S.A.L.T. - Monday

As Parashat Behar begins with the mitzva of shemitta, we looked yesterday at one particular feature of produce grown during this "sabbatical" year. That is, its owner need not separate the usual "terumot" and "ma'asrot" - gifts to the kohanim and levi'im and other tithes - from this year's produce. Yesterday we saw two reasons behind this exemption, related to the ownerless status of the produce. As we saw, any produce without owners does not require the annul gifts and tithes. Today we will see a third reason for this halakha.

In Sefer Devarim (26:12), the Torah refers to the third and sixth years of the seven-year shemitta cycle as "the year of the tithe." While much can be said regarding this epithet, the Sifrei (earlier, in Parashat Re'ei) deduces from this term that there is one year in the cycle that does not qualify as "a year of the tithe": the shemitta year. Said otherwise, nothing inherent about the produce itself renders it unsuitable for tithing; rather, the seventh year simply does not fall under the group of years in which one must separate these tithes. From the outset, the Torah requires tithing strictly on all years but this one.

This approach is manifest in a practical, halakhic ruling by Tosafot (Masekhet Rosh Hashana 15a) concerning an etrog. As the Gemara there discusses, a distinction exists between ma'aser and shemitta concerning the determination of the formal, halakhic "year" of an etrog. An etrog requires the tithes of a given year (different years require different tithes) if it was picked off its tree during that year. For shemitta, by contrast, an etrog is considered shemitta produce (to which several important halakhot apply) if it ripened during the shemitta year. If it had ripened before the onset of that year, it does not attain the status of a shemitta fruit.

Tosafot thus consider a case of an etrog that had ripened before shemitta but was not picked until after the year began. Clearly, we would not consider this etrog a shemitta fruit, as it ripened before the onset of the shemitta year. Does it require tithing? On the one hand, this etrog has no unique, shemitta-related status. As such, little reason appear to exist to exempt it from tithes. On the other hand, it was picked in the seventh year, which generally exempts its fruits from the obligation of tithes.

Tosafot rule that it does not, in fact, require tithing. Apparently, they adopted this final approach established here. The exemption of shemitta produce from tithing evolves not from the produce itself, but rather from the seventh year; the year itself does not require tithes. According to the Rambam, who, as we saw yesterday, relates the exemption from tithes to the produce's lack of ownership, this etrog would likely require tithing. As it has no shemitta status, its owner has full, legal ownership over the fruit. Therefore, it requires tithes like regular fruits.

(For a more complete analysis, see Rabbi Menachem Genack, "Gan Shoshanim," chap. 56.)

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