Tractate Rosh Hashanah, page nine, is dedicated to the healing of Shimon ben Smecha. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
We begin today’s page nine, first side, four lines down. We are discussing the principle that one must add from the weekday to the holiness of Shabbat, Yom Kippur, and Yom Tov. As we saw yesterday, this principle also applies to the sabbatical year.
The Gemara asks: How do we know that one must add from the weekday to the holy? We have a teaching in a Baraita. The verse says that one must desist from plowing and reaping. Clearly, during the sabbatical year one may not plow or reap. The Torah has already stated explicitly that plowing and planting are prohibited during the sabbatical year, so the verse does not need to be teaching us that basic law.
Rather, the verse refers to plowing before the sabbatical year that will benefit the growth of produce during the sabbatical year. Likewise, it refers to reaping produce that grew during the sabbatical year after the sabbatical year has ended. From here we see that there is a principle of adding to the holiness of the sabbatical year. One may not plow on the eve of the sabbatical year if that plowing will benefit the field during the sabbatical year, and one may not reap sabbatical-year produce immediately after the year has ended.
Regarding produce that has grown to one-third of its development, which is considered a significant stage, it must be treated according to the laws of the sabbatical year. It may be cut during the eighth year, because one cannot leave it in the field indefinitely, but it must be handled according to the laws that apply to sabbatical-year produce.
That is the teaching of Rabbi Akiva. How does Rabbi Akiva derive this verse? If we examine the context, the verse appears to be discussing the work of Shabbat. Yet it cannot be referring to all the labors of Shabbat, because it mentions only plowing and reaping, while there are thirty-nine categories of prohibited labor. Therefore, Rabbi Akiva transfers the verse to the sabbatical year.
What does the verse then teach? It teaches that one may not plow on the eve of the sabbatical year if the plowing will benefit the following sabbatical year. Similarly, one may not reap sabbatical-year produce after the sabbatical year has ended. The verse is therefore teaching the addition before and after the sabbatical year.
How does Rabbi Ishmael understand the verse? Rabbi Ishmael uses it to teach a law concerning Shabbat. We already know that one may not plow on Shabbat, so what additional point is the verse making? There is only one type of plowing: voluntary plowing. The Torah never presents plowing as a positive commandment. There is no mitzvah that requires a person to plow. Therefore, when the Torah says that one may not plow on Shabbat, it must be referring to voluntary plowing.
By the same reasoning, when the Torah says that one may not reap, it must be referring specifically to voluntary reaping, as opposed to reaping for the sake of a mitzvah. What is an example of reaping for the sake of a mitzvah? The reaping of the Omer. It is a mitzvah to cut the barley for the Omer on the night of the sixteenth of Nisan, the second day of Passover. Even if the sickle is already prepared, there is still a mitzvah to go out and cut the Omer.
Therefore, the Torah is teaching that even if the sixteenth of Nisan falls on Shabbat, one may perform the reaping of the Omer. The requirement to desist from plowing and reaping applies to voluntary plowing and voluntary reaping. Just as plowing is always voluntary, because there is no mitzvah to plow, so too the reaping mentioned in the verse refers to voluntary reaping. The reaping of the Omer, however, is permitted because it is a mitzvah.
The Gemara now asks: This is understandable according to Rabbi Akiva, who learns from the verse that the sabbatical year begins before Rosh Hashanah and continues after it. But if one learns the verse as referring to Shabbat, as Rabbi Ishmael does, from where does one derive the principle of adding from the weekday to the holy?
The Gemara apparently assumes that everyone accepts the principle of adding to the holiness, but it asks where Rabbi Ishmael derives the specific timing. One verse appears to indicate that the addition begins on the ninth of Tishrei, while another says that Yom Kippur lasts from evening until evening. How can these verses be reconciled? Does the addition begin on the ninth, or does it begin only when the tenth begins at night?
The Gemara explains that the addition must begin early on the ninth. The expression “from evening to evening” indicates that one must continue until the following evening, including that evening. The day of Yom Kippur itself is not limited to the daylight hours; it extends from one evening until the next evening, and the additional time is observed on both sides.
We have three areas here: Yom Kippur, Shabbat, and Yom Tov. One might think that each must be learned separately. Yom Kippur involves the punishment of excision, Shabbat involves a court-imposed death penalty, and Yom Tov involves lashes. Since each has a different level of severity, perhaps one cannot derive one from the other.
The Gemara therefore teaches a general principle: Wherever the Torah speaks of cessation from work, one adds from the weekday to the holiness. This applies to Yom Kippur, Shabbat, and Yom Tov. Rashi explains that the phrase “until evening” includes the evening itself. Just as the addition applies from the beginning of Yom Kippur, it applies at the conclusion as well.
The Gemara then returns to Rabbi Akiva. Rabbi Akiva derives the addition from the prohibition of plowing and reaping around the sabbatical year. What, then, does he do with the verse that speaks of eating on the ninth of Tishrei? The Gemara gives the well-known teaching that one who eats and drinks on the ninth is considered as though he fasted on both the ninth and the tenth.
What is the significance of being considered as though one fasted on the ninth, when there is no obligation to fast on that day? Tosafot explains that it is as though the person had been commanded to fast on the ninth and fulfilled that commandment through eating. This does not mean that one is actually required to fast on the ninth. On the contrary, one is supposed to eat. The point is that eating on the ninth fulfills the divine command to prepare for the fast.
I once joked about the phrase “as though he fasted on the ninth and the tenth.” Why mention the tenth, since the tenth is the actual fast? The explanation is that the verse sounds as though one receives credit for eating on the ninth as if one had fasted for two days, the ninth and the tenth. There is also a possibility that the merit can be understood as extending to three days, like the three-day fast proclaimed by Queen Esther. In any event, the essential teaching is that eating on the ninth is credited as a fast because it is done in fulfillment of a commandment.
We have discussed several explanations for why one is instructed to eat on the day before Yom Kippur. The simple explanation is that one must prepare for the fast. But people who are deeply concerned about their sins and are preparing for Yom Kippur may not have much of an appetite. A righteous person may be so troubled by his transgressions that eating is the last thing on his mind.
This is similar to the law requiring friends to bring a meal to a mourner. The mourner is depressed and may not think about eating. If left to himself, he may say, “I am not interested in lunch.” The friends therefore have to make sure that he eats, because they are concerned for his health. Whenever the Torah is concerned that a person may skip a meal, it goes out of its way to ensure that he eats.
Here, too, the Torah tells a person to eat on the day before Yom Kippur. Those who are eager to fulfill the commandment will eat because God instructed them to eat. If they are worried that eating will diminish their fast, they are told not to worry: it will be credited to them as a fast.
Another explanation is that the meal before Yom Kippur fulfills the requirement of the Yom Tov meal. Yom Kippur is a Yom Tov, and we recite the blessing of Shehecheyanu. Yet there is a difficulty: one cannot eat on Yom Kippur, even though eating would ordinarily be part of the celebration of a holiday. When, then, does one fulfill the meal of Yom Kippur? One fulfills it on the eve of Yom Kippur. On the other holidays there is no such problem, because one can eat on the holiday itself.
Another explanation is that eating helps a person forgive others. One of the practices of the eve of Yom Kippur is for people to appease one another and ask for forgiveness. A person who is hungry and tense may not be in the mood to forgive anyone. But after he has had coffee and eaten breakfast, he may be in a better mood and more ready to forgive when someone approaches him.
These are all beautiful explanations, but the explanation of the Sfat Emet is the most beautiful. We know what happened on the day before the Giving of the Torah. Satan confused the Jewish people so severely that they made the Golden Calf. We must say that this was the work of Satan, because otherwise it is difficult to explain how the people who had left Egypt and witnessed so many miracles could unravel so completely only a short time later.
Satan knew that if the Jewish people received the Torah, his influence would be threatened. Therefore, he used every strategy available to him to seduce them into idolatry. We cannot imagine the nature of that test. Even the imagery was powerful: Satan showed them an image of Moses’ coffin suspended in the heavens. The day became confused, the people miscalculated the time, and everything combined into a perfect storm. This does not justify the Golden Calf, but Satan was clearly involved.
Moses then went back up to pray. He returned during the month of Elul with good news, although not complete good news. He had not yet received full forgiveness, but he had received permission to begin writing the second Tablets. That was a step in the right direction. Moses then remained on the mountain for another forty days and descended on Yom Kippur, when the second Tablets were given.
The ninth of Tishrei was therefore once again a serious day. Satan had not given up. The first time, he had attacked on the seventeenth of Tammuz. Now, on the day before Moses was to return with the second Tablets, Satan worked even harder. The Jewish people had repented and were prepared, so Satan had to create an even greater test. This time, however, the Jewish people overcame him and did not succumb.
The Sfat Emet explains that the ninth of Tishrei became a national holiday because the Jewish people were able to overcome Satan. This was the point at which their repentance became complete. Repentance means that a person returns to the same situation, at the same time, with the same challenge, and this time overcomes it. The Jewish people had fallen previously, but they were now able to overcome the test. We therefore eat on the ninth of Tishrei to commemorate that victory and to remind ourselves that even if we have fallen in previous years, we can overcome the challenge this year.
We now move to the next subject. It is worthwhile to examine three consecutive verses in Leviticus, chapter twenty-five, because they must be read together.
The Torah says that in the seventh month one must sound the shofar. This is not referring to Rosh Hashanah; it is referring to the Jubilee year. When is the shofar sounded? On the tenth of the month, on Yom Kippur. This is the first law of the Jubilee year.
The Torah then says that one must proclaim freedom throughout the land for all its inhabitants. This is the second mitzvah. The word “freedom,” as the Gemara will prove, refers to the release of slaves. All slaves go free in the Jubilee year.
The verse continues: “It shall be a Jubilee year for you.” This implies that it is a Jubilee year only under certain circumstances. If certain laws are not observed, perhaps it is not considered a Jubilee year. The Gemara will discuss the meaning of the repetition, “It shall be a Jubilee year; it shall be.”
The next verse says that each person shall return to his ancestral property and each person shall return to his family. The return to one’s ancestral property refers to land returning to its original owners. Thus far, we have three laws of the Jubilee year: sounding the shofar on Yom Kippur, releasing slaves, and returning ancestral properties to their original owners.
The following verse adds a fourth law: the Jubilee year also has the laws of the sabbatical year. One may not plant or plow the land.
One might have thought that these laws are independent of one another. They are all laws of the Jubilee year, so perhaps whichever laws can be fulfilled should be fulfilled, while the failure to fulfill one law does not affect the others. The Gemara teaches that this is not the case.
The Sages taught: “It shall be a Jubilee year.” Even if the people did not observe the laws of the sabbatical year, and even if they did not sound the shofar, it is still a Jubilee year. Even if they did not return the lands to their original owners and did not sound the shofar, the land is still subject to the prohibition against agricultural labor.
The Gemara presents this as a major novelty. One might have thought that the sabbatical aspect of the Jubilee year applies only if the laws of freedom were observed. The Gemara teaches that the Jubilee year remains a Jubilee year even if some of its other laws were not fulfilled.
The question then arises: Why does the Gemara specifically mention the release of slaves? There are three laws in the verses: sounding the shofar, releasing slaves, and returning fields. Why should the Jubilee year depend on the release of slaves rather than on either of the other two?
One opinion teaches that the Jubilee year depends on the release of slaves. Rabbi Yosef disagrees and says that the verse teaches that the Jubilee-year laws apply even if the fields were not returned and the slaves were not released, but not if the shofar was not sounded. According to Rabbi Yosef, the essential act that establishes the Jubilee year is the sounding of the shofar.
The Gemara asks: Since the verse says “It shall be a Jubilee year,” which seems to include the laws regardless of what was done, and another expression appears to limit the law, how do we know which law is being included and which law is being excluded?
Why does the first opinion say that the Jubilee year remains in effect even if the slaves were not released, while Rabbi Yosef says that it remains in effect even if the shofar was not sounded? One answer is that it is not guaranteed that there will be slaves to release. There could be a year in which no one owns slaves. The shofar, however, is always available. There will always be a court and a shofar that can be sounded. Therefore, the law is linked to the element that is certain to exist.
Another answer is that the shofar of the Jubilee year is sounded by the court, whereas the release of slaves depends on individuals. The law is therefore linked to the act performed by the court, because the court will carry it out, rather than to an act dependent on private people.
The first answer is difficult because it is hard to imagine that there would be no slaves anywhere in the world. If slavery is permitted and owning slaves is considered valuable, one would expect at least someone, somewhere, to release a slave. Because of this difficulty, the Gemara offers the second answer: the shofar is under the control of the court, while the release of slaves is dependent on the people.
According to Rabbi Yosef, then, the prohibition against working the land during the Jubilee year is linked to the sounding of the shofar on Yom Kippur. If the shofar was not sounded, the Jubilee-year sabbatical laws would not apply. This is a rare case, because it is highly unlikely that the court would fail to sound the shofar, but the Gemara nevertheless discusses the possibility.
What is the significance of the shofar? The shofar is a freedom bell. When it is sounded, slaves are released and people return to their land. Everyone is a slave to something; even a person who is not legally a slave may be a slave to his business or to his field. The shofar therefore frees both those who were enslaved against their will and those who entered the workforce willingly but have become attached to their work.
This is not the actual moment when the slaves physically leave; it is the proclamation that begins the process of freedom. The shofar announces emancipation. The slaves go free, and the workaholic is also told to go home. He is freed from his attachment to the land.
The Gemara then asks again: Why choose the shofar as the element on which the Jubilee year depends? The verse about freedom appears immediately before the words “It shall be a Jubilee year,” so one might think that the verse is referring specifically to the release of slaves. The Gemara responds that the meaning of the word “freedom” must first be established.
What does the word “freedom” mean? The Gemara asks where this meaning is indicated. The answer is that it is derived from the word itself and from the example of the bird called the deror. The deror is a bird that can live wherever it wants. It can travel freely and bring its merchandise wherever it wishes to sell it. It is not restricted by borders or by anyone else. The word is therefore connected with the idea of dwelling freely, living wherever one wishes, and moving without restriction.
The Gemara then returns to the opinions previously cited. One opinion links the Jubilee-year sabbatical laws to the release of slaves. Rabbi Yosef links them to the sounding of the shofar. A third opinion says that all three elements are necessary: the shofar must be sounded, the slaves must be released, and the ancestral lands must be returned.
According to this third opinion, when the Torah says, “It shall be a Jubilee year,” the words are interpreted in relation to what appears before them and what appears after them. The expression before it refers to the release of slaves, the earlier verse refers to the sounding of the shofar, and the verse after it refers to the return of ancestral properties. All three are therefore connected to the sabbatical laws of the Jubilee year.
Everyone agrees that the Jubilee-year sabbatical laws are not automatic in the same way as the regular sabbatical year. They depend on other factors. The disagreement concerns which factors are necessary. One opinion says that the essential factor is the release of slaves; Rabbi Yosef says that it is the sounding of the shofar; and the third opinion says that all three—shofar, release of slaves, and return of land—are required.
The Gemara then asks how the Sages deal with the expression “It shall be a Jubilee year,” which sounds as though the year is a Jubilee year under all circumstances. The answer introduces another point: the mitzvah of releasing slaves applies outside the Land of Israel as well, but only when the practice of proclaiming freedom is observed in the Land of Israel. When freedom is observed in the Land of Israel, it is observed outside the Land as well; when it is not observed in the Land of Israel, it is not observed outside the Land either.
This raises a question. Does the release of slaves apply in America during the Jubilee year? The answer is that it applies there as long as the release of slaves is taking place in the Land of Israel. But earlier, the Gemara seemed to say that even if no one in the Land of Israel released a slave, someone at the end of the world might do so. How can both points be true?
The Sfat Emet explains that if there are slaves in the Land of Israel and their owners refuse to release them, then the law does not apply outside the Land of Israel either, because the law is being deliberately disregarded in the Land of Israel. However, if there are no slaves in the Land of Israel at all, then the law may apply outside the Land of Israel. In that case, no one in the Land of Israel is violating the law; there simply are no slaves there to release.
It is not necessarily simple for an owner to release a good slave or servant. Imagine that a person has a maid who has worked in the home for many years and knows the entire household. After a certain number of years, the owner is told that the maid must be released. The owner may say, “I am not releasing her. She is an excellent worker, and I would have to train someone new.” Releasing a good worker is difficult from a business perspective. If the people in the Land of Israel have slaves and refuse to release them, that refusal affects the law outside the Land as well. If there are simply no slaves in the Land of Israel, however, the situation is different.
We now continue to page nine, second side, and the next section of the Mishnah. One of the laws stated in the Mishnah is that the first of Tishrei begins a new year for trees and plantings. What is the practical difference? It affects the first three years of a tree, during which its fruit is forbidden, and the fourth year, when the fruit has the sanctity of the fourth-year produce.
Therefore, one must know how to count the years of a tree. The count does not begin simply from the day the tree was planted. Once the first of Tishrei arrives, a year is added to the tree’s life. The Gemara asks: Who tells us that this seemingly arbitrary day, the first of Tishrei, is the birthday of trees?
The answer is based on a comparison of verses. Regarding the prohibition of the first three years, the Torah says “three years.” The same expression is used regarding the fourth-year produce. We then compare this with the verse that refers to the beginning of the year, which we learned yesterday as referring to Tishrei.
Why not derive the year for trees from Nisan instead? The word “year” appears in connection with Nisan as well. The Gemara answers that the verses concerning the first three years and the fourth year mention years but do not mention months. The verse concerning Tishrei also speaks generally of a year. The verse concerning Nisan mentions both years and months, so it is not an exact parallel. We therefore prefer to compare “year” with “year” rather than “year” with “months and year,” and we establish the new year for trees on the first of Tishrei.
The Gemara then introduces a new teaching. Whether one planted a tree, bent a branch into the ground so that it would take root, or grafted one tree onto another, if the work was done thirty days before Rosh Hashanah, then when Rosh Hashanah arrives it is considered as though a year has passed. This applies even though the plant has been in the ground for only thirty days.
Since it is considered to have been planted in the previous year, one does not have to uproot it during the sabbatical year. It is not considered a plant that began growing during the sabbatical year. However, if it was planted fewer than thirty days before Rosh Hashanah, then when Rosh Hashanah arrives it is not considered a full year. One must wait until the following Rosh Hashanah.
If the year that follows is not a sabbatical year, the tree may remain in the ground and the count continues until the following Tishrei. If it is the eve of the sabbatical year and the tree was planted fewer than thirty days before Rosh Hashanah, however, it must be uprooted immediately. Since it was not established in the previous year, it is considered to have grown during the sabbatical year.
The Gemara then presents a major novelty involving the fifteenth of Shevat. We have said that the first of Tishrei is the new year for trees, and that a tree planted thirty days before Rosh Hashanah is considered to have completed its first year when Tishrei arrives. One might therefore calculate the first three years from the first of Tishrei and then begin the fourth year at the next Tishrei.
The Gemara says that this is not always the calculation. Once the tree has begun producing fruit, the relevant date changes. A tree is no longer treated merely as a newly planted tree; it is now treated as a mature fruit tree. The new year for mature trees is the fifteenth of Shevat.
Thus, if a tree was planted thirty days before Rosh Hashanah, the first of Tishrei establishes the first year. The following Tishrei establishes the second year, and the third Tishrei establishes the third year. But once the tree has reached the stage at which its fruit has begun to emerge, the calculation continues until the fifteenth of Shevat rather than until the following first of Tishrei.
Fruit that emerges after the first of Tishrei of the third year but before the fifteenth of Shevat remains subject to the prohibition of the first three years. It does not immediately become fourth-year produce. From the fifteenth of Shevat onward, the new fruit is considered fourth-year produce and has the sanctity of that year.
In practical terms, the person gains time. The count does not continue for a full three years from the original planting date. Because the tree was planted thirty days before Rosh Hashanah, the first year is counted at that Rosh Hashanah, but the final transition occurs on the fifteenth of Shevat. The result is approximately two years and seven and a half months rather than a full three years.
The chart illustrates the case clearly. The tree was planted thirty days before Rosh Hashanah. At the first Rosh Hashanah, it becomes year one. At the second Rosh Hashanah, it becomes year two. At the third Rosh Hashanah, it is still within the third year with respect to the fruit. The first three years conclude on the fifteenth of Shevat, at which point the fruit becomes fourth-year produce. The following year, it becomes ordinary produce.
In this way, the thirty days before Rosh Hashanah help establish the tree’s first year, and the fifteenth of Shevat serves as the later transition point for a tree that has already begun producing fruit. This gives a gain of approximately seven and a half months.
May there be abundant blessing and benefit for everyone. Amen.