Kommentar zu Sheviit 6:3

בצלים שירדו עליהם גשמים – onions of the Sixth [Year] which entered into the Seventh [Year, and rain fell upon them and they grew, if the leaves blackened with the knowledge that they grew and added, and the growth of the Seventh Year came and nullified the essence, even though it is a lot. But if the leaves became green, they we go and they wither and it is not from the Land [of Israel] that they increased.

Introduction This mishnah deals with onions that were harvested in the sixth year and then left stored in the ground until the seventh year. In the seventh year rain falls on them and they sprout new leaves. The question is: are these onions considered to be seventh year produce because their sprouts grew in the seventh year?

אם יכולין ליתלש בעלין – it is the manner of onions when they are compee that leave on their own from the land and are easy to detach, and if the leaves are strong, and when you grab hold of them, you are able to detach the onions from the ground, then they have certainly grown during the Seventh Year.

Onions on which rain fell and which had sprouted, if their leaves had turned black, they are forbidden; if they had become green they are permitted. If the leaves of the onions sprouted and turned black, which Albeck explains to mean that they turned dark green, then they are considered to be sabbatical year produce, and they must be treated as such. However, if they become green and wilted (again, according to Albeck) then the sprouts do not count as if they grew from the land, but rather as if they grew from the onions. Hence, they are not treated as sabbatical year produce and they are permitted.

כנגד כן למוצאי שביעית מותרים – we are not speaking about onions of the Seventh Year that went out to the aftermath of the Seventh Year, fo we ae not lenient with them all that much, for the permitted growth of a little bit will raise the prohibition, but the ending clause [of the Mishnah] also speaks regarding onions of the Sixth Year that were uprooted in the Sixth Year and then return and were replanted in the Seventh Year, and after they grew a little bit in the Seventh Year, he uprooted them and replanted them in the Eighth Year, and because they had grown already in the Sixth Year, they did n’t add even a little bit in the Seventh Year, and they were prohibited, as when they returned and added a little bit in the Eighth Year, he retracted that permission and nullified the minute prohibition, for also that of the Sixth Year assisted to nullify it the end of permitted growh. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Hanina ben Antigonos.

Rabbi Hanina ben Antigonus says: if they can be plucked out by their leaves, they are forbidden. Rabbi Hanina says that the status of the onions depends on how strong the leaves are. If one can pull the onions out of the ground by the leaves, then the leaves are considered to have grown enough in the seventh year to prohibit the onions. But if one cannot pull the onions out by the leaves, then the leaves are insignificant and the onions are not prohibited.

In the year after the sabbatical year, the like of these are permitted. The same rules will apply in the opposite manner with regard to onions that were grown in the seventh year and rain fell on them in the eighth year. If one can pull them up by their leaves, then the leaves are treated as eight year produce, but if not they are treated as seventh year produce and are forbidden.