תלמוד על שביעית 8:1

⁴⁸Here starts the discussion of the examples given in the Mishnah. Why do these plants have to be singled out? Did not Rebbi Yose ben Ḥanina say: Endives are important enough in the Sabbatical to become susceptible to impurity of food?⁴⁹Chapter 5, Note 143. The reason was spelled out: This is, before Rebbi permitted the importation of vegetables from outside the Land into the Land. But after Rebbi permitted the importation of vegetables from outside the Land into the Land, there is no difference between the Sabbatical and the other years of the sabbatical cycle. Then they should not be important unless somebody thinks about them! Do we find anything on which from the start the sanctity of the Sabbatical (falls) [does not fall] but in the end the sanctity of the Sabbatical (does not fall) [may fall] on them⁵⁰All commentators switch the statements here (and in the following Tosephta) since it is clear that anything that is sanctified cannot lose its status as long as it is in existence. Both mss. have the text as it is given here but R. Simson quotes as his text וּמָצִינוּ דָּכָר בַּתְּחִילָּה קְדוּשַּׁת שְׁבִיעִית חָלָה עָלָיו. וּבְסוֹף אֵין קְרוּשַּׁת שְׁבִיעִית חָלָה עָלָיו, this is the text translated in brackets.? They objected: “The sanctity of the Sabbatical does not fall on calamint, hyssop⁵¹Maimonides defines אזוב as معتر ṣaʻtar “wild thyme;” this seems to be the acceptation in Yerushalmi and Tosephta. (In commercial usage today, zaʻtar is oregano.), and thyme if one collected them as wood⁵²In Mishnah 8:1, the three kinds mentioned here are counted as weeds that become food only by the intention of the harvester.. If he considered them as food, the sanctity of the Sabbatical falls on them.” Rebbi Ḥananiah said, if he collected them first as food, the sanctity of the Sabbatical falls on them immediately⁵³While one would expect clear rules what is and what is not covered by the sanctity of the Sabbatical, so that belated switches between profane and holy should be excluded, it is enough that the possibility of such a clear-cut decision exists even if in this particular case it becomes only clear retroactively which possibility was chosen..

Calamint is ṣatra, hyssop is esoba, thyme is qornita. What are ḥalbiẓin⁵⁴These are mentioned in Mishnah 4. Maimonides declares the word to be unexplained. Arukh explains: “Egg shaped seeds developing like ferula(Italian, meaning ‘gigantic fennel’). Some people say, eggs of milk buds and that is a white flower.” In Syriac, the word means “Bethlehem star” (a flower). Arukh’s note, “some people say”, indicates that he had two Yerushalmi versions: the one before us from the Leyden ms./Venice print, and the reading of the Rome ms. in Halakhah 4: חלבנין, Arabic חֻלבּוּן “mercury” (Mercurialis, a plant); in Löw’s opinion Euphorbia tinctoria, a close relative of mercury.? Eggs of milk bud¹⁶. Definition of Maimonides in the majority of mss.: “parsley”. Some Maimonides mss.: “Mahaleb.” Arukh: White flowers, some say a grass producing wolf’s milk. The Gaonic commentary to Uqeẓin: Arabic ח̇דשף “artichoke; anything rough and hard”. Since artichokes for human food are קינרס, the thistles referred to here are animal feed..