Kommentar zu Maaser Sheni 5:1
כֶּרֶם רְבָעִי, מְצַיְּנִין אוֹתוֹ בְּקוֹזְזוֹת אֲדָמָה, וְשֶׁל עָרְלָה בְּחַרְסִית, וְשֶׁל קְבָרוֹת בְּסִיד, וּמְמַחֶה וְשׁוֹפֵךְ. אָמַר רַבָּן שִׁמְעוֹן בֶּן גַּמְלִיאֵל, בַּמֶּה דְבָרִים אֲמוּרִים, בַּשְּׁבִיעִית. וְהַצְּנוּעִים מַנִּיחִין אֶת הַמָּעוֹת וְאוֹמְרִים, כָּל הַנִּלְקָט מִזֶּה, יְהֵא מְחֻלָּל עַל הַמָּעוֹת הָאֵלּוּ:
Kerem Revai [Früchte im vierten Jahr nach ihrer Pflanzung, die als heilig gelten], markieren sie mit Erdklumpen und Orlah [Früchte in den ersten drei Jahren nach ihrer Pflanzung, die nicht gegessen werden dürfen] mit Ton Gräber mit Kalk, den er auflöst und gießt. Rabban Shimon ben Gamaliel sagte: Wann gilt das? Im Sabbatjahr. Die Gewissenhaften legen Münzen ab und sagen: Alle Früchte, die aus diesem [Weinberg] gesammelt werden, werden zu Chulin [nicht heilige Produkte, indem sie ihre Heiligkeit übertragen] auf diese Münzen verarbeitet.
Bartenura on Mishnah Maaser Sheni
כרם רבעי מציינין אותו – they build near it a heap of stones and a sign so that they will recognize that it is fourth-year grapes.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Maaser Sheni
Introduction
The final chapter of Maaser Sheni deals with vineyards and other fruit-bearing trees which are in their fourth year. This topic is addressed in Leviticus 19:23-24:
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. In the fourth year all its fruit shall be set aside for jubilation before the LORD; 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.”
While the Torah mentions only the vineyard, the rabbis extended this law to include all fruit-bearing trees. Thus during the first three years of a trees growth one cannot eat the produce. This is called “orlah” and there is an entire tractate dedicated to the subject. During the fourth year the fruits are holy and they must be brought to Jerusalem and eaten there, or redeemed, like maaser sheni, and the money is brought to Jerusalem and used there to buy food.
Our mishnah deals with the topic of how they would mark a vineyard to let people know that it was in its fourth year.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Maaser Sheni
בקוזזות – a heap of stones and/or clods of earth; a sign like the ground. Just as the ground which one derives benefit from and makes produce, even this also, when it is redeemed, it is permitted to derive benefit from it.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Maaser Sheni
A vineyard in its fourth year, they mark it with clods of earth, and of orlah with potter's clay, and graves with lime which is dissolved and poured on. In order to let people know that various vineyards or orchards were prohibited, they would mark them off in different ways. They would mark off fourth-year vineyards and orchards with special clods of earth. If the vineyard or orchard was of “orlah” trees from their first three years then they would mark it off with potter’s clay. Finally, the mishnah notes that in order to let priests know where graves were located, they would mark them off with lime.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Maaser Sheni
ושל ערלה בחרסית – in the ground when one makes from it an earthenware utensil. Its sign is like this burned-clay that one does not derive any benefit from it when one seeds it, one does not remove it in order to have a quantity of seed required for a field (see Mishnah Peah, Chapter 5, Mishnah 1), even this, there is no benefit from it.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Maaser Sheni
Rabban Shimon ben Gamaliel said: When does this apply? In the seventh year. Rabban Shimon ben Gamaliel says that they didn’t always mark off fourth-year and orlah vineyards and orchards, only during the seventh year. During the seventh year all produce is considered ownerless and anyone can enter a field and eat from the trees. To let people know that this produce was prohibited because it was in its first four years of growth they would mark it off. But during other years, one is not allowed to enter into another person’s field and eat from the trees. One who does so is a thief. According to Rabban Shimon ben Gamaliel we don’t need to take special actions to prevent thieves from eating prohibited food. On the contrary, we allow the thief to transgress another transgression as well, in the hope that he will receive his just punishment. This is, in my opinion, a radical, but interesting concept. Do we try to prevent people who are committing moral crimes (thievery) from also committing “ritual” crimes, such as eating prohibited food? Or do we hold back and watch them sin even more?
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Bartenura on Mishnah Maaser Sheni
ושל קברות – so that a Kohen nor a Nazirite will not enter into there.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Maaser Sheni
The conscientious used to put down money and say: any fruit gathered from this vineyard may be exchanged for this money. Those who conscientiously observed the commandments would not abide by Rabban Shimon ben Gamaliel’s principal. Rather, they would go even a step further and set aside money that would be redeemed for any fruit that was picked from the tree/vineyard during its fourth year. When a person would enter the field, without the owner’s permission or knowledge, and he would steal some fruit from the tree, the sanctity of the fruit would automatically transfer to the money. This would prevent the thief from committing the additional sin of eating produce during its fourth year. We can see here that the “conscientious” refer to a group of people who were willing to spend their own money to make sure that others didn’t unwittingly transgress.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Maaser Sheni
בסיד – A sign that the white plaster is like bones.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Maaser Sheni
וממחה ושופך – dilute the plaster/lime in water so that it will become more glossy white and then it is poured upon the grave.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Maaser Sheni
במה דברים אמורים – that they make a sign for fourth-year grapes and fruits of a tree during its first three years.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Maaser Sheni
בשביעית – where everything is ownerless and people can take with permissions. But in the rest of the years of seven-year cycle, when they come to steal, they stuff the produce into the mouth of the wicked person so that he will glut it and die (See Talmud Bava Kamma 69a) and they will take it to eat while it is forbidden.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Maaser Sheni
והצנועים – those who are exacting upon themselves, when they had fourth-year grapes during the seventh year, they would set aside the monies prior to harvesting and say: All that is harvested, when it will be harvest, will be redeemed on this.
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