Tu’bishvat's Role in Orlah

Q. What role does Tu’bishvat play regarding the counting of years of orlah (prohibition of eating and deriving benefit from fruit from a tree during its first three years of growth)?A. One may not eat or derive benefit from fruit that grew on a tree the first three years after it was planted. This fruit is called orlah. This prohibition applies both in the land of Israel as well as in the diaspora. Although we count the years of the tree based on Rosh Hashanah (1st of Tishrei), Tu’bishvat plays a role as well. If a tree is planted more than 44 days before Rosh Hashanah (1st of Tishrei), those 44 days are considered the first year of the tree’s growth. With the passing of the second and third Rosh Hashana, the tree’s status as orlah will conclude. If a tree is planted less than 44 days before Rosh Hashanah, one needs to wait until the next Rosh Hashanah (more than a year) to complete the first year of orlah, and the orlah status will conclude two years later. However, even after the final Rosh Hashanah marking the completion of the orlah status of the tree, the fruit which blossoms in the fourth year between Rosh Hashana and Tu’bishvat is orlah as well, since it grew from the previous year’s sap. (New sap does not start flowing in a tree until after Tu Bishvat.) Only new fruit that blossoms after Tu’bishvat of the fourth year, which grows from the current year’s sap, is no longer orlah. The Shach (YD 294:10) quotes the Rosh who notes that in our climate, trees don’t ordinarily blossom before Tu’bishvat, so one may assume that all fruit that is found on the tree in the fourth year is not orlah. In Israel, fruits that grows in the fourth year have a special kedusha (sanctity) called “neta revai” (lit. four-year-old plant), which will be discussed in a future Halacha Yomis.

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The Gerald & Karin Feldhamer OU Kosher Halacha Yomis is dedicated to the memory of Rav Yisroel Belsky, zt"l, who served as halachic consultant for OU Kosher for more than 28 years; many of the responses in Halacha Yomis are based on the rulings of Rabbi Belsky. Subscribe to the Halacha Yomis daily email here.