The Shemitah Planting Respite

Q. During the Shemitah year, one may not plant any seeds or trees in Eretz Yisroel. When do these restrictions begin?

A. The Gemara (Moed Katan 3b) states that in addition to the prohibition of planting during the year of Shemitah, there is also a Torah requirement to add 30 additional days of Shemitah before the beginning of the year. Chazal extended this even further, by requiring cessation of many types of agricultural activities such as plowing and planting from Shavuos, and in some cases from Pesach, onward. However, the Gemara concludes that these laws are only in effect when the Beis Hamikdash is standing. Now that we have no Beis Hamikdash, it is permissible to work the land up until Rosh Hashanah. Nevertheless, the Rambam (Hilchos Shemitah 3:11) writes that one must not plant a fruit tree within 44 days of Rosh Hashanah because of “Maris Ayin” (the prohibition to give the impression of having done something wrong). (Why is there Maris Ayin? Here is the explanation. It can take up to 2 weeks for a tree or the seeds to take root. A tree that takes root within 30 days of Rosh Hashana is considered -for the purpose of counting the age of the tree as it relates to Orlah- to have been planted after Rosh Hashanah. Thus, a tree that was planted 44 days before Rosh Hashana, and took root 2 weeks later, will be treated as a tree that was planted after Rosh Hashana with respect to Orlah. Thus, if a person tells a friend a year after the beginning of Shemitah “This tree is a year old”, it will be assumed that it was planted during the Shmitah year in violation of the halacha, even if in reality it was planted before Rosh Hashana.) If one did plant a fruit tree during these 44 days, the tree must be uprooted. Therefore, the last day that one may plant a tree in Israel is the fifteenth of Av.

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The Gerald & Karin Feldhamer OU Kosher Halacha Yomis is dedicated to the memory of Rav Yisroel Belsky, zt"l, who served as halachic consultant for OU Kosher for more than 28 years; many of the responses in Halacha Yomis are based on the rulings of Rabbi Belsky. Subscribe to the Halacha Yomis daily email here.