Commentary for Bava Batra 56:14
א"ל אביי דלמא התם עצה טובה קמ"ל
should not that confer presumptive right? — In this case also the [second] fruit exists already [when he gathers the first crop] and it merely goes on ripening. But suppose he gathered three crops in thirty days, as of clover<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Which is cropped three times in a month. ');"><sup>13</sup></span> — should not this confer presumptive right? How exactly do you mean? That it is cropped as it grows? Then this is merely partial eating<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Lit., 'he merely plucks and eats it.' ');"><sup>14</sup></span> [and not the full eating required to confer presumptive right]. But suppose then that he consumed three crops in three months, as of clover,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Which is plucked up and sown afresh every month, so that all three crops have time to ripen fully. ');"><sup>15</sup></span> should not this confer presumptive right? — Who is meant by the 'Rabbis who attended Usha'? — R. Ishmael;<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' We do not hear of R. Ishmael after the war of Bether, so he probably attended the Sanhedrin at Usha in the early part of the 2nd century C.E. As R. Johanan was not born till the later part of the century, he could hardly have known R. Ishmael personally. Perhaps we should translate above: 'I heard from those who attended (the Synod) at Usha that (those who attended the Sanhedrin there in the previous generation) used to say, etc.' ');"><sup>16</sup></span> and this actually would be the view of R. Ishmael, as we have learnt: R. ISHMAEL SAYS: THIS REFERS ONLY TO A CORNFIELD, BUT IN A FIELD PLANTED WITH TREES, IF A MAN HARVESTS HIS GRAPES, GATHERS IN HIS OLIVES, AND HARVESTS HIS FIGS, THIS COUNTS AS THREE YEARS. And whence do the Rabbis<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Who do not accept it. Ishmael's view that the rule of hazakah is derived from that of the ox. ');"><sup>17</sup></span> derive the rule [that three years possession confers presumptive right]? — R. Joseph said: They derive it from the Scriptural verse, Men shall buy fields for money and subscribe the deeds and seal them.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Jer. XXXII, 44. ');"><sup>18</sup></span> For there the prophet is speaking in the tenth year [of Zedekiah]<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' V. Ibid. 1. ');"><sup>19</sup></span> and he warns the people [that they will go into captivity] in the eleventh.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' V. Ibid. XXXIX, 2. As they will thus not have the use of the fields for more than two years, he warns them to be careful of their title-deeds. ');"><sup>20</sup></span> Said Abaye to him: perhaps he was merely giving a piece of good advice?