Rosh Hashanah

But perhaps even though it has not begun to ripen at all, the All-Merciful has still laid down that it is to be left alone until the feast of Tabernacles? — Do not imagine such a thing. For it is written, and the feast of ingathering [asif] at the end of the year.1 Now what is ‘ingathering’? Shall I say it means the feast which comes at the time of ingathering? This is already signified in the words when thou gatherest in.2 What then must be meant here by asif? Harvesting;3 and the Rabbis take it for granted that all produce which is harvested by Tabernacles must have grown to a third by New Year, and Scripture applies to it the words at the end of the year.4 Said R. Jeremiah to R. Zera: And were the Rabbis certain that there is this distinction between a third and less than a third?5 He replied to him: Am I not always telling you not to let yourself go beyond the established rule? All the measurements laid down by the Sages are of this nature. In forty se'ahs [of water] a ritual bath may be taken; in forty se'ahs less a kurtub6 it may not be taken. [A quantity of food equal to the] size of an egg can be rendered unclean as foodstuff; if it is short of that quantity by a grain it cannot be rendered unclean. [A piece of cloth] three handbreadths by three can be rendered unclean by being trodden on,7 less than this quantity by one hair is not so rendered unclean. R. Jeremiah subsequently said: What I said is of no account. For R. Kahana was asked by members of the college, Whence did the Israelites bring the omer which they offered on their entry into the Land [of Israel]? If you say, it grew8 while still in the possession of the heathen, [this cannot be, since] the All Merciful prescribed your harvest9 and not the harvest of the stranger. (But how do we know that they [the Israelites] offered it at all? Perhaps they did not offer it at all? — Do not imagine such a thing. For it is written, And they did eat of the produce of the land on the morrow after the Passover.10 On the morrow after the Passover they ate, but not before, [which shows that] they brought the omer and only then ate. Whence then did they obtain it?) — He [R. Kahana] replied to them: All that had not grown to a third while in the possession of the stranger [was fitting for their use]. Now [it might be argued here also that] perhaps it had grown [in the possession of the stranger] and they were not certain. The fact, however, [that they ate it] shows that they were certain. So here,11 the Rabbis are certain. But perhaps [the Israelites brought the omer from] corn which had not commenced to grow [when they entered the land], but where it had grown to a quarter they were not certain about the difference between a third and less than a third?12 — Do not imagine such a thing. For it is written, And the people went up from the Jordan on the tenth of the month.13 Now if you assume that by then the corn had not grown at all, could it become ripe in five days? But [on your assumption] that it had grown to a fourth or a fifth, could [such corn] become ripe in five days? What you consequently have to answer [even on this assumption] is that the land of Canaan is called ‘the land of the hind’;14 so [on the other assumption] you can answer that it is called ‘the land of the hind’. R. Hanina objected strongly to the statement made above. Can you, he said, maintain that this ‘asif’ is ‘harvesting’, seeing that it is written, when thou gatherest in from thy threshing floor and from thy wine press,15 and [commenting on this] a Master has said , The verse speaks of the waste of the threshing floor and the wine press?16 Said R. Zera: I thought I was sure of this,17 and now R. Hanina has come and put a spoke in my wheel.18 How then do we know [this rule about a third]? — As it has been taught: R. Jonathan b. Joseph says: And it shall bring forth produce for the three years;19 Jeremiah rather arbitrary. swiftness in bringing its products to maturity. Keth. 112. the same signification — the festival that comes at the time when people ‘gather in’ the waste products for the sukkah.