פירוש על ערלה 1:5

ובו בריכה – it was the custom of those who work the ground that they dig a hole and take one shoot (especially of a fig-tree) from the tree and hide it in that hole and the root of that shoot comes out from other side and becomes a tree there and the head of the shoot remains attached to the tree. But the law of Orlah does not apply while it is still yet attached to the tree and absorbs from it, even though it also absorbs from the ground. But if the old tree is uprooted from the ground and it is found that all of its support and its absorbing is now from the young shoot.

Introduction There are two agricultural practices mentioned in this mishnah. The first is taking a branch from a vine, bending it down into the ground and then bringing it up again elsewhere. Underground the branch will grow new roots. Our mishnah will ask the question of how to reckon the years of the vine that grows from what it calls a “bent-down and rooted shoot.” The second practice is grafting, whereby one takes a detached branch and grafts into onto an existing vine.

חזרה הזקנה להיות כבריכה – and both of them – the old [tree] and the young shoot- are as if they were planted now and we count for the three years from the time when the tree was uprooted.

A tree which was uprooted and it has a bent-down [and rooted] shoot, and it [the tree] derives sustenance from it [the shoot], the old [tree] is [considered] like the shoot. In this case the original, old tree (or vine) was uprooted, but a branch that had been bent into the ground still remains in the ground and provides sustenance to the tree. The mishnah rules that the tree is considered to be like the shoot. Shoots that are bent into the ground are not subject to the laws of orlah as long as they are still attached to the older vine/tree, because the Torah says, “When you plant” and the rabbis understand this as excluding bending shoots into the ground. Note that the innovation here is that even though the branch that had been bent and rooted into the ground now looks like a new vine, it still counts as far as attaching the old vine to the ground.

הבריכה שנה אחר שנה – after the first young shoot had grown, he took from it one young shoot and sunk it into the ground and he did this several times, one after another.

If one bends [and roots] from it year after year, and it became detached, one counts from the time it became detached. If one bends and roots branches into the ground year after year, and at some point the new vines the grow from these shoots become detached from the mother tree, their count as far as orlah goes begins from the time they become detached. Up until that point their count went according to the old vine but once they are detached we have to look at them as if they were just planted.

מונה – [he counts it – the years of prohibition under the law of Orlah] for all of them from the time when the first young shoot broke off from the tree.

A grafted shoot of vines, and a grafted shoot [growing] on another grafted shoot, even if he rooted them in the soil, they are permitted. This section deals with grafting vines onto an older tree. If one grafts new vines onto an old tree their orlah count goes according to the older tree. This is true even if he puts grafts onto other grafts, and even if he bends some of those grafts into the ground such that they receive nourishment from the soil. In all of these cases, as long as the new grafts are connected to the old tree, one does not have to start a new count of years for the issue of orlah.

ספוק גפנים – [the connection of grape vines (by training and engrafting)] – it is the manner of those who work the ground that they take a long vine-shoot from this grape-vine and stretch it to the grape-vine that is by its side and engraft the vine-shoot on to the grape-vine. That is what is called “engrafting,” and it is exempt from the laws of Orlah. But that which is taught in the Mishnah (Tractate Sotah, Chapter 8, Mishnah 2 and Tosefta Rosh Hashanah 1:4) – that all are the same are the ones who plant such a tree, who sink them into the ground, and who graft them – are liable for Orlah. There they are speaking about when he severs the vine-shoot from the vine or the young shoot from the tree and afterwards sinks them or engrafts them.

Rabbi Meir said: in an instance where it is strongly [grafted], it is permitted, but in an instance where it is poorly [grafted], it is prohibited. Rabbi Meir is referring to a grafted branch which is grafted onto an already existing grafted branch. If the grafted branch onto which the new one is being grafted is strongly attached to the tree, meaning this graft is successful and is producing new fruits, then the new graft is permitted in terms of orlah. The old graft is considered part of the old tree. But if the prior graft is not strongly attached, then the new one is prohibited, because we can’t look at the old graft as if it is attached to the tree.

מקום שכחה יפה מותר – if the vine-shoot that he sank in the grape-vine where the vine’s growth was healthy and it absorbs/sucks from the grape-vine from where it was taken, it is permitted and exempt from Orlah, but if the vine’s growth was poor, it is liable for Orlah, but the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Meir.

A bent-down [and rooted] shoot that has become detached and is full of fruit, [then] if it increased one two hundredth, it is prohibited. The final section of our mishnah returns to discuss a branch of a vine that is bent down and rooted into the ground. As we learned above, as long as the branch is attached to the old vine, its fruit is permitted. In this case, the branch grows fruit while attached and then becomes detached. The question is: does the orlah count restart for the fruit that has already grown? The mishnah rules that if the fruit grew 1/200 in size, then the fruit is prohibited. This is the standard number for cases of orlah mixed with non-orlah. If there is 1/200th orlah, then the mixture is prohibited. This would also be the case here the part that grew when the branch was attached is not orlah, whereas the new growth is orlah. So if the new growth is 1/200th or more of the total volume, then it is prohibited.

והיא מלאה פירות – if he detached them immediately, they are permitted because they grew while permitted, but if he left them on the tree and they grew after they had been broken off and there isn't I the fruit that grew already by [one-] two-hundredth [part] to annul the supplement, it is prohibited for Orlah prohibits them until [one-] two-hundredth [part] growth. And the same law applies in an old tree that was uprooted and on it are fruits and he went back and replanted them.