Kiddushin - Daf 38
- The mann fell until Moshe’s passing, and they continued to eat it until the sixteenth of Nissan
The Torah says that the Jews entering Eretz Yisroel ate of the land’s produce on the sixteenth of Nissan, implying they did not beforehand. This seems to prove that חדש was forbidden even before settling Eretz Yisroel (not like Rebbe Yishmael’s opinion), so they could not eat חדש until the עומר was brought!? The Gemara answers that it was permitted to them, but they had no need for it: The Torah says they ate mann until they entered "ארץ נושבת" – an inhabited land, implying Eretz Yisroel itself, yet the same pasuk says they ate until reaching "קצה ארץ כנען" – the border of the land of Canaan, referring to the eastern side of Jordan (their entry point into Eretz Yisroel)!? The explanation is that on the seventh of Adar, Moshe died and the mann ceased to fall, והיו מסתפקין ממן שבכליהם עד ששה עשר בניסן – and they subsisted on the mann in their vessels until the sixteenth of Nissan.
- The source that Moshe was born and died on the seventh of Adar
It was taught in a Baraisa: בשבעה באדר מת משה ובשבעה באדר נולד – Moshe died on the seventh of Adar and was born on the seventh of Adar. It first proves his date of death: Moshe died in Arvos Moav, and the pasuk says that Bnei Yisroel mourned Moshe for thirty days in Arvos Moav. Yehoshua was then told to prepare the nation to cross the ירדן three days later, which is further identified as the tenth of Nissan. Thus, Moshe died thirty-three days earlier, on the seventh of Adar. Moshe was born on the same date, as he said on the day of his death: "בן מאה ועשרים שנה אנכי היום" – I am one hundred and twenty years old “today,” indicating that he was exactly that age, which teaches: שהקב"ה יושב וממלא שנותיהם של צדיקים – that Hashem sits and completes the years of the righteous, מיום ליום ומחדש לחדש – from day to day, and from month to month, i.e., their exact date of birth, as the pasuk says: "את מספר ימיך אמלא" – I will complete the number of your days.
- ערלה "הלכה" והכלאים מדברי סופרים, and the relative leniencies of a safek of either
It was stated in a Mishnah: החדש אסור מן התורה בכל מקום – chadash applies Biblically everywhere (even outside Eretz Yisroel), ערלה הלכה – orlah applies everywhere based on a “halachah,” והכלאים מדברי סופרים – and kilayim applies everywhere by Rabbinic decree. Amoraim dispute the meaning of “halachah” in the Mishnah. Shmuel explains: הלכתא מדינה – it is a regional practice, meaning an accepted custom outside of Eretz Yisroel. Rebbe Yochanan explains it is a halachah leMoshe miSinai. The first opinion is challenged: a Mishnah teaches that although safek orlah is forbidden in Eretz Yisroel, בחוצה לארץ יורד ולוקח – outside Eretz Yisroel he may go and purchase fruit from a non-Jew, although some of his fruits are orlah, ובלבד שלא יראנו לוקט – provided he does not see [the owner] picking orlah fruit. However, regarding kilayim it says that he may even have the non-Jew pick the greens of vineyard-kilayim outside Eretz Yisroel, provided he does not pick it himself. If orlah is forbidden outside Eretz Yisroel by halachah leMoshe miSinai, and kilayim is only Rabbinically forbidden, this distinction is understandable, but if they are both Rabbinical, why is kilayim more lenient? The Gemara answers that Shmuel taught the Mishnah as saying the same halachah in both cases.
