Examples of Agricultural Practices
2. They may manure and hoe cucumbers and gourds until Rosh Hashanah. So too with regard to irrigated fields. They may remove flaws from trees, strip off leaves, cover roots with earth, and fumigate the plants until Rosh Hashanah. R. Simeon says: One may also remove leaves from a grape cluster even in the seventh year itself.
3. They may clear away stones until Rosh Hashanah. They may trim, prune, and remove [excess parts of the tree] until Rosh Hashanah. R. Joshua says: Just as one may trim and remove in the fifth year, so too may one perform this work in the sixth year. R. Simeon says: As long as I may legally tend the tree itself, I may remove [excess parts of it].
4. They may besmear saplings, wrap them around, and trim them, and they may make for them shelters and water them until Rosh Hashanah.1 R. Eleazar bar Zadok says: He may even water the foliage on the Sabbatical Year, but not the roots.
5. They may oil unripe figs and pierce them until Rosh Hashanah.2 Unripe figs of the sixth year that have [remained on the tree] until the seventh year, or of the seventh year that have remained on the tree until the eighth year, they may not oil them or pierce them. R. Judah says: In a place where it was the custom to oil, one may not oil them, since that would be considered work; but in a place where it was not the custom to oil, they may oil them. R. Simeon permitted in connection with the tree, because he is permitted to do all work for the tree.
6. They may not plant, or graft, or sink [vine-shoots] in the sixth year within thirty days of Rosh Hashanah. If he has planted or sunk or grafted, he must uproot. R. Judah says: Any grafting that has not taken root within three days will never do so. R. Yosi and R. Simeon say: Two weeks.
Notes
[Besmearing saplings may refer to coating them with oil to ward off pests or to repairing peeling bark. Wrapping the saplings and building shelters for them would protect them from the elements.—Ed.]
[Unripe figs could be coated with oil to make them ripen faster. Piercing the figs would allow the oil to penetrate them.—Ed.]
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.
