Yerushalmi Yevamot 15:2 ירושלמי יבמות ט״ו:ב׳

MISHNAH: The House of Hillel say, we heard only about one who came from the grain harvest²²The Mishnah is shortened in the Yerushalmi. In the Babli and the independent Mishnah mss. the text reads: “The House of Hillel say, we heard only about one who came from the harvest,in the same district, and as it happened. The House of Shammai said to them, it makes no difference whether she comes from the grain harvest, or from the olive harvest, or from the grape harvest, or from another district. The Sages spoke about the grain harvest only because what happened. The House of Hillel reversed themselves and taught following the House of Shammai.” It seems that the rule that the woman is permitted to testify on her own behalf was promulgated first in a case when the husband died of a heat stroke on the field and was immediately buried in place. {The cause of death was accepted as reasonable and the details of her testimony were subject to possible verification.} The House of Hillel restricts the precedent to exactly the circumstances of the first case.. The House of Shammai said to them, it makes no difference whether she comes from the grain harvest, or from the olive harvest, or from overseas. The Sages spoke about the grain harvest only because of what happened. The House of Hillel reversed themselves and taught following the House of Shammai.

HALAKHAH: “The House of Hillel say, we heard only,” etc. ²³A similar baraita is quoted in the Babli, 116b. The House of Shammai said to them: Is there not harvest the entire year? How is that? At the end of barley harvest starts wheat harvest. At the end of wheat harvest starts grape harvest. At the end of grape harvest starts olive harvest. That means, there is some harvest the year round. They accepted this argument. And why the grain harvest? Rebbi Mana said, because there accidents are frequent, for the sun only hits a person’s head at grain harvest time. That is what is written²⁴2K.:18–20. He diagnoses the illness of the Sunamite’s child as a sun stroke. This is accepted by most modern commentators.: “The child grew and some day it went to his father, to the harvesters. He said to his father, ‘my head, my head’; who said to the servant, ‘carry him to his mother’. He carried him and brought him to his mother where he sat on her knees until noontime, when he died.” But the rabbis say, because snakes are abundant. Rebbi Yose ben Rebbi Abun said²⁵Ps. 140:8. Usually, one would translate: “On the day of weaponry;” cf. Note 27., “You shielded my head at the day of kissing,” at the day summer and winter are kissing²⁶There are no other sources in talmudic literature that would declare the autumn equinox a dangerous day.. Another explanation: “At the day of weaponry,” that is Gog’s weaponry²⁷Ez. 39, explained as prologue to the appearance of the Messiah, a descendant of David.. Another explanation, on a day when two worlds kiss one another, when this world leaves and the future world enters²⁸The day of death..