Mishnah
Mishnah

Quoting%20commentary for Avodah Zarah 3:8

לֹא יֵשֵׁב בְּצִלָּהּ. וְאִם יָשַׁב, טָהוֹר. וְלֹא יַעֲבֹר תַּחְתֶּיהָ. וְאִם עָבַר, טָמֵא. הָיְתָה גוֹזֶלֶת אֶת הָרַבִּים, וְעָבַר תַּחְתֶּיהָ, טָהוֹר. וְזוֹרְעִין תַּחְתֶּיהָ יְרָקוֹת בִּימוֹת הַגְּשָׁמִים אֲבָל לֹא בִימוֹת הַחַמָּה. וְהַחֲזָרִין, לֹא בִימוֹת הַחַמָּה וְלֹא בִימוֹת הַגְּשָׁמִים. רַבִּי יוֹסֵי אוֹמֵר, אַף לֹא יְרָקוֹת בִּימוֹת הַגְּשָׁמִים, מִפְּנֵי שֶׁהַנְּמִיָּה נוֹשֶׁרֶת עֲלֵיהֶן וְהֹוָה לָהֶן לְזָבֶל:

One must not sit in its (an asheirah's) shade; but if he did, he is tahor (clean). [This "shade" does not refer to the boughs of the asheirah. For (if it did) we could not continue "but if he did he is tahor." For we learn further: "and if he did pass under it, he is tamei (unclean). But (the understanding is that) from the tree onwards, when the sun is in the east or in the west, everything casts a long shadow (in which he must not sit.)] And he should not pass under it [under the boughs of the tree. For the tree "tents" over him, and if he passes under it he is tamei.] If it "robbed" the public [i.e., if its boughs extended into the public domain], he is tahor. [For this is rabbinical tumah, and where it robs the public, the rabbis did not decree.] And greens may be sowed beneath it in the rainy season, [when the tree is harmful to them, keeping the sun from them], but not in the sunny season, [when the shade is beneficial to them]. And lettuce, neither in the sunny season nor in the rainy season, [the shade being always beneficial to them.] R. Yossi says: Neither [should] greens [be sowed] in the rainy season; for the leaves fall upon them (the greens) and are fertilizer for them. [The Gemara asks: But do we not infer that R. Yossi holds that if two things (one permitted and the other forbidden) contribute (to the result), it is permitted? (as we see earlier in this chapter, Mishnah 3, in respect to crumbling them and casting them to the wind, even though it becomes fertilizer). So that if the soil, which is permitted, and fertilizer of idolatry, which is forbidden, contribute to the growing of the greens, R. Yossi holds that it (the result) is permitted. How, then, can he forbid the greens here because the leaves fall on them! And the Gemara answers that R. Yossi is addressing himself to the opinion of the Rabbis, viz.: According to you, who hold that (the result of) "this and this contributing" is forbidden, you should have forbidden the greens because the leaves fall on them and become fertilizer for them! And the Rabbis hold this case to be different; for the idolatrous tree does not avail the greens at all. For what it adds to them by way of fertilizer it detracts from them by way of shade! And the halachah is in accordance with R. Yossi and (the result of) "this and this contribute" is permitted.]

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