Rosh Hashanah 29

Now which authority is reported to make plucking the determining factor? Rabban Gamaliel; and he says here Shebat?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' And not Tishri.');">¹</span>

- The statement should have been reported differently,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Lit., 'if the statement was made it was stated thus'.');">²</span> [thus]: Rabbah B'bar Huna said: Although Rabban Gamaliel said that [the tithe-year of] a citron tree is determined by its plucking like [that of] a vegetable, yet its New Year is Shebat.

Why in the former statement<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' In the Tosef. quoted on ');">³</span> is the expression used, 'if it was the meeting point of the second and third years', and in this statement the expression, 'if it was the meeting point of the third and fourth years'? - This points out to us incidentally that the citron tree suffers from being handled, and since everybody handles it in the seventh year,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Since, like all other trees, it is common property in that year.');">⁴</span>

it does not yield fruit till the third year [after blossoming]. R'Johanan inquired of R'Jannai: When is the New Year of the citron tree? - He replied: In Shebat.

Do you mean [he asked further] Shebat of the calendar<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' I.e., the lunar month Shebat-thirty days from the first of Tebeth.');">⁵</span> or Shebat of the cycle?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Thirty days from the cycle of Tebeth (Winter Solstice, usually Dec. 22) .');">⁶</span>

- He replied: Shebat of the calendar.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' In spite of the fact that fructification is due to the action of the sun.');">⁷</span> Raba inquired of R'Nahman (or, according to others, R'Johanan inquired of R'Jannai) : Suppose it was a leap year, what is the rule?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Do we make the New Year in Shebat which comes next to Tebeth, or in First Adar which takes the place of Shebat in this year?');">⁸</span>

- He replied: Do as in ordinary years.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Lit., 'follow most of the years'. I.e., adhere to Shebat.');">⁹</span> Rabbah said: A citron tree which has blossomed in the sixth year and ripened in the seventh<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Lit., 'the daughter of the sixth which enters into the seventh'.');">¹⁰</span>

is not liable to tithe and not liable to clearance;<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' In the third and sixth years of the Septennate. V. Deut. XXVI, 13.');">¹¹</span> while one which has blossomed in the seventh year and produced fruit in the eighth is not liable to tithe but is liable to clearance.

Said Abaye to him: Your second clause is unobjectionable, because [you can say that] you take the more stringent view.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' I.e., the view which is more stringent in this case, viz., that we go by the blossoming and not by the plucking. And since we do this for tnkac purposes of clearance, we also do it for purposes of tithes, although this means taking the more lenient view. (V. Tosaf s.v.) .');">¹²</span> But your first clause [surely involves a contradiction]?

[For you say], 'It is not liable to clearance'. Why so?

Because we say, Make the blossoming the determining factor.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' And so it belongs to the sixth year.');">¹³</span> But if so, it should surely be liable to tithe? - He replied to him: Everybody handles it, and you say it should be liable to tithe! R'Hamnunah, however, said: A citron tree which blossoms in the sixth year and ripens in the seventh is always reckoned as belonging to the sixth, and one which blossoms in the seventh and ripens in the eighth is always regarded as belonging to the seventh.

The following was cited in objection: R'Simeon B'Judah said in the name of R'Simeon: A citron tree which blossoms in the sixth year and ripens in the seventh is not liable to tithe and not liable to clearance, since n fruit is liable to tithe which has not both grown and been plucked in a period of liability.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' And the seventh year is not a period of liability for tithe.');">¹⁴</span> A citron tree which blossoms in the seventh year and ripens in the eighth year is not liable either to tithe or to clearance, since no fruit is liable to clearance which has not both grown and been plucked in the seventh year'.

Now the first part of this statement seems to contradict R'Hamnunah,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Who holds that if it blossoms in the sixth it is liable to tithe.');">¹⁵</span> and the second part both Rabbah and R'Hamnunah?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Who both hold that if it blossomed in the seventh year it is liable to clearance.');">¹⁶</span>

- There is a difference of Tannaim on this point,<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' As to whether we go by the plucking or the blossoming for purposes of the Sabbatical year.');">¹⁷</span> as it has been taught: R'Jose said: Abtolmus testified in the name of five elders that a citron is determined by its plucking in the matter of tithe Our teachers, however, took a vote in Usha and decided that it is determined by its plucking for purposes both of tithe and of Sabbatical year'. How does Sabbatical year come to be mentioned here? -