Mishnah Orlah: Main Themes

(23) When you enter the land and plant any tree for food, you shall regard its fruit as forbidden. Three years it shall be forbidden for you, not to be eaten. (24) In the fourth year all its fruit shall be set aside for jubilation before the LORD; (25) and only in the fifth year may you use its fruit—that its yield to you may be increased: I the LORD am your God.

Three years it shall be forbidden to you. Many commentaries say, with regard to the essence of this mitzvah, that it is based on an Amoraite law to create tricks/shortcuts in order to hasten the ripening of the fruit of the tree before its time. Maimonides, in Guide for the Perplexed, wrote -- and we'll see a more rational explanation here -- that this mitzvah is in order to remember the Creation of the World, since everything (total) was created on Day 1, and everything (individual categories) emerged, each on its own day. Plants of the ground were hidden until Day 3; and even though they bloomed on Day 3, they aren't even seen until Day 4 when the lights of the sky caused the fruits to ripen -- because all ripening is dependent on sun and moon, as we learn [Deuteronomy 33:14] "With the bounteous yield of the sun, And the bounteous crop of the moons." So we find that they were hidden and impossible to eat until Day 4. Based on this, we are instructed to keep the mitzvah of orlah in memory of the creation of the world. Our plants, too, should be hidden and sealed for three years, since the essence of orlah is being hidden and sealed.

(1) The commandment of the fourth year plant: That the fourth year plant be completely holy - the explanation [of which] is that all fruits that come out of the tree in the fourth year from its planting are holy; meaning to say, that they are eaten by the owners in Jerusalem, like the second tithe, and that is their holiness - as it is stated (Leviticus 19:23-24), "and you shall plant any food tree[...] And in the fourth year all of its fruit shall be holy, for praising to the Lord." And the explanation comes about it that it is for the owners - and the explanation of praising is that the owners should eat it in Jerusalem, and that is rejoicing. And the Sages called it the fourth year plant, in every place. And in Sifrei Bemidbar 6:1, it expounds that the fourth year plant is for the owners, from that which is written (Numbers 5:10), "And a man's sanctified things shall be his." As they said there, "'A man's sanctified things, etc.' - it pulled back all of the sanctified things and gave them to the priests; and there is nothing remaining for them except for the thanksgiving-offering, the peace offering, the Pesach offering, the animal tithe, the second tithe and the fourth year plant, which are for the owners.

(1) One who plants [a fruit tree] to serve as a fence or for beams, it is exempt from [the laws of] Orlah [the fruit of a tree during the first three years after its planting, the consumption or usage of which is forbidden]. Rabbi Yose says, even if he intended the inner side to be for fruit and the outer side to be a fence, the inside fruit is subject [to Orlah] while the outside is exempt.

(4) A tree that was uprooted but one root remained is exempt. And how large must that root be? Rabban Gamliel says in the name of Rabbi Elazar the son of Yehudah of Bertota, as a stretching pin.