If a person sells olive trees on his land to somebody else to cut down for firewood, he is not selling him the land; he is just selling him that tree. The person who he sold it to didn't grab the opportunity to cut the trees down right away, but he left them a little bit, and olives grew on them. The trees he left standing, which were his, eventually grew olives, but the olives were very low quality. When pressed, they would barely produce any oil: less than a revi'it of oil—that’s, in our terms, around 3.2 ounces—less than 3.2 ounces for a se'ah (dry measure) of olives. There was a large amount of olives, but when pressed, only a small amount of oil came out. We say that these olives belong to the owner of the trees. Even though the owner of the land under them could technically make a claim and say that his land also helped produce the olives, since the oil is such a small amount and the olives are such low quality, we would say that the owner of the land would generally waive his claim against them.
But if the trees produced olives that gave off a lot of oil—more than a quarter log (liquid measure)—a revi'it of oil per se'ah of olives—and both people want to claim those olives, the owner of the trees could say, “They’re my trees, and my trees grew these olives, so they belong to me.” The owner of the land underneath them could say, “No, my land grew these olives; it contributed to them, so they belong to me.” We say that they divide the olives between them; they both have a right to them. In conjunction, the trees and the land under them grew the olives on this tree, so they both have a claim to the olives.
In this situation, the trees grew in the owner’s land and were then sold. But in the next case of the Mishnah, we’ll talk about what happens if the trees grew in one place and then ended up in somebody else’s land. If a flooding river took somebody’s olive trees and then deposited them in his neighbor’s field, and that tree took root there and grew olives, it’s a combination: someone’s tree went elsewhere, took root, and grew olives in a different piece of land, somebody else’s land. The owner of the tree says, “My tree, my olives; they belong to me. My tree grew olives, even though it’s on your land, so they’re mine.” The owner of the land says, “No, my land grew these olives, so they belong to me.” We say that they divide the olives between them for the first three years. For the first three years, we say that the trees were actually partially involved in producing the olives. After that, we would say that the olives that grow on this tree belong to the owner of the land.
The reason here is that, technically, the owner of the land could claim all of the olives. He could say, “If my land hadn’t allowed your tree to take root, no olives would have grown, so it’s my contribution that created all of these olives, and since they’re on my land, I want all of them.” But we don’t say that. We say that for the first three years, they should split the olives. Only after those three years do the olives become the full property of the owner of the land. The reason is that we know there’s a halakha (Jewish law) of Orlah: trees planted in the first three years; any fruit that comes from them is prohibited to benefit from. If the owner of the land had planted his own trees, he wouldn’t have had any fruit to eat during those first three years. So the benefit he gains now is that he’s taking trees that were already grown, so the laws of Orlah don’t apply to them, and he’s putting them onto his land. We would say, therefore, that this benefit is being given to him by the actual owner of these trees. So it’s not simply his land that is giving him the benefit of the olives; it’s the fact that this tree was grown elsewhere and had the Orlah process done with it already. That is allowing him to keep these olives for the first three years.
After those three years, he would fully take ownership of the tree, and it’s his land that is fully allowing the olives to grow. But he would still owe the value of the trees to their original owner. So, for the first three years, they would split the olives between them because both of them contributed. After that, the owner of the land would have to pay for the trees, but he would keep all the produce from them.