Yerushalmi Sheviit 6:3 ירושלמי שביעית ו׳:ג׳

MISHNAH: Onions¹⁰⁸Onions planted in the sixth year on which rain descended after New Year’s day of the Sabbatical. growing after it rained on them, if the leaves are black¹⁰⁹Dark green. The dark color is taken as a sign that the onions ripened during the Sabbatical year; this makes the added part forbidden as after-growth. they are forbidden, becoming green¹¹⁰Light green, color of the leaves of young onions. they are permitted. Rebbi Ḥanina ben Antigonos¹¹¹Tanna of the third generation, specialist for the rules of the Temple. says, if they cannot be drawn out by their leaves they are forbidden; in the same case in the year after the Sabbatical they are permitted.

HALAKHAH: So is the Mishnah: Black are forbidden, green are permitted¹¹²The expression הוריקו “becoming green” in the Mishnah is misleading. Young onions have light green leaves; as long as the leaves are light green the onions are permitted. {The Rome ms. reads here שְׁחוֹרִין מוּתָּרִין וִירוֹקִין אֲסוּרִין, “black are permitted and green forbidden”. Since the Halakhah does not discuss the statement, the Rome reading must be a scribal error.}.

Rebbi Yose in the name of Rebbi Joḥanan: An onion taken out of the ground and replanted once it darkened has to be tithed completely¹¹³As explained in the last sentence of this paragraph, one speaks of an onion growing in the Sabbatical and replanted in the following year. The Sabbatical produce is exempt from tithes but the growth of the following year is obligated. Since the new growth takes over, the entire onion plant is subject to tithes. The statement is quoted in the name of Rebbi Joḥanan in the Babli (Nedarim 59a) and rejected there.. Rebbi Ḥiyya in the name of Rebbi Joḥanan: An onion taken out of the ground and replanted once it developed new roots has to be tithed completely. There is no difference whether it was taken out in the Sabbatical year and replanted in the year after or was taken out in the Sabbatical year.

Rebbi Zeïra said, once the new growth is the majority it is permitted¹¹⁴If a plant was forbidden as aftergrowth of the Sabbatical, if it grew after the Sabbatical by more than 100% everything will be permitted.; Rebbi Hila and Rebbi Immi both say it is forbidden¹¹⁵In the Babli (Nedarim 57b), Rebbi Immi (Ammi) is quoted as having no answer.. A baraita disagrees with Rebbi Hila and Rebbi Immi, as it was stated¹¹⁶Parallels in Babli Nedarim 58a, Yerushalmi Nedarim 6:8 (fol. 39d). The principle stated by R. Simeon is generally accepted.: “This is the rule Rebbi Simeon proclaimed in the name of Rebbi Joshua: For everything that may become permitted through some action, such as ṭevel¹¹⁷Cf. Peah Chapter 1, Note 303. Ṭevel is forbidden but taking heave and tithes turns ṭevel into profane food., Second Tithe¹¹⁸Second tithe can be redeemed; the sanctity is transferred from the vegetables to the coins used for redemption (cf. Introduction to Tractate Demay, p. 348)., donations to the Temple¹¹⁹Not sacrifices but donations of valuables to the Temple. As long as these are the property of the Temple, any private use is larceny. Upon sale of the property by the Temple officials, the sold object is totally profane., and new grain¹²⁰The grain crop of a year becomes permitted only upon presentation of the ‘Omer sacrifice on the 16th of Nisan (or, in the absence of a Temple, after the 16th of Nisan automatically). Therefore, early grain becomes permitted simply by waiting. [Summer grain that develops roots only after the 16th of Nisan is forbidden until the 16th of Nisan the following year. The climatic conditions in Israel do not permit the planting of summer wheat. Cf. Orlah 3:8, Philo The Special Laws II.125.], the Sages did not fix any limits, but a kind with its own is forbidden in the minutest amount, a kind with a different kind if it can be tasted¹²¹In most cases, Babylonian authorities fixed the limit of something that can be tasted in foreign food at 1.667%.. But for everything that cannot become permitted through any action, such as heave¹²²Heave (and Ḥallah which is a kind of heave) must be eaten in purity by a Cohen or burned if impure. It can never become profane food; cf. Berakhot Chapter 1, note 3., ḥallah, and orlah¹²³Tree fruits during the first three years after planting are forbidden for all use (Lev. 19:23)., the Sages did fix as limit both a kind with itself or with a different kind if it can be tasted. They objected¹²⁴Even though התיבון is Galilean Aramaic, it takes the place of אמרו לו in the Babylonian version and is part of the baraita.: but there is the Sabbatical that admits no act to permit it and the Sages did not fix a limit! He said to them, no. When you mention the Sabbatical, its produce is forbidden in the minutest amount only after it must be destroyed¹²⁵Cf. Mishnah 7:10 and Note 2. Since it is written (Lev. 25:7) “For your domestic animals and the wild animals on your Land shall be all its produce for food.” One concludes from this that produce taken during the Sabbatical may be eaten by humans only as long as there is similar produce for the wild animals in the fields. If there is nothing left for the wild animals, produce taken for humans must be destroyed., but for food if it can be tasted.” What do they do with it? Rebbi Hila and Rebbi Immi explain it in mixtures, but as far as growing plants are concerned, this is more severe since Rebbi Zeïra said in the name of Rebbi Jonathan¹²⁶In the Rome ms., this statement is in the name of a long and garbled list of tradents ending with R. Joḥanan. This name seems more likely since R. Zeïra often quotes R. Joḥanan and a similar statement in the Babli (Nedarim 57b) is also attributed to R. Joḥanan. The case discussed there is one of ‘orlah, but both ‘orlah and kilaim in a vineyard are forbidden for all usufruct and follow the same principles. “Enormously” is quantified in the Babli as “200 fold.”: An onion of kilaim in a vineyard, taken out of the ground and replanted, stays forbidden even if it grows enormously because growth of something forbidden cannot neutralize the prohibition. A Mishnah disagrees with Rebbi Zeïra as we have stated (Terumot 9:4): “A growth from heave is heave but the growth from its growth is profane. But the growth from ṭevel, First Tithe, aftergrowth of the Sabbatical, heave of the tithe, dema‘, and First Fruits is profane.” We have stated on this: “When is this true? If the seed disappears. But if the seed does not disappear even growth from growth is forbidden¹²⁷Neither Yerushalmi nor Babli (Nedarim 60a) give an example of a new plant growing from seeds that remain recognizable..” How does Rebbi Zeïra deal with this? He explains it that the sanctity of the Sabbatical applies when it must be destroyed, but for food once the new growth is the majority it is permitted.

Rebbi Abbahu went up to Arbel¹²⁸Even though R. Abbahu was from Caesarea Philippi (Banias), on his way to Arbel he had to pass through low lying Tiberias and then climb up to the plane of Ḥittim. and was received by Abba bar Benjamin. They came and asked him about these onions; he taught them the statement of Rebbi Zeïra¹²⁹Since R. Abbahu was much older than R. Zeïra, one cannot translate “following R. Zeïra”. “once the new growth is the majority it is permitted.” He saw them relying on him; then he said to them: I was referring only to those that are bent down¹³⁰The unlikely case that the leaves of the onions arched down, rather than go straight up. This practically annulled his former ruling. [The Babli, Nedarim 58a, reads מדוכנים “broken ones”.] Rebbi Jehudah bar Pazi said, I know beginning and end¹³¹Of the story. He asserts that R. Abbahu formally rescinded his former ruling and did not simply restrict it to an improbable case.; when he heard that Rebbi Hila and Rebbi Ammi disagreed, he shrank from it.