Un viñedo que se ha destruido [desarraigado o secado], si es posible recoger [uvas] de diez vides dentro de un beit se'ah y fueron plantadas de acuerdo con la ley, se llama viñedo pobre. Un viñedo que se ha plantado de manera irregular [no en filas rectas], si hay entre ellos [cinco viñas] dos opuestos tres [dos enfrentados y uno proyectándose como una cola], se considera un viñedo, pero si No, no se considera un viñedo. El rabino Meir dice: Dado que aparece en forma de viñedo [tiene hileras de enredaderas, aunque no en hileras rectas], está en un viñedo.
English Explanation of Mishnah Kilayim
Introduction
This mishnah deals with two vineyards that potentially do not count as vineyards. The first is a vineyard that has been partly ruined, and the second is a vineyard that was not planted in the way in which vineyards are normally planted.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Kilayim
A vineyard that has been [partly] ruined: if it is still possible to harvest ten vines within a bet seah, and they are planted according to halakhah, behold this is called a “poor vineyard.” If the vineyard was ruined but there are still ten usable vines within a field the size of a bet seah (2500 square cubits, about 25 meters by 25 meters), then these vines constitute a vineyard and all of the rules regarding a vineyard apply. The one caveat is that the vineyard has to have been planted according to halakhah, meaning two vines opposite two vines with a fifth vine forming a tail (see illustrations in 4:6). If there are less than ten vines or they were not planted according to the normal way then they don’t constitute a vineyard.
Ask RabbiBookmarkShareCopy
English Explanation of Mishnah Kilayim
A vineyard planted in a mixed-up manner, if there remains an alignment of [one line of] two parallel [vines] opposite [a line of] three [vines], it constitutes a vineyard, but if not it is not a vineyard. Rabbi Meir says: since it is in appearance like a vineyard [in general], it is a vineyard. If a vineyard was planted in a mixed up manner, meaning not in the normal way (which the Mishnah terms “according to halakhah”) then these vines still constitute a vineyard if there is one section where the proper alignment (2 x 2, with a tail) remains. If no such alignment is found anywhere within this vineyard then it just doesn’t count as a vineyard. Rabbi Meir says that since there are a lot of vines here and it looks like a vineyard, it still counts as a vineyard even if the proper or normal alignment of vines doesn’t exist anywhere. Rabbi Meir might be concerned that if the sages did not treat this mixed up vineyard as a real vineyard people would become mixed up and treat real vineyards as if they too were not really vineyards (you might have to read that sentence a few times unless you too want to get mixed up!)
