A person is not allowed to plant a tree near his neighbor’s grain field unless he leaves a distance of four amot (cubits) from the field, to make sure that the tree he is planting here doesn’t enter his neighbor’s property when he is working on the tree. It applies whether we’re talking about grapevines or any other tree: they all have to be four amot away from a neighbor’s grain field or from the trees that he has. But if there is a fence between the two properties, both people are allowed to plant all the way up to the fence. This one plants on his side all the way up to the fence, and this one plants all the way on his side toward the fence. Even though the tree and the vine are going to be close to each other, it’s allowed because the fence will prevent them from going into each other’s property.
The whole fear here is that a person is going to trespass onto his neighbor’s property. What they would do in those days is plow right around the tree to make the soil loose and have the roots a little bit exposed as they were growing. If the tree was right along the property line between your property and your neighbor’s property, when a person was plowing and turning around, he would go onto his neighbor’s property. So the Chachamim (the Sages) said, “Let’s have a gap of four amot, and then you’ll be able to circle around that tree without going onto your neighbor’s property.” But if you have a fence there, then of course there’s no nervousness, because you can never physically get there. You can’t make your way across your friend’s property line. Like we mentioned earlier, the roots of a tree could extend 25 amot. We’ll talk here about what a person could do to remove roots from his neighbor’s house that have now spread into his property.
Roots of a tree planted next to the property line extend into a neighbor’s property. He’s allowed to cut them away up to a depth of three tefachim (handbreadths) in the ground, so they won’t block the progress of his plow. He’s allowed to cut them away in the spot where they would have bothered him if he was going to plow. If he was digging pits, ditches, or a cave in the ground, he’s allowed to cut away at the roots as he’s trying to dig down. The wood that he gets here is his; it grew in his property. The roots, which are really wood, he is allowed to cut away. He is allowed to keep them, since they grew in his property.