ט"ו בשבט - בין מצווה לחג

And when ye shall come into the land, and shall have planted all manner of trees for food, then ye shall count the fruit thereof as forbidden; three years shall it be as forbidden unto you; it shall not be eaten. And in the fourth year all the fruit thereof shall be holy, for giving praise unto the LORD. But in the fifth year may ye eat of the fruit thereof, that it may yield unto you more richly the increase thereof: I am the LORD your God.

(Lev. 19:23:) “When you come into the land and plant.” The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Israel, Even though you find it (i.e., the land) full of all bounty, you shall not say, ‘Let us settle down and not plant.’ Rather, be careful in planting, as stated (ibid., cont.), ‘and plant any tree for food.’ Just as you came in and found plantings which others had planted, so you shall plant for your children, lest someone say, ‘Since I am old and tomorrow I shall die, why should I toil for others.’” Solomon said (in Eccl. 3:11), “He has made everything beautiful in its time; He also has put eternity into their heart.” “Hidden ('lm)” is what is written (without the w of the normal spelling, i.e., 'wlm, eternity). Why? If the Holy One, blessed be He, had not hidden (rt.: 'lm) the day of [one's] death from people, a person would neither build nor plant; for he would have said, “Tomorrow I shall die. Why should I persist in toiling for the sake of others?” The Holy One, blessed be He, therefore, hid death from (rt.: 'lm) human hearts, so that one would build and plant. [If] he is worthy, [it will be] for himself; [if] unworthy, [it will be] for others. There is a story about the emperor Hadrian; that he was going to war and traveling with his troops to fight with a certain country for having rebelled against him.²²Cf. Lev. R. 25:5; Eccl. R. 2:20:1. Now he found a certain old man who was planting fig saplings. Hadrian said to him, “You are an old man. [Why are you] persisting in taking the trouble to toil for others?” He said to Hadrian, “My lord king, here I am planting. If I am worthy, I shall eat of the fruit of my saplings; but if not, my children will eat.” [Hadrian] spent three years at war, and after three years he returned. What did that old man do? He took a fruit basket, filled it with the firstfruits of beautiful figs, and drew near to Hadrian. He said to him, “My lord king, take these figs, for I am the same old man whom you found when you were on your way [to the war] when you said, ‘You are an old man; why are you taking the trouble to toil for others?’ See, the Holy One, blessed be He, has already found me worthy to eat some fruit from my saplings. Now this [fruit] in my fruit basket is your portion from those [saplings].” Hadrian said to his servants, “Take it from him and fill it with gold coins.” And so they did. The old man took the fruit basket full of gold coins and began to go about his house, boasting to his wife and children. So he told them the story. Now a woman neighbor of his was there. She heard what the old man had said. She said to her husband, “When all the people go [through life], the Holy One, blessed be He, gives to them and prepares bounty for them. But you dwell in your dark house in the gloom. See, our [neighbor] honored the emperor with a fruit basket of figs; and he filled it with gold coins for him. Now you get up, take a large basket, and fill it with varieties of choice fruit, with apples, figs, and the other varieties of beautiful fruit, since he loves them a lot. Go and honor him with them. Perhaps he will fill it with gold for you, as he did for our old neighbor.” He went and heeded his wife. So he took a large basket, filled it with apples and figs, and loaded it on his shoulder. Then he approached the emperor on a side road²³Lat.: compendairia. and said to him, “My lord king, I heard that you love fruit, I have come to honor you with figs and apples.” The emperor said to his officers,²⁴Gk.: stratiotai (“soldiers”). “Take the basket and hit²⁵Rt.: TPH. This root is similar to the root for “apples,” and both are transliterated identically. The only difference is that the root for “apples” is spelled with a tav, while the root for “hit” is spelled with a tet. him on his face.” And so they did. They hit him on his face until his face swelled up; stripped him naked; smashed his eyes; and made an example²⁶Gk.: deigma. of him. So he went home, as one of whom an example had been made, and crying. Now she (i.e., his wife) thought that he was coming with a basket full of gold coins. So when she saw him with his face swollen and with his body shattered and beaten, she said to him, “What is the matter with you?” He said to her, “When I heeded you and went to honor him with this gift,²⁷Gk.: doron. they hit me on my face. If I had listened to you and put varieties of hard fruit in the basket, they would already have pelted my face and my whole body with them.” And why all this? In order to teach you that evil women destroy their husbands with evil [counsel]. Therefore one should not cease from planting. Rather, just as he found, one should still continue to plant even though he is old. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Israel, “Learn from Me. Do I need [fruits], as it were?” [And yet] it states (Gen. 2:8), “And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east.”

You shall regard its fruit as closed off. The reason for this mitzvah is to honor Hashem from the first of all our produce from the fruit of trees and vineyards. We should not eat from them until we bring all the fruit of one year as praises to Hashem. The fruit from the three years is not worthy to offer to Hashem, the Honored One, since it is negligible, and the tree does not provide its fruit with taste and scent during the three years. Most of them do not bring forth fruit at all until the fourth year. Therefore we wait for them all and we will not eat from them until we bring from the orchard we have planted all its good first fruit, “holy, praises to Hashem.” There, one shall eat them and praise the name of Hashem. In this respect, this mitzvah resembles the mitzvah of first fruits.

MISHNA: They are four days in the year that serve as the New Year, each for a different purpose: On the first of Nisan is the New Year for kings; it is from this date that the years of a king’s rule are counted. And the first of Nisan is also the New Year for the order of the Festivals, as it determines which is considered the first Festival of the year and which the last. On the first of Elul is the New Year for animal tithes; all the animals born prior to that date belong to the previous tithe year and are tithed as a single unit, whereas those born after that date belong to the next tithe year. Rabbi Elazar and Rabbi Shimon say: The New Year for animal tithes is on the first of Tishrei. On the first of Tishrei is the New Year for counting years, as will be explained in the Gemara; for calculating Sabbatical Years and Jubilee Years, i.e., from the first of Tishrei there is a biblical prohibition to work the land during these years; for planting, for determining the years of orla, the three-year period from when a tree has been planted during which time its fruit is forbidden; and for tithing vegetables, as vegetables picked prior to that date cannot be tithed together with vegetables picked after that date. On the first of Shevat is the New Year for the tree; the fruit of a tree that was formed prior to that date belong to the previous tithe year and cannot be tithed together with fruit that was formed after that date; this ruling is in accordance with the statement of Beit Shammai. But Beit Hillel say: The New Year for trees is on the fifteenth of Shevat.

equivalent to two. And what is this sin? Idol worship, as it is written: “For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns” (Jeremiah 2:13), and it is written about the Jewish people: “For pass over the isles of the Kittim and see; and send to Kedar and observe carefully, and see if there has been such a thing. Has a nation exchanged its gods, although they are no gods? But My people has exchanged its glory for that which does not profit” (Jeremiah 2:10–11). It is taught in a baraita with regard to this verse: Kittites, i.e., the people of the isles of Kittim, worship fire and the people of Kedar worship water, and even though they know that water extinguishes fire, nevertheless they have not exchanged their god: “But My people has exchanged its glory for that which does not profit.” And Rav Naḥman said to Rabbi Yitzḥak: What is the meaning of that which is written: “And it came to pass when Samuel was old” (I Samuel 8:1)? And did Samuel really grow so old? But he was only fifty-two years old when he died, as the Master said in a baraita that deals with the Divine punishment of karet: One who dies at the age of fifty-two years is not considered to have suffered the premature death of karet, as this is the age of the death of Samuel of Rama. This shows that Samuel died at the relatively young age of fifty-two. Rabbi Yitzḥak said to Rav Naḥman that Rabbi Yoḥanan said as follows: Old age sprang upon Samuel, which caused him to appear older than his actual age, as it is written: “I regret that I made Saul king” (I Samuel 15:11). Samuel said before God: Master of the Universe, You have considered me the equivalent of Moses and Aaron, as it is written: “Moses and Aaron among His priests, and Samuel among those who call upon His Name” (Psalms 99:6). Just as with regard to Moses and Aaron, their handiwork was not annulled in their lifetimes, so too, let my handiwork not be annulled in my lifetime. I anointed Saul; please do not annul his reign. The Holy One, Blessed be He, said: What shall I do? Shall Saul die now? Samuel will not allow it, as he has petitioned that Saul should not die. Shall Samuel die young, with Saul passing away immediately afterward? The people will murmur about him, and wonder what transgression Samuel committed that caused his early demise. Shall neither Saul nor Samuel die? The time of David’s reign has already arrived, and one kingdom does not overlap with another and subtract from the time allotted to it even by a hairbreadth [nima]. Therefore, the Holy One, Blessed be He, said: I will spring old age upon him and everyone will think that Shmuel is elderly. This is the meaning of that which is written: “And Saul dwelled in Gibeah under the tamarisk tree in Rama” (I Samuel 22:6). What does Gibeah have to do with Rama; these are two separate places. Rather, the verse comes to tell you: Who caused Saul to dwell in Gibeah for two and a half years? The prayer of Samuel of Rama. The Gemara asks: And is one man set aside before another man? In other words, is Samuel’s life set aside simply because the time for David’s reign has arrived? The Gemara answers: Yes, as Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥmani said that Rabbi Yoḥanan said: What is the meaning of that which is written: “Therefore I have hewn by the prophets, I have slain them by the words of My mouth” (Hosea 6:5)? It is not stated: By their deeds, but rather: “By the words of My mouth,” i.e., God sometimes ends the life of an individual simply by virtue of His decree. Apparently, one man is indeed set aside before another man. § In continuation of Rav Naḥman’s questions of Rabbi Yitzḥak, the Gemara relates: Rav Naḥman and Rabbi Yitzḥak were sitting and eating together at a meal. Rav Naḥman said to Rabbi Yitzḥak: Let the Master say a matter, i.e., share a Torah idea with me. Rabbi Yitzḥak said to Rav Naḥman that Rabbi Yoḥanan said: One may not speak during a meal, lest the trachea will precede the esophagus. Food is meant to enter the esophagus, and when one speaks his trachea opens and the food might enter there. And therefore, one should not speak during a meal, as he might come into the danger of choking. After they had eaten, Rabbi Yitzḥak said to Rav Naḥman that Rabbi Yoḥanan said as follows: Our patriarch Jacob did not die. Rav Naḥman asked him in surprise: And was it for naught that the eulogizers eulogized him and the embalmers embalmed him and the buriers buried him? Rabbi Yitzḥak replied to Rav Naḥman: I am interpreting a verse, as it is stated: “Therefore do not fear, Jacob My servant, says the Lord, neither be dismayed, Israel, for I will save you from afar, and your seed from the land of their captivity” (Jeremiah 30:10). This verse juxtaposes Jacob to his seed: Just as his seed is alive when redeemed, so too, Jacob himself is alive. Rabbi Yitzḥak said: Anyone who says: Rahab Rahab, immediately experiences a seminal emission, due to the arousal of desire caused by Rahab’s great beauty. Rav Naḥman said to him: I say Rahab and it does not affect me. Rabbi Yitzḥak said to Rav Naḥman: When I said this I was specifically referring to a man who knew her and to one who recognized her. With regard to anyone who had met Rahab in person, the mere mention of her name would arouse his lust. The Gemara relates: When they were taking leave of one another, Rav Naḥman said to Rabbi Yitzḥak: Master, give me a blessing. Rabbi Yitzḥak said to him: I will tell you a parable. To what is this matter comparable? It is comparable to one who was walking through a desert and who was hungry, tired, and thirsty. And he found a tree whose fruits were sweet and whose shade was pleasant, and a stream of water flowed beneath it. He ate from the fruits of the tree, drank from the water in the stream, and sat in the shade of the tree. And when he wished to leave, he said: Tree, tree, with what shall I bless you? If I say to you that your fruits should be sweet, your fruits are already sweet; if I say that your shade should be pleasant, your shade is already pleasant; if I say that a stream of water should flow beneath you, a stream of water already flows beneath you. Rather, I will bless you as follows: May it be God’s will that all saplings which they plant from you