Resources and Review Test for Nedarim 55
The משנה says in the name of ר"מ that if a person makes a נדר from eating דגן that they can’t eat anything that gets made into a pile, while the חכמים disagree and say that it only includes the חמשת מיני דגן. What is the source of their מחלוקת? The ר"ןseems to suggest that they are arguing over what people mean when they say דגן. The ריטב"א however learns very differently. He understands that everyone agrees that דגן means something that is usually put into a pile. However, the חכמים still hold that you are only אסור in the five grains since that is what the Torah means when it uses the phrase דגן. This פּשט seems surprising. The גמרא on דף מ"ט seems to come out clearly that we go with לשון בני אדם instead of לשון תורה, yet we pasken (בפּשטות) in our משנה like the חכמים! רב יפהן זצ"ל in the footnotes of the ריטב"א (pointed out to me by R’ Federgrun) explains that there are several times that we find in ראשונים to go like the לשון תורה. One example is back on דף מ"ט where the ריטב"א said that if you aren’t sure what a word includes in לשון בני אדם then you go with לשון תורה. That does not appear to be the case here. Another is the רשב"א who on this דף says that if someone uses a word in the Torah and there is no comparable word in the vernacular then we can assume the person meant what the Torah meant because there is no non-Torah usage of the word. That might be the case here somewhat, in that the word דגן may be an unusual word to use if you aren’t quoting the Torah. The third place is a ריטב"א quoted by the נימוקי יוסף earlier on דף ל׳ ע"ב who says by the מחלוקת ר"מ וחכמים as to what someone means when they make themselves אסור on "נולדים". ר"מ says he means only people not born yet since that is what it means in לשון בני אדם and the חכמים argue and say you follow לשון תורה in which case he is אסור on those born already and those yet to be born. The שיטות there seem to be exactly parallel and לשיטתם here. However, the explanation given there is that a מיעוט of people use לשון תורה and the חכמים are חושש for that מיעוט and therefore follow לשון תורה whereas according to ר"מ we are not חושש למיעוטא (this is against their general שיטות in ש"ס.) In our case being חושש למיעוטא is a קולא so it does not seem to fit as well, and לכאורה it would also mean that we pasken like ר"מ.
The גמרא brings a פּסוק in דברי הימים that talks about a תקנה that was made in the times of חזקיהו that was relevant to bringing תרומות ומעשרות to the בית המקדש and says that people even brought “תבאות השדה”. The גמרא suggests that this comes to include even פּירות האילן וירקות. There is a מחלוקת ראשונים as to what the תקנה of חזקיהו was which has significant implications in halacha. The מפרש and other ראשונים understand that the פּסוק was teaching you that the תקנה had been to include more items to be חייב בתרומות ומעשרות than had been before. In that case, תבואת השדה must be coming to include something only חייב מדרבנן, which would mean that פּירות האילן are only דרבנן. The רמב"ן in בבא מציעא דף פ"חbrings this as a clear proof against the רמב"ם in הלכות תרומות פרק ב' הלכה א who holds פּירות האילן are חייב בתרומות ומעשרות on a דאורייתא level. Our גמרא seems to be clearly against that. One possibility to defend the רמב"ם is that he learned our גמרא like the ר"ן who said the תקנה was not to add a more species but rather only to force people to bring their תרומות ומעשרות to the בית המקדש. If that is the case there is no proof from our גמרא as to what is חייב מדאורייתא. Another possibility is brought by the דרך אמונה on thatרמב"ם who says that the רמב"ם went like the ירושלמי that says פּירות האילן are חייב מדאורייתא since the בבלי has conflicting משמעות in different places. The truth is that theגר"א in או"ח סימן תקמ"ו אות ה says that the רמב"ם goes like the ירושלמי in most places where the סוגיא in ירושלמי is more clear. (that’s a very significant גר"א to keep in mind…)
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