, 29.
^ᵘnote:In the third year also.
^ᵛnote:R. Eliezer apparently was not completely satisfied with the proof from this text, because it speaks of the Levite as in the category of the poor.
^ʷnote:Num. XVIII, 26.
^ˣnote:And men ordinarily talk of the year as beginning in Tishri.
^ʸnote:Or ‘fenugreek’, a leguminous plant allied to clover.
^ᶻnote:I.e., its year is determined by the time of its growth and not of its gathering, as in the case of vegetables.
^ᵃᵃnote:vtuc,v It is a question whether this includes grapes or not. V. Tosaf.
^ᵃᵇnote:Cf. Tosaf. s.v. jnm,an .
^ᵃᶜnote:Deut. XXXI, 10.
^ᵃᵈnote:Tosaf. (s.v. dvbn ) points out that this would seem to come under the rule already given above of adding from the profane on to the holy, and answers that from this verse we should learn only that the produce if harvested must be treated as seventh-year produce e.g.. in respect of trading interest, but not that it is forbidden to harvest it.