Resources for Rosh Hashana daf 13

Daf A Week

Rabbi Yitzchok Gutterman

  1. The גמרא says that רב ירמיה asked whether the חכמים were really בקיאין in the precise time that wheat is ready to be harvested. He was told by ר' זירא that “כל מדות חכמים כן הוא” --that חז"ל gave specific שיעורין and meant it to be precise. See the ריטב"א who says that although חז"ל were not necessarily so precise in their שיעורים down to a משהו, since we must draw a line somewhere or it would never end, we must deal with the שיעורים down to a משהו. See also the מהר"ץ חיות in יומא דף פּ who asks an interesting question: why are we talking about חז"ל? Didn’t we learn in מסכת סוכה that all שיעורין are הלכה למשה מסיני? He answers that the while the שיעורין of aכזית or a כביצה are הלכה למשה מסיני, the application of which הלכה applies to what (e.g. חילול שבת, eating on יום כיפּור) was left to the חכמים to decide. He says that this is a יסוד in many סוגיות in ש"ס.

In a similar vein, see the ראב"ד here brought by the ריטב"א who brings the opinion of רש"י that the חכמים were able to choose the זמן of השרשה for legumes since it is only דרבנן anyway. תוספות on our דף asks that while that explanation can work for מעשר, how would we explain the fact that the זמן for legumes is השרשה even for שמיטה which is דאורייתא? The ראב"ד answers, even though the חכמים chose the זמן of השרשה it still has a דין of a דאורייתא since the Torah left it up to the חכמים to decide what the correct time was.

  1. There is a very big מחלוקת אחרונים as to whether wheat that was owned by a non-Jew is subject to the איסור חדש. Many of the proofs in either direction come from our גמרא! See the ב"ח יו"ד סימן רצ"ג who says an incredible חידוש that wheat grown by a non-Jew is not subject to the איסור חדש. His proof is as follows: our גמרא says that the Jews brought a קרבן עומר when they entered Israel. The גמרא then asks how we know and answers since the פּסוק says that the Jews ate wheat ממחרת הפּסח, it sounds like they did not eat before this. Therefore, they must have brought the קרבן עומר. The ב"ח asks the following question: if wheat owned by a non-Jew was subject to the איסור חדש, why do you need a דיוק to say “if they didn’t eat till ממחרת הפּסח, they must have not eaten beforehand?” Just say the פּסוק which says they ate wheat, meaning it is מותר, which in turn means they must have brought a קרבן עומר?! It must be, says the ב"ח, that non-Jewish wheat is really permitted and the fact that they ate wheat doesn’t mean they brought the קרבן עומר since they may have eaten non-Jewish wheat. We therefore needed a דיוק to show that there was some prior  איסור followed by a היתר which proves the קרבן עומר was brought. See the ש"ך there, as well as the ט"ז there, who disagree with the ב"ח and say that there is no proof from our גמרא. The reason we needed a דיוק and could not just prove that they brought aקרבן  from the fact that they ate wheat is because they may have had procured ישן In fact, the גמרא is משמע just the opposite! Why does it say they couldn’t eat till ממחרת הפּסח? They had plenty of non-Jewish wheat at the time. It must be that non-Jewish wheat is אסור too.  Interestingly, see the שו"ת כנסת יחזקאל סימן מ"א who points out that תוספות on our דף in ד"ה ולא says that the Jews were actually שותפין with the non-Jews in their wheat since the Jews really had ארץ ישראל as a ירושה from the אבות, and the only thing that made it תבואת נכרי was because the non-Jew still owned what was actually grown there. Therefore, the wheat in Israel was partly Jewish owned, and may have been subject to the איסור חדש for that reason.
  2. The גמרא asks where the Jews got grains for the קרבן עומר. Many ראשונים ask why the גמרא didn’t answer that they got the grains from the land of בני גד ובני ראובן? See the ריטב"א who brings the ר"ן who says that לכתחילה the קרבן עומר must come from יהודה, and it is not מסתברא that the first time כלל ישראל did the מצוה of הקרבת עומר that they did it in a בדיעבד This is a יסוד mentioned by others as well—the first time a person does a מצוה, it must be in a לכתחילה fashion.

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