Commento su Shevi'it 9:6

המלקט עשבים לחים – he eats them [in the Seventh Year] without removal until the moistness of the land dries up that sweetens the produce and fruit; from then and onward, he is liable to remove them from the house.

Introduction This mishnah deals with how long one may continue to eat certain types of produce that can either be gathered while still moist or when already dry.

המנגב ביבש – the person who gathers dry grasses, eats them without removal [from the house].

If one gathered moist herbs, he may eat them until the sweet [herbs in the field] have dried up. After the sweet herbs are no longer found in the field, he must remove the moist herbs that he has gathered into his house. This is Albeck’s explanation of the term “sweet”. Other commentators explain that the word “sweet” refers to the ground water which “sweetens” the herbs growing in the field. Once this water has dried up, he may no longer keep the moist herbs at home, because they can no longer be found moist in the field.

עד שתרד רביעה שניה – which in an average/intermediate year is the twenty-third of Mar Heshvan; from then on, he is required to remove them [from the hosue].

And if he gathered dry [herbs], [he may eat them] until the second rainfall. However, if he gathered the herbs while they were dry he may keep them in his home until the second rain of the eighth year, because it is only at this late stage that the dry herbs in the field from the seventh year will no longer be fit for animal consumption. Again, as we have learned, if there is such a type of plant in the field that an animal can eat, then a person can eat it in his home. There are three different opinions as to when the second rainfall is the 7, the 17th or the 23rd of Heshvan, the second month of the Jewish year.

מגבב (gathers dry plants/leaves) – the Aramaic translation of (Exodus 5:12): “[Then the people scattered throughout the land of Egypt] to gather stubble for straw,” for rakings.

Leaves of reeds and of leaves of the vine [may be eaten] until they fall from the stems. If he is eating leaves of reeds or vines he can eat them as long as they are still found moist on the stems of the reeds or vines. If they are so dry that when one touches them they fall from the stem, then he must remove them from his house.

רביעה – because the rain fructifies the ground and bears living brood like this male that copulates the female. Another interpretation: that it sprinkles the dust and causes it to lie down. The Aramaic translation of (Genesis 29:2) (the Biblical text referred to does not have the requested verb in the singular tense – but it does appear in the plural): “three flocks of sheep were lying there beside it,” -lying.

But if he gathered them dry, they may be eaten until the second rainfall. However, if he is eating them when they are already dry then he can continue to do so until the second rainfall of the eighth year.

ועלי גפנים – moist [leaves of vines]. They eat them all the while that the are found in their early stage of ripening, meaning to say, when they are attached to the tree.

Rabbi Akiba says: in all these cases, [they may be eaten] until the second rainfall. Rabbi Akiva disagrees with the halakhot in sections one and three and holds that even when it comes to moist herbs or leaves, he can continue to eat them and store them until the second rainfall.

שישורו – that they will fall.

והמגבב ביבש – owners of dry reeds and vines, he consumes them until the second rainfall occurs, and after that he should remove it [from the house].

בכולן – whether grasses or reeds and vines whether moist or dry, but the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Shimon.