Commentaire sur Ma'aserot 3:4
מָצָא קְצִיצוֹת בַּדֶּרֶךְ, אֲפִלּוּ בְצַד שְׂדֵה קְצִיצוֹת, וְכֵן תְּאֵנָה שֶׁהִיא נוֹטָה עַל דֶּרֶךְ, וּמָצָא תַחְתֶּיהָ תְּאֵנִים, מֻתָּרוֹת מִשּׁוּם גָּזֵל וּפְטוּרוֹת מִן הַמַּעֲשְׂרוֹת. וּבְזֵיתִים וּבְחָרוּבִים, חַיָּבִים. מָצָא גְרוֹגָרוֹת, אִם דָּרְסוּ רוֹב בְּנֵי אָדָם, חַיָּב, וְאִם לָאו, פָּטוּר. מָצָא פִלְחֵי דְבֵלָה, חַיָּב, שֶׁיָּדוּעַ שֶׁהֵן מִדָּבָר גָּמוּר. וְהֶחָרוּבִין, עַד שֶׁלֹּא כְנָסָן לְרֹאשׁ הַגַּג, מוֹרִיד מֵהֶם לִבְהֵמָה, פָּטוּר, מִפְּנֵי שֶׁהוּא מַחֲזִיר אֶת הַמּוֹתָר:
Si l'on a trouvé des figues coupées sur la route, même à côté d'un champ de figues coupées, et de même, si un figuier surplombe la route, et qu'il a trouvé en dessous des figues, on leur permet [d'être pris sans être considéré] le vol, et ils sont exemptés de la dîme. Mais dans [un cas] d'olives et de caroubes, ils exigent [la dîme]. Si quelqu'un a trouvé des figues séchées [non introduites], alors si la majorité des gens avaient déjà foulé [leurs figues], il est tenu [de les donner la dîme], mais sinon, il est exempté. Si l'on trouve des tranches de gâteau aux figues [foulées], on lui demande [de verser la dîme] car il est évident qu'elles proviennent d'un produit fini. Avec les caroubiers, si on ne les a pas encore amenés au sommet du toit, s'il en prend quelques-uns pour ses animaux, il est exonéré [de la dîme] puisqu'il remet les restes.
Bartenura on Mishnah Maasrot
ואפילו בצד שדה קציעות -for the matter is proved that from this field they fell, and even so, they are permitted because of theft, for in general, the owners despaired from [finding] them.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Maasrot
Introduction
Most of this mishnah deals with fruit that one finds can one eat it without tithing?
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Bartenura on Mishnah Maasrot
ופטורות מן המעשר – like the law of renunciation of ownership.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Maasrot
If one found cut figs on the road, or even beside a field [where cut figs] have been spread [to dry], and similarly, if a fig tree overhangs the road, and he found figs beneath it, they are allowed [with regard to the laws] of robbery, and they are exempt from tithe. The person who finds these cut figs may keep them, even if it is quite clear from which field they came. Taking them is not considered stealing because it is common for the field owner to make them ownerless, probably because he doesn’t consider it worth his while to pick up the figs that fell by the side of the road. The figs are also exempt from tithes because ownerless produce is always exempt from tithes (see chapter one, mishnah one).
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Bartenura on Mishnah Maasrot
ובזיתים ובחרובים חייבים – because the owners do not despair of [recovering] them, for their appearance proves to them that they fell from this tree. But figs with their falling are repulsive and it is not known from which tree it is.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Maasrot
But if they were olives and carobs, they are liable. Olives and carobs are assumed to be of greater value than figs. The owner does not make them ownerless, and therefore, the rules are opposite of those in section one which discussed figs. One who finds olives and carobs near their likely sources may not take them and if he does, he cannot eat them before they are tithed because they are not ownerless.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Maasrot
אם דרסו רוב דם – if most people of that city already tread their dried figs in their fields, they can say that this is from their treading, and their work was already completed, and it is obligated to tithe.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Maasrot
If one found dried figs, then if the majority of people had already trodden [their figs], he must tithe [them], but if not he is exempt. Figs are liable for tithes once they have been pressed into a jar (see 1:8). The figs that he finds have been dried, but he doesn’t know if they have already been pressed into a jar. In this case the status of the figs is determined by what the majority of people in that area have done. If most people have already pressed their figs, then he must assume that these figs were already pressed and he cannot eat them without first tithing. If most people have not pressed their figs, then he may eat them without tithing.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Maasrot
פלחי דבילה – after they were trodden in a round cake, they divide the cake into several segments/slices, and there is in a slice many cakes of figs stuck to each other.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Maasrot
If one found slices of fig-cake he is liable [to tithe] since it is obvious they come from something whose processing had been fully completed. If he finds pieces of fig cakes, then he can be certain that they were already pressed into a jar and he cannot eat them without tithing.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Maasrot
עד שלא כנסן לראש הגג – to make of them a pile, and that is their harvesting time to make them liable to tithes, as is taught in the Mishnayot (2-7) in the first chapter.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Maasrot
With carobs, if they had not yet been on the top of the roof, he may take some down for his animals and be exempt [from tithe] since he returns that which is left over. The final step in the processing of carobs, the step that makes them fit for human consumption, is to bring them up to one’s roof to dry them out. Before he has brought them to the roof he can feed them to his cattle without tithing. We don’t say that by feeding them to his cattle he has shown that their processing is complete and therefore he must tithe them. The reason we don’t make such an assumption is that sometimes a person may begin feeding them to his cattle and then bring them back up to his roof to dry them out, so that people could eat them.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Maasrot
מוריד מהן לבהמה – but he cannot eat them, for we don’t consume on the stored objects other than in their place, meaning to say, the fruit, when we spread them out to dry, that their work was not completed, we don’t eat from them other than in their place, for when they are not in their place, it is not recognized that their work was not completed, but, however, when you feed from them to the cattle, even not in their place, because the carobs are not food for cattle, it is well knwn that their work was not completed and they have not dried out completely.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Maasrot
מפני שהוא מחזיר את המותר – to the place that he stretched them out to dry, and wherever its surplus returns, it is not made obligatory for the setting aside of tithes.
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