Rosh Hashanah

read not lishlosh [for three], but lishlish [to a third].1 But this text is required for its literal meaning?2 It is written in another verse, And ye shall sow for the eighth year and eat of the produce, the old store, until the ninth year.3 We have learnt elsewhere:4 ‘Rice, millet, hanie5 and sesame,6 if they have taken root by New Year, are for purposes of tithe counted7 as belonging to the year before [the New Year],8 and are permitted in the seventh year.9 Otherwise they are forbidden in the seventh year,9 and are reckoned for tithe as belonging to the next year.10 Rabbah said: The Rabbis have laid down that [the tithe year of] a tree is determined by its blossoming, that of produce and olives by their becoming a third grown, that of vegetables by their ingathering. In which class have these been placed by the Rabbis? — Rabbah answered himself by saying: Since they are gathered for shelling as required,11 the Rabbis made the taking root the determining factor.12 Said Abaye to him: Can he not collect the whole crop in a heap,13 so that ex post facto he will have set aside from the new crop in it for the new crop in it, and from the old crop in it for the old crop?14 Has it not been taught:15 ‘R. Jose b. Kippar says in the name of R. Simeon Shezuri: If Egyptian beans have been sown for seed and part takes root before New Year and part after, terumah and tithe must not be 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. How then is one to manage? He collects the whole crop in a heap, so that in the end he gives terumah and tithe from the new crop in the heap for the new crop in the heap, and from the old crop in the heap for the old crop in the heap! — He replied to him: You cite R. Simeon Shezuri. R. Simeon Shezuri held that mixing can be relied on,16 whereas the Rabbis held that mixing cannot be relied on. R. Isaac b. Nahmani said in the name of Samuel: The halachah follows the ruling given by R. Jose b. Kippar in the name of R. Simeon Shezuri. R. Zera strongly demurred to this. Did Samuel, he asked, really say this? Has not Samuel said: Mixing is not relied on for anything save wine and oil? — R. Zera overlooked the following dictum of Samuel: The determining factor is in all cases the full ripening.17 required to tell us this and may be used for a deduction. They (their gathering) are made (as they are needed) for shelling. R. Hananel reads ihdrp (‘beds’) and renders, They ripen (at different times) in different beds, even though they may ‘take’ at the same time]. inconvenience. from it, the proportion of old and new in the terumah and tithe will be the same as the proportion of old and new in the whole crop. the incoming year, which is as R. Simeon Shezuri said, in so far that the two crops can be tithed together, although according to each for a different reason. For on the view of Samuel the whole is regarded as belonging to the incoming year, which is not what R. Simeon said.