The Eri B. Sitt Edition and Audio Series of the Talmud Bavli, Tractate Rosh Hashanah, has been sponsored by Mr. Soley and Cheryl Mizrahi, may God protect them, for the success of both of their families. May they be blessed with health, happiness, continued success, and much pleasure from their children. Through their dedication to Tractate Rosh Hashanah, may they merit good judgment, blessing, and success in all their endeavors. Amen.
This page has been dedicated by Mr. Nassim and Elias Basan, may God sustain them and their families in life, in memory of their mother, Sarah bat Malka. May her soul rest in the Garden of Eden. Amen.
Today’s page has been dedicated for the elevation of the soul of Abraham ben Esther. May his soul rest in the Garden of Eden. Amen.
Today’s study is for the complete recovery of Yafa bat Sarah. May God send her a complete recovery among all the sick of Israel. Amen.
We begin today’s page on 9b, four lines from the bottom, with the words, “The Sages taught.”
The Sages taught: There is one person who plants a tree in the ordinary manner; another person who bends a branch into the ground; and another person who grafts.
What does it mean to bend a branch into the ground? He takes the top of a young, flexible tree, bends it over, and places the top of the tree into the ground. The roots remain in the original ground, while the top of the tree forms an arch and takes root in a second location. Once the second side has taken root, he cuts the branch, and he now has two trees. This is a form of planting called bending a branch into the ground.
Grafting means that one takes, for example, a piece of wood from one tree, makes an opening in another tree, and inserts the piece of wood into it. The second tree then incorporates part of the first tree into its growth. This is called grafting. Grafting is generally prohibited unless it is performed with the same species; grafting one species onto another is prohibited, while grafting similar species may be permitted.
All of these are forms of planting. The question is: When did he perform this planting, bending, or grafting?
He did it on the eve of the Sabbatical year, thirty days before Rosh Hashanah. This produces two halachic consequences.
First, there are the laws of the forbidden fruit of the first three years. We know that during the first three years of a tree’s existence, its fruit is forbidden. The novelty here is that once thirty days have passed before Rosh Hashanah, the coming Rosh Hashanah is already counted as another year. We know that the calculation of the forbidden first three years proceeds from one Rosh Hashanah to the next. The novelty is that if the tree was planted in the ground thirty days before Rosh Hashanah, one does not need complete years. Once the tree was planted for thirty days, and Rosh Hashanah arrives, it is already considered to be entering its second year.
The second consequence concerns the laws of the Sabbatical year. These fruits are not subject to the laws of the Sabbatical year. Since the trees were planted thirty days beforehand, the planting is considered to have taken place in time, and the fruit is not treated as produce of the Sabbatical year. Therefore, it is not subject to the requirement that produce of the Sabbatical year be removed when it is no longer available in the fields.
Thus, there are two laws: one year of the calculation of the forbidden first three years is added once Tishrei arrives, and the produce is not treated as Sabbatical-year produce.
Rashi explains that bending means bending the branches into the ground, while grafting means grafting one tree into another. Regarding the calculation of the forbidden first three years, once one day of Tishrei arrives, it is considered a year.
Now the Gemara discusses what happens if he performed any of these plantings less than thirty days before Rosh Hashanah. We have not yet discussed whether the tree has taken root; until this point, we are simply speaking about the act of planting, grafting, or bending the branch.
If he did this less than thirty days before Rosh Hashanah, he does not gain a year when Tishrei arrives. Also, if this was done before a Sabbatical year, it is considered as though he planted during the Sabbatical year, and he must uproot the tree. Its produce is treated as Sabbatical-year produce and is subject to the relevant prohibitions.
If it was less than thirty days before Rosh Hashanah in an ordinary year, then when the first Tishrei arrives, it is not counted as the first year. One must wait until the following Tishrei, and only then is the first year considered to have passed.
If it was less than thirty days before the Sabbatical year, the planting is treated as having occurred during the Sabbatical year. The tree must be uprooted, and the produce is subject to the laws of the Sabbatical year.
Rashi explains that one must wait until the following Tishrei if it is not the Sabbatical year. For example, if the planting took place in the fourth year and was performed less than thirty days before Rosh Hashanah, the first Tishrei does not count, and one must wait until the next Tishrei. We do not simply count the day; an additional period is required.
Therefore, when it comes to planting, the minimum period required is thirty days. If the tree was not planted thirty days before Rosh Hashanah, it does not enter the additional period that allows the first Rosh Hashanah to be counted.
The Gemara now analyzes the fruit produced by this planting, whether the fruit is subject to the laws of the forbidden first three years or to the laws of fourth-year produce.
Let us consider the case in which the tree was planted thirty days before Rosh Hashanah. We are told that the first Rosh Hashanah counts as a year. At the second Rosh Hashanah, two years have passed, and at the third Rosh Hashanah, the three years have seemingly been completed. When the fourth Rosh Hashanah arrives, the fruit should seemingly be fourth-year produce.
Fourth-year produce still possesses sanctity. One may take it to Jerusalem and perform a transfer of its sanctity, after which it may be used. The essential point is that the produce remains sacred, but its sanctity can be transferred through redemption.
At first glance, where does the fifteenth of Shevat enter the discussion? It would seem that one should simply wait until Tishrei. The thirty days before Rosh Hashanah gave the tree an earlier start. The first Tishrei counted as one year and began the second year. The second Tishrei began the third year, and the third Tishrei began the fourth year. Once the fourth Tishrei arrived, the process should be complete.
The answer is that because the tree was given the advantage of counting thirty days at the beginning, that advantage must be balanced by extending the calculation at the end.
Once the tree enters its third year, it is no longer called a young sapling. It is now called a tree. We learned that with regard to trees, the fifteenth of Shevat is the New Year for trees. Therefore, although the tree entered its third year on Tishrei, the third year is not considered complete until the fifteenth of Shevat.
In practical terms, one proceeds from Tishrei to the fifteenth of Shevat, and only then is the third year complete. From the fifteenth of Shevat until Tishrei, the tree is already in its fourth year, and the fourth-year period continues until the next relevant date.
Thus, technically, the thirty-day calculation saves time at the beginning, but the law compensates for that time at the end. The tree does not complete the period of the forbidden first three years immediately upon reaching the third Tishrei. One must wait until the fifteenth of Shevat.
The chart in the notes illustrates this case. The tree was planted thirty days before Rosh Hashanah. Those thirty days are shown first. The first Rosh Hashanah begins the second year, and the second Rosh Hashanah begins the third year. At the third Rosh Hashanah, the tree has technically entered its fourth year, but the forbidden first three years are not yet complete. One must continue until the fifteenth of Shevat.
Why? Because the tree received a shortcut at the beginning, so the period is extended at the end. Fourth-year produce begins on the fifteenth of Shevat of the fourth year and continues until the following fifteenth of Shevat. At that point, the fourth-year produce is also complete, before the fifth Rosh Hashanah arrives. The benefit is approximately seven and a half months: one does not need to wait until the fifth Rosh Hashanah.
The novelty is that even when the tree reaches its third year, one cannot say that the process is finished. Once the tree is classified as a mature tree, the calculation follows the fifteenth of Shevat. The third year is complete only on the fifteenth of Shevat, the fourth year begins then, and the fourth-year period continues until the following fifteenth of Shevat.
Any fruit that grows before the fifteenth of Shevat remains subject to the laws of the forbidden first three years, even though the tree is technically in its fourth year. Once the fifteenth of Shevat arrives, newly emerging fruit is treated as fourth-year produce.
Now consider the other case, in which the tree was planted less than thirty days before Rosh Hashanah. The first Rosh Hashanah does not count. Therefore, no time was saved at the beginning, and there is no need to extend the calculation at the end.
The second Rosh Hashanah is counted as the first year. The third Rosh Hashanah begins the second year, and the fourth Rosh Hashanah completes the period of the forbidden first three years. The following year is the fourth year, and the fifth Rosh Hashanah completes the calculation. In this case, the tree does not have to be taken to the fifteenth of Shevat.
The reason is that no shortcut was given at the beginning. Since no time was saved at the beginning of the process, the calculation is not delayed at the end. This is the method of Rashi.
The Gemara says that the fruit of the tree planted thirty days before Rosh Hashanah remains forbidden until the fifteenth of Shevat. Depending on the stage of the calculation, it is either forbidden first-three-year fruit or fourth-year produce. The fifteenth of Shevat is the dividing point.
Rashi explains that although we learned that thirty days before Rosh Hashanah can count as a year, if fruit begins to emerge during the third year before the fifteenth of Shevat, it remains forbidden. Even though three Rosh Hashanahs have passed and the tree is technically in its fourth year, the fruit that emerged before the fifteenth of Shevat is still forbidden first-three-year fruit.
Once the fifteenth of Shevat arrives, newly emerging fruit is fourth-year produce. One takes it to Jerusalem, transfers its sanctity, and eats it in accordance with the laws of fourth-year produce. On the fifteenth of Shevat of the following year, the fourth-year status ends, and the produce becomes ordinary, non-consecrated fruit.
What, then, is the benefit of the thirty days before Rosh Hashanah? The first Rosh Hashanah counts as a year, but because of that advantage, the calculation is extended until the fifteenth of Shevat. The ultimate benefit is that one does not have to wait until the fifth Rosh Hashanah for the fourth-year period to end. One reaches the end of the process on the fifteenth of Shevat before the fifth Rosh Hashanah, gaining approximately seven and a half months.
To review: the first Rosh Hashanah counts as the first year, and the tree begins its second year. The second Rosh Hashanah begins the third year. At the third Rosh Hashanah, one might think that the tree has entered its fourth year and that the forbidden period has ended. However, because the thirty-day shortcut was given at the beginning, one must continue until the fifteenth of Shevat. Only then is the third year completed and the fourth-year period begun.
Once the fifteenth of Shevat arrives, the calculation proceeds from one fifteenth of Shevat to the next. Although one is technically in the fifth year according to the Rosh Hashanah calculation, the fruit is treated as fourth-year produce until the following fifteenth of Shevat. The benefit is that one does not need to wait until the fifth Rosh Hashanah.
How do we know this principle? How do we know that when the tree receives the thirty-day advantage and reaches the third year, the relevant date is the fifteenth of Shevat rather than Tishrei? The practical consequence is that fruit which emerges before the fifteenth of Shevat remains forbidden first-three-year fruit.
The Gemara says that this is derived from statements of Rabbi Yohanan, and some versions attribute the teaching to Rabbi Yannai. The verse says, “And in the fourth year,” followed by, “And in the fifth year.” The context is the laws of the forbidden first three years and fourth-year produce.
The verse is understood to mean that there can be forbidden first-three-year fruit in the fourth year, and that there can be fourth-year produce in the fifth year.
How can forbidden first-three-year fruit exist in the fourth year? This is the case we have been discussing. The first Rosh Hashanah arrived thirty days after the planting and was counted as a year. The second Rosh Hashanah arrived, and then the third Rosh Hashanah arrived. At that point, the tree is technically in its fourth year, yet until the fifteenth of Shevat the fruit remains forbidden first-three-year fruit.
How can fourth-year produce exist in the fifth year? The next Tishrei has arrived, so technically the tree is already in its fifth year. Nevertheless, because the fifteenth of Shevat governs the calculation once the tree is classified as a mature tree, it remains fourth-year produce until the fifteenth of Shevat.
The letter vav in the verse is the basis of this interpretation. It indicates that just as there are three years of the forbidden status, there can also be forbidden fruit in the fourth year, and just as there are four years of fourth-year produce in the relevant calculation, there can also be fourth-year produce in the fifth year.
The Gemara now asks whether the entire discussion follows the opinion of Rabbi Meir. The reason is that the teaching requires thirty days before Rosh Hashanah in order for the period to count as a year, whereas Rabbi Meir appears to maintain that one day of a year is sufficient to count as a year.
Where do we find that Rabbi Meir says that one day of a year is considered a year? We find it in a teaching concerning the ages of animals brought as offerings.
The Torah refers to various animals for different offerings. When the Torah says “bull,” the tradition teaches that the animal is three years old. The question is how those three years are calculated. One teaching states that it is twenty-four months and one day. We see from this that one day is considered a year.
Rabbi Elazar disagrees and says that the animal must be twenty-four months and thirty days old. According to him, thirty days constitute a year, but one day cannot be treated as a full year.
The terminology regarding the animals is as follows: a calf is one year old; an animal described as a young bull is two years old; and when the Torah says “bull,” it refers to an animal three years old. This is the general rule taught by Rabbi Meir.
Rabbi Meir’s novelty is that to calculate the three years of a bull, twenty-four months and one day are sufficient. However, the Gemara initially suggests that this cannot be the same opinion as the teaching regarding the tree, which requires thirty days before Rosh Hashanah.
The Gemara answers that Rabbi Meir may indeed be the author of the teaching. When does Rabbi Meir say that one day is sufficient? He says this at the end of a calculation. In the case of the animal, twenty-four months have already passed. Once two full years have been completed, one additional day is sufficient to enter the third year.
In contrast, at the beginning of the calculation, as in the case of the forbidden first three years of a tree, Rabbi Meir may agree that thirty days are required. There is a distinction between the beginning of a calculation and the end of a calculation.
At the beginning of the calculation, Rabbi Meir requires thirty days. At the end of the calculation, once two years have already passed, one day is enough to count the third year. Thus, Rabbi Meir’s statement about one day concerns the end of the calculation, not its beginning.
The Gemara challenges this distinction by means of a comparison to the laws of menstruation.
In the Torah’s original system, a menstruating woman who saw blood was required to wait seven days, and she immersed in the ritual bath on the seventh night. This is different from the practice observed today, in which a woman must count seven clean days. Today, every menstruating woman is treated with the stringency applicable to a woman with an extended discharge, who requires seven clean days.
Under the Torah’s basic law, if a woman saw blood on the first day, she could immerse after the seven-day period had passed. Even if she saw the blood shortly before sunset, that was considered part of the first day. The fact that only a few minutes remained in the day did not prevent that day from being counted as the first day.
At the end of the calculation, however, we are more stringent. On the seventh day, she cannot immerse at the beginning of the day. She must wait until the entire seventh day has passed and immerse that night.
Thus, in the laws of menstruation, we are more lenient at the beginning of the calculation and more stringent at the end. The end of the first day is sufficient to count as the beginning of the seven-day period, but the beginning of the seventh day is not sufficient to complete the period.
The Gemara uses this as a challenge. If Rabbi Meir is lenient at the end of the calculation, saying that one day is sufficient to count an entire year, then surely he should also be lenient at the beginning. If the end of one day is enough at the end of the calculation, it should certainly be enough at the beginning.
The Gemara formulates the comparison as follows: In the laws of menstruation, the end of the day counts as part of the beginning of the calculation. A woman who saw blood five minutes before sunset has that day counted as the first of her seven days. Therefore, since Rabbi Meir says that one day at the end of a calculation is enough to count as a year, it should follow through a fortiori that one day at the beginning of a calculation should also count as a year.
This returns us to the original difficulty. The teaching regarding the tree says that thirty days are required at the beginning of the calculation. That cannot apparently be the opinion of Rabbi Meir, because according to the comparison from menstruation, Rabbi Meir should require only one day at the beginning as well.
The Gemara therefore suggests that perhaps the author of the teaching is Rabbi Elazar, who says that thirty days constitute a year. If Rabbi Elazar says that an animal must be twenty-four months and thirty days old, he would fit the teaching that thirty days are required for the tree.
The Gemara rejects this answer as well. The tree must first take root, and that process itself requires time. If thirty days are required for the tree to take root, then one would need thirty days for rooting and another thirty days for the year to count. The teaching should therefore require sixty days, not thirty.
The Gemara introduces a teaching concerning the time required for a tree to take root. The Mishnah says that one may not plant, bend a branch into the ground, or graft on the eve of the Sabbatical year if there are fewer than thirty days before Rosh Hashanah. If one did so, the tree must be uprooted.
Rabbi Yehudah says that any grafting that does not take root within three days will never take root. Rabbi Yosei and Rabbi Shimon say that it requires two Sabbaths, meaning two weeks, for the grafting to take root.
We now have three opinions concerning the period required for rooting: one opinion requires thirty days, Rabbi Yehudah requires three days, and Rabbi Yosei and Rabbi Shimon require two weeks.
The Gemara says that according to the opinion in the teaching that requires thirty days for the tree to take root, one would need thirty days for rooting plus another thirty days for the year. According to Rabbi Yehudah, one would need three days for rooting plus thirty days for the year, for a total of thirty-three days. According to Rabbi Yosei and Rabbi Shimon, one would need two weeks for rooting plus thirty days for the year.
But the original teaching speaks only of thirty days. How can that be? Even according to the shortest opinion, one would need thirty-three days: three days for rooting and thirty days for the year.
The Gemara therefore returns to the possibility that the author is Rabbi Meir. Rabbi Meir says that one day is sufficient to count as a year, but the Gemara asks why the teaching does not require thirty-one days: thirty days for rooting and one additional day for the year.
The answer is that when the teaching says thirty days, it is not saying that thirty days are required to count as a year. Rabbi Meir still holds that one day is sufficient to count as a year. The thirty-day figure refers to the time required for the tree to take root.
Thus, the tree must be planted at least thirty days before Rosh Hashanah so that it can take root. Once the thirty-day rooting period has been completed, the final day can also count as the first day of the year. The thirtieth day serves both purposes: it is the thirtieth day of rooting and the first day counted toward the new year.
The Gemara expresses this by saying that the thirtieth day can be counted in both directions. It is counted as the final day required for the tree to take root, and it is also counted as the first day of the new year. Therefore, thirty days are sufficient, even according to Rabbi Meir.
Let us review the entire discussion. The first teaching said that if a tree was planted thirty days before Rosh Hashanah, one year is counted for the calculation of the forbidden first three years. The Gemara asked who holds this thirty-day opinion.
It could not initially be Rabbi Meir, because Rabbi Meir says that one day is sufficient. The Gemara answered that perhaps Rabbi Meir distinguishes between the beginning and the end of a calculation. It then challenged that distinction through the laws of menstruation.
The Gemara next suggested Rabbi Elazar, who holds that thirty days constitute a year. But that also appeared impossible, because the tree must first take root. Even according to the shortest rooting period, thirty-three days would be required.
The Gemara ultimately returned to Rabbi Meir. The thirty days in the first teaching refer to the rooting period, not to the number of days necessary to establish a year. According to Rabbi Meir, one day is enough for the year, and that one day overlaps with the thirtieth day of the rooting process.
The Gemara now analyzes how Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Elazar derive their respective opinions. Both derive their positions from the same verse concerning Noah: “And it was in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first day of the month.”
Rabbi Meir derives from this that one day of a year is considered a year. The verse refers to the six hundred and first year of Noah’s life even though only the first day of that year had arrived. Noah had lived six hundred complete years and only one day of the next year, yet the verse calls it the six hundred and first year.
Thus, Rabbi Meir says that one day of a year is enough for the year to be counted. Although Noah had not yet lived six hundred and one complete years, he was already in his six hundred and first year.
Rabbi Elazar responds that the verse does not necessarily prove this. If the verse had said, “In the six hundred and first year,” then the year would clearly be associated with the number six hundred and one. But the verse says, “In the six hundredth year and one,” with the word “year” associated with the six hundred years.
According to Rabbi Elazar, the verse means that Noah had completed six hundred years, and that he was at the beginning of the next year. The word “year” modifies the six hundred complete years, while the word “one” indicates the beginning of the six hundred and first year. It does not mean that one day is itself considered a complete year.
Rabbi Meir, however, reads the verse differently. He understands the word “year” as applying to the entire phrase, including the six hundred and first year. The Torah is therefore teaching that even though only one day had passed in the six hundred and first year, it was already considered the six hundred and first year.
Rashi explains that this event occurred after the Flood. The Flood began during Noah’s six hundredth year, and a year later it ended. The verse is describing the first day of the new year after the twelve months of the Flood had passed.
There is a dispute concerning which month is being discussed. It depends on when the world was created and when the year begins. There is a dispute as to whether the world was created in Tishrei or in Nisan.
The Torah says that the Flood began on the seventeenth day of the second month. If the year begins in Tishrei, then the second month is Cheshvan, and the Flood began on the seventeenth of Cheshvan.
Forty days later, the initial period of rain had passed. After that, the waters continued to rise for another 150 days, bringing the calculation to the month of Sivan. Then the waters began to subside. When the verse refers to the tenth month, it is not referring to the tenth month of the calendar year, but to the tenth month from the beginning of the Flood.
Beginning with Cheshvan, the tenth month is Av. At that point, the mountaintops became visible. Another period then passed until the waters were fully absorbed and the earth dried.
According to the opinion that the world was created in Tishrei, the verse describing the first month is referring to Tishrei. The Flood began in Cheshvan, and after the required sequence of months and days, the first day of the first month was Tishrei.
According to the opinion that the world was created in Nisan, the second month would be Iyar, and the Flood began on the seventeenth of Iyar. After the same calculation of forty days, 150 days, and the subsequent stages of the Flood, the verse describing the first month would be referring to Nisan.
Thus, the word “first” in the verse may refer either to Tishrei or to Nisan, depending on the opinion concerning when the world was created and when the calendar year begins.
In any event, everyone agrees that the verse is describing the first day of a new year. Whether that day was the first of Tishrei or the first of Nisan, the verse calls Noah six hundred and one years old even though only one day of the six hundred and first year had passed. This supports Rabbi Meir’s principle that one day of a year is considered a year.
Rabbi Elazar responds that the verse says “six hundred years and one,” rather than “six hundred and one years.” The word “year” refers to the six hundred complete years, while the word “one” refers only to the beginning of the next year. Therefore, the verse does not prove that one day is considered an entire year.
The Gemara has now established Rabbi Meir’s source. It next seeks the source for Rabbi Elazar’s opinion that thirty days are considered a year.
Rabbi Elazar also derives his position from the verse concerning the first day of the month. The verse describes the event as occurring on the first day of the month. Even though only one day had passed in the month, the verse already calls it a month.
The Gemara reasons that if one day of a month is considered a month, then a month of a year should be considered a year. Just as one day, which is the unit by which a month is measured, can establish the month, one month, which is the unit by which a year is measured, can establish the year.
The month is measured in days, as the verse says, “until a month of days.” Therefore, one day is the minimum unit of a month, and the verse considers that one day to be the beginning of the month. A year is measured in months, as the verse says, “from month to year.” Accordingly, one month should be enough to establish a year.
Therefore, Rabbi Elazar derives that thirty days, which constitute a month, are considered a year.
There is an additional line in some versions of the text, although it does not appear in our printed text. According to that version, the Gemara concludes that Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Elazar both hold that the beginning of the year is in Nisan.
Rashi explains why this line is not necessary. Perhaps one could say that the world was created in Tishrei. When the verse concerning Noah says “the first month,” it may not mean the first month of the calendar year. It may mean the first month of the new year as measured from the creation of the world.
Although Tishrei is technically the seventh month when counting from Nisan, it can still be called the first month in the context of the creation of the world or the beginning of the new year. Therefore, the word “first” does not necessarily prove that the verse is referring to Nisan.
For this reason, Rashi removes the additional line. There is no proof from the word “first” that the sages must hold that the world was created in Nisan. Even according to the opinion that the world was created in Tishrei, the verse can be understood as referring to the first month of the year as it relates to the creation of the world or to the change of years.
The essential point remains the dispute between Rabbi Meir and Rabbi Elazar. Rabbi Meir derives from the verse concerning Noah that one day of a year is considered a year. Rabbi Elazar derives that one month of a year is considered a year, and therefore thirty days are required.