OU KASHRUT RABBI EZRA FRIEDMAN PAGE BY Director, The Gustave & Carol Jacobs Center for Kashrut Education
Planting Trees Before Shemita
T
he upcoming Jewish year (5782) is a shemita year, a sabbatical year in Israel in which the land is not worked. Shemita occurs once every seven years. During the sabbatical year, most agricultural activity is prohibited. One of the biblical prohibitions during a shemita year is to plant new trees. Our Sages (Gittin 53:b) added that a tree planted during shemita must be uprooted, whether it was planted intentionally or mistakenly. Tosefet Shevi’it The concept of tosefet shevi’it in regards to shemita can be understood in light of tosefet shabbat. According to many author-
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ities (Rosh Yoma 8:8, Ran Shabbat 15:a), there is an obligation to add time to the observance of Shabbat by refraining from prohibited labor (melacha) for a certain period of time before sundown on Friday, as well as extending the sanctity of Shabbat on Saturday night. This mitzvah is known as tosefet shabbat. Similarly, an additional period, known as tosefet shevi’it, precedes that start of the shemita year. Tosefet shevi’it begins on the first of Elul, thirty days before Rosh Hashana, in which all work on the land should cease. The Talmud Bavli (Moed Katan 4:a) cites a dispute between Rebi Akiva and Rebi Yishmael over the source of the mitzvah of tosefet shevi’it. The Gemara concludes that according to both opinions the mitzvah is biblical in nature, but only when the Beit HaMikdash is standing. The Gemara relates that in the time of Rabban Gamliel (the generation after the destruction of the Second Temple), tosefet shevi’it was suspended, and labor such as plowing was permitted until Erev Rosh Hashana (29 of Elul) of the sixth year (the year prior to Shemita). Even though tosefet shevi’it was suspended following the decree of Rabban Gamliel, our Sages concluded to observe one aspect of tosefet shevi’it even in years when no Beit Hamikdash stands. The Mishna in Shevi’it (2:6) rules that a tree may not be planted close to the beginning of shemita. The
