פירוש על מנחות 10:8

קוצרים בית השלחים שבעמקים – that their grain is bad and we don’t bring the Omer from there. And it is taught in a Baraitha (Tractate Menahot 71a), one verse states (Leviticus 23:10): “and you repeat its harvest and you shall bring the… sheaf,” that implies that you are able to reap prior to bring the Omer, and another verse (ibid.,) states: “the first sheaf of your harvest,” which implies that it will be the first of all the reaping, how is this possible? From a place that you are able to bring the Omer you do not reap prior to the Omer, [and] from a place that you cannot bring, as for example, the dry arid land in need of irrigation and the valleys where they don’t bring Omer from them because they are poor [quality], one reaps prior to [bringing] the Omer.

Introduction This mishnah brings in exceptions concerning the prohibition of harvesting grain before the omer.

אבל לא גודשין – to make a heap. For whatever It is possible to change, we change.

[Before the omer] one may reap [grain] in irrigated fields in the valley, but one may not stack it. One doesn’t bring omer grain from grain grown in irrigated fields in the valley because this is poor quality grain. However, the sages did not permit people to stack this grain. The only reason that they did permit harvesting this grain is that there was a fear it would be lost if it was not harvested. Therefore they were lenient when it came to grain that would not have been brought as the omer barley in any case. But there was no reason to be lenient with regard to stacking because it would not cause a loss to wait until the omer to stack the grain.

אנשי יריחו – they had dry, arid lands requiring irrigation.

The people of Jericho used to reap [before the omer] with the approval of the sages, and used to stack it without the approval of the sages, but the sages did not protest. Jericho’s fields are in the valley and therefore the rabbis allowed them to reap the grain before the omer was offered. However, the people of Jericho went further and stacked their grain as well. This was a no-no in the eyes of the sages, but despite this, they did not protest.

קוצר שחת – it is permissible to reap corn in its earliest stage [used instead of grass] prior to [the reaping of] the Omer and feed it to his cattle.

One may reap the unripe grain for cattle feed. Rabbi Judah said: When is this so? If one had begun to reap it before it had reached a third of its growth. Rabbi Shimon says: one may reap it and feed [his cattle with it] even after it has reached a third of its growth. Unripe grain can be harvested before the omer, if it is to be used for cattle feed. Rabbi Judah says that the grain can be harvested as long as it has not yet reached one third of its growth. Rabbi Shimon is more lenient and allows the grain to be harvested even if it has not yet reached one third of its growth.

אימתי בזמן שהתחיל – to reap it for the needs of his cattle until it did not bring up the final third of the completion of its ripening, he reaps even after it brought up the third.

ר' שמעון אומר אף יקצור ויאכיל – he will begin to reap and feed it to his cattle when it brings forth a third [of its full growth], and all of the corn in its earliest stage [used instead of grass] is not reaping. But the Halakha is according to Rabbi Yehuda who comes to explain the words of the first Tanna/teacher.