Resources for Moed Katan 4

Daf A Week

Rabbi Yitzchok Gutterman

  1. The גמרא says that there is a concept called תוספת שביעית which comes to אסורthe חריש של ערב שביעית and the קציר של מוצאי שביעית. See רש"י in ר"ה דף ט'. ד"ה קציר who says that קציר של מוצאי שביעית means something that grew a שליש during שביעית must be treated with קדושת שביעית. Many of the ראשונים ask that fruit that is grown a third during שמיטה has קדושת שביעית even without without the concept of תוספת שביעית?! See תוספות on דף י"ב: ד"ה מנהג as well as the ריטב"א on דף ט who explain that the חידוש is that you aren’t allowed to work the land for these fruit even during the eight year.
  2. The מסקנא of our גמרא would seem to be that תוספת שביעית is no longer relevant since we don’t have a בית המקדש As such, it should be permitted to plant right until שביעית. However, there is a very important שיטה of the מנחת חינוךwhich he says in three places: מצוה קי"ב אות ב, רצ"ח אות ט', and שכ"ו ס"ק ו. He says there that the פּסוק says ושבתה ‘הארץ שבת לה. This sounds like the חיוב of שמיטה is that the land should rest, not the people. This would be similar to the איסור of שביתת בהמתו on שבת, where your cow can’t work even if you aren’t doing anything. In other words, if a נכרי does work with your animal it is not just a violation of אמירה לעכו"ם but also an איסור דאורייתא of שביתת בהמתו. Similarly, if a נכרי worked your land, it would be a איסור דאורייתא of ושבתה ‘הארץ שבת לה. As such, even nowadays it should be forbidden to plant right before the שמיטה year since the plant will grow during שמיטה and the land won’t be resting. The מנחת חינוך in some places isn’t sure he is right and suggests that perhaps the field only needs to rest from having זריעה וחרישה done to it but not השרשה. Nonetheless, see the תוספות רי"ד in דף ג ע"ב who says exactly like the מנחת חינוך, that even without תוספת שביעית, anything planted in the sixth year that doesn’t take root until the seventh year must be uprooted as it was planted באיסור. However, see the חזון אי"ש in הלכות שמיטה סימן כ"ב ס"ק ה who paskens that one is allowed to plant up until the seventh year. His reasoning is since we don’t find this mentioned in the פּוסקים, we should not make up new איסורים.
  3. The גמרא says that we have a גזרה שוה of שבת שבת that tells us  just like there is no תוספת שבת, there is no תוספת שביעית. See תוספותhere who immediately asks that the גמרא in יומא says that there is a concept of תוספת שבת?! He answers that it is only a minute amount and our גמרא was ignoring that small amount. The רמב"ם famously does not pasken that there is a חיוב of תוספת שבת. It is conceivable that his proof is from our גמרא. However, see the תוספות הרא"ש here who quotes a ראב"ד who says that our תוספת שביעית has nothing to do with what we call “תוספת שבת”. תוספת שבת is a way of keeping you away from getting too close to שבת and into the area of ספק and being מחלל שבת ח"ו. However, תוספת שביעית is when you aren’t anywhere near שמיטה and it’s ודאי not שמיטה, yet the Torah forbade work anyway. Therefore, when the גמרא says that there is no תוספת by שבת, it means there is no שמיטה type תוספת by שבת.

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