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כלל גדול. ולדמיו שביעית – if he sold them and received their value in payment, their monetary value has the holiness of Seventh Year [produce].

Introduction This chapter begins to deal with the extremely important question of what types of produce fall under the category of “sabbatical year produce” such that all of the rules apply to them.

יש לו ביעור – when it is consumed by the wildlife/beasts of chase, he is obligated in its removal [from the house].

They said an important general principle with regard to the sabbatical year: anything that is food for man or beast, or a species [of plants] used for dyeing, and cannot be left growing in the soil, the law of the sabbatical year is applied both to it and to its money substitute and the law of removal applies both to it and to its money substitute. There are two general rules in this section. First of all, the species of plant must be either food for humans, domesticated animals (beasts) or used in the dyeing process. The second rule is that it must be the type of plant that if left in the ground will rot. Sheviit does not fully apply to something that is either not used for any of these three purposes or can be left in the ground without rotting. In tomorrow’s mishnah we will learn more about the rules for produce to which the laws of sheviit do not apply. The main consequence to something being considered sabbatical year produce is that it must be destroyed once the same species cannot be found in the field. Up until this point one could store the species in one’s house, but once this point has passed one must take that type of produce out of the house and get rid of it. Another consequence of something having the laws of sheviit apply to it is that one can use it only for eating, drinking or anointing. We will learn more about this in the next chapter. The laws of sheviit will apply to the money that is derived from the sale of sheviit produce. Thus if one sells some sheviit wheat, the money is treated as if it was the wheat. It must be used up before wheat no longer grows outside in the field, and one could use the money only to purchase food, drink and oil for anointing.

עלה לוף שוטה (leaves of the wild LOF – species of onion) – it is necessary to teach the leaves of the wild LOF, because it is taught in the concluding chapter of [Tractate] Uktzin (Chapter 3, Mishnah 4), that they do not defile with ritual uncleanness as food [until they are sweetened], you might think that I would say that the holiness of the Seventh Year do not take effect, it comes to tell us [that this is not the case].

Which are they? The leaves of the wild luf, the leaf of ceterach, endives, leeks, portulaca, and netz hahalav. This is a list of various leaves that people occasionally eat. Even though these leaves are not normal food (like wheat, barley, dates and figs) the laws of sheviit still apply to them because they are sometimes eaten by human beings. Albeck claims that he cannot identify “netz hahalav” (there is a street in Modiin named “netz hahalav”, but that doesn’t really help). When I googled it I came up with “Ornithogalum divergens.” You can google that yourself.

הדנדנה (dandana/mint) – in Arabic NAANAH, and in the foreign language MINTO (i.e., mint).

What is the food for cattle? Thorns and thistles. Again, these are not the only foods, or even the main foods, of domesticated animals such as cows, sheeps and goats. However, since they are eaten by these animals, the laws of sheviit do apply to them.

העולשין (endives) – there are two kinds of endives: garden endives and field endives, and in the rest of the years where garden endives are available, field endives are not considered as food and do not defile with ritual uncleanness as food and here it comes to tell us that in the Seventh Year where garden endives are not found, field endives are considered [as food] and defile with ritual uncleanness as food and the [laws of] the Seventh Year are practiced with them.

What is species of dyeing matter? Aftergrowths of woad and madder. This section lists plants used in the production of dyes.

וכרישין (leeks) – also there are two kinds of leeks – garden leeks and field leeks, but field leeks it was necessary to inform us about.

The law of the seventh year applies both to them and to their money-substitutes and the law of removal applies both to them and to their money substitute. A repeat of what was stated above.

הרגילה – they are purslane, and in the foreign language, BIRDUGLISH.

ונץ החלב – white flowers like milk. Another explanation: it is a grass that when it is cut milk comes out.

החוחים והדרדרים (thorns and thistles/artichokes) – they are kinds of thorns.

אסטיס (woad) – that they dye with it like Tekhelet/bluish dye – and it is called NEEL in Arabic, and they harvest it and it grows and it is similar to spontaneous after-growth; for this reason, the Tanna/Teacher calls them ספיחי אסטיס/aftergrowth of woad.

וקוצה (madder – a plant used in dyeing red) – one of a kind of dyes and there are those who say that it is ALATZPOR in Arabic.

יש להן שביעית – the holiness of Seventh Year [produce] is practiced with them, not to cause them loss and not to do business with them.

ויש להם ביעור – when the time arrives for removal, one must remove them [from the house – in years three and six] as will be explained inside the laws of removal (Chapter 9, Mishnah 2).