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Sheviis 7:2-3

Sheviis 7:2

The Sages stated another general principle: anything that is not used as human food, animal feed or for dyeing, if it keeps when left in the ground, then the laws of the sabbatical year apply to it and to money received in exchange for it, but the laws of removal do not apply to it or to money received for it. Non-exhaustive examples include the roots of wild onions, of mint and of milkweed. (The Mishna gives several other examples.) Rabbi Meir says that the laws of removal apply to money received in exchange for them until Rosh Hashana. The Sages replied that removal doesn’t apply to the items themselves, let alone to money received for them.

Sheviis 7:3

The laws of the sabbatical apply to peels of pomegranates and their blossoms, and to shells of nuts and their kernels, and to money received in exchange for these items. A professional dyer may dye things for his own use but not for hire because one may not do business with the produce of the sabbatical year. One may likewise not do business with first-born animals, with tithes, with neveila (an animal that was not ritually slaughtered), or with crawling and creeping vermin. One may not purchase vegetables that grow wild in the sabbatical year and sell them in the marketplace but if he gathered them for his household’s needs, his son may sell them. If he took them for himself and had a surplus, he is permitted to sell them.

Author: Rabbi Jack Abramowitz