Babylonian Talmud: Tractate Gittin

Folio 31a

Scripture speaks of two heave-offerings, one the 'great terumah'¹  and the other the terumah from the Levite's tithe. Just as the 'great terumah' is set aside by estimate²  and by intention,³  so the terumah of the tithe is set aside by estimate and by intention; and just as the owner has the right to set aside the 'great terumah', so he has the right to set aside the terumah of the tithe.⁴

MISHNAH. IF A MAN SETS ASIDE PRODUCE WITH THE IDEA OF RECKONING IT AS TERUMAH AND TITHE,⁵  OR MONEY WITH THE IDEA OF RECKONING IT AS SECOND TITHE,⁶  HE CAN GO ON SO RECKONING IN THE PRESUMPTION THAT THEY ARE STILL EXISTING. IF THEY ARE LOST, HE HAS TO PROVIDE AGAINST THE RISK⁷  FOR TWENTY-FOUR HOURS.⁸  THIS IS THE RULING OF R. ELEAZAR [B. SHAMMUA]. R. JUDAH SAYS: WINE [SO SET ASIDE] HAS TO BE EXAMINED AT THREE SEASONS OF THE YEAR:⁹  WHEN THE EAST WIND BEGINS TO BLOW AT THE END OF THE FEAST [OF TABERNACLES], WHEN THE BERRIES FIRST APPEAR [ON THE VINE], AND WHEN THE JUICE BEGINS TO FORM IN THE GRAPES.

GEMARA. What is meant by FOR TWENTY-FOUR HOURS? — R. Johanan says: The twenty-four hours before his examining.¹⁰  R. Eleazar b. Antigonus says in the name of R. Eleazar son of R. Jannai:

1. V. Glos.
2. It was not necessary to measure out the fiftieth part usually given for the terumah.
3. A man could mentally set aside one portion of a heap of produce as terumah and immediately eat of the rest.
4. Even before giving it to the Levite.
5. Lit., 'of setting aside on their account', i.e., with the idea of making it terumah or tithe for other produce.
6. The tithe which had to be turned into money to be spent in Jerusalem. V. Deut. XIV, 22-27.
7. That he may have been eating untithed produce in reliance on the produce which has been lost.
8. The meaning of this is discussed in the Gemara.
9. To see that it has not turned sour.
10. I.e., he can assume that it has been lost not more than twenty-four hours, and he puts aside fresh tithe etc. only for what he has consumed in that period.

The twenty-four hours from his setting aside. We learnt: IF THEY ARE LOST, HE PROVIDES AGAINST THE RISK FOR TWENTY-FOUR HOURS. If this means twenty-four hours from his last examination, the expression is intelligible.¹  But if it means twenty-four hours from the setting-aside, it should say not for twenty-four hours but up to twenty-four hours,²  should it not? — This is a difficulty.

THIS IS THE RULING OF R. ELEAZAR [B. SHAMMU'A]. R. Eleazar [b. Pedath] Says: R. Eleazar's colleagues did not concur with him, as we have learnt: 'If a ritual bath was measured and found to be too small, all the purifications that have been made in it, whether it is in a private or a public placed are retrospectively ineffective.'³  Cannot I see for myself that they do not concur?⁴  — But for R. Eleazar, I might think that 'retrospectively' means 'for twenty-four hours back'. Now I know [that this is not so].

R. JUDAH SAYS, AT THREE SEASONS OF THE YEAR etc. A Tanna taught: when the east wind [blows] at the conclusion of the festival in the cycle of Tishri.⁵  It has been taught: R. Judah says: Produce is sold at three seasons of the year — before sowing time, at sowing time,⁶  and shortly before⁷  Passover. Wine is also sold at three seasons — shortly before Passover, shortly before Pentecost, and shortly before Tabernacles. Oil is sold from Pentecost onwards. What is the legal bearing of this remark? — Raba, or, some say R. Papa says: As a guide to partners.⁸  After that, what is the rule? — Raba said: Every day is the season [for selling it].

And it came to pass when the sun arose that the Lord prepared a sultry East wind [harishith].⁹  What is the meaning of harishith? — Rab Judah said: When it blows it makes furrows in the sea.¹⁰  Said Rabbah to him: If that is so, what do you make of the words, And the sun beat upon the head of Jonah that he fainted?¹¹  No, said Rabbah; [what it means is that] when it blows it stills all other winds.¹²  Similarly it is written, How thy garments are warm when the earth is still by reason of the south wind,¹³  [in explanation of which] R. Tahlifa son of R. Hisda said in the name of R. Hisda: When are thy garments warm? When He maketh the earth still from the south; for when the wind from this quarter blows, it stills all other winds before it.

R. Huna and R. Hisda were once sitting together when Geniba passed by them. Said one of them: Let us rise before him, for he is a learned man. Said the other: Shall we rise before a quarrelsome man?¹⁴  When he came up to them he asked them what they were discussing. They replied: We were talking about the winds. He said to them: Thus said R. Hanan b. Raba in the name of Rab: Four winds blow every day and the north wind blows with all of them, for were it not so the world would not be able to exist for a moment. The south wind is the most violent of all, and were it not that the Son of the Hawk¹⁵  keeps it back, it would devastate the whole world; for so it says, Doth the hawk soar by thy wisdom, and stretch her wings towards the south?¹⁶

Raba and R. Nahman b. Isaac were once sitting together, when R. Nahman b. Jacob passed by in a gilt carriage and wearing a purple cloak. Raba went to meet him, but R. Nahman b. Isaac did not stir, for he said: 'Perhaps it is one of the court of the Exilarch, and Raba needs them but I do not.'¹⁷  When he saw R. Nahman b. Jacob approaching he bared his arm and said, 'The south wind¹⁸  is blowing.' Raba said: Thus said Rab: A woman bears prematurely [when this wind blows]. Samuel said: Even pearls in the sea rot away. R. Johanan said: Even the seed in a woman's womb putrefies. Said R. Nahman b. Isaac: All these three Rabbis derived their statements from the same verse of Scripture, viz., Though he be fruitful among his brethren, an east wind shall come, the breath of the Lord coming up from the wilderness, and his spring shall become dry and his fountain shall be dried up, he shall spoil the treasure of all pleasant vessels.¹⁹  'The spring' is the source of a woman; 'the fountain shall be dried up' refers to the seed in the woman's womb; 'the treasure of all pleasant vessels' is the pearl in the sea.

Raba said: This one comes from Sura where they examine the Scripture minutely. What is the meaning of the words, 'Though he be fruitful [yafri] among his brethren'? — Raba said: Even

1. He assumes that it was lost twenty-four hours after he set it aside, and must put aside fresh tithe etc. for all he has consumed in the interval.
2. Reckoning backwards.
3. And not only for twenty-four hours back, Mik. II, 2.
4. With R. Eleazar in our Mishnah.
5. The year was divided into the four tekufoth or cycles — of Tishri. Tebeth. Nisan and Tammuz — each of which commenced on a fixed date of the solar year. Tabernacles fell sometimes in the cycle of Tishri and sometimes in that of Tammuz; v. Sanh. (Sonc. ed.) p. 49, n. 5.
6. At the end of sowing time. V. Tosaf. s.v. [H].
7. Lit., 'in the dividing of,' i.e., in the middle of the period during which the laws of the festival were compounded.
8. I.e., at these seasons a man may sell without consulting his partner, and if the price subsequently rises the latter has no ground of complaint against him.
9. Jonah IV. 8.
10. The word harishith being connected with harash, 'to plough'.
11. Ibid. This shows that the wind cannot have been violent.
12. Harishith being connected with harash, 'to be still'.
13. Job XXXVII, 17.
14. Geniba was at variance with Mar 'Ukba, the Exilarch. V. supra p. 23, n. 4.
15. An angel so named. Cf. B.B. 25a.
16. Job XXXIX. 26.
17. Being the son-in-law of the Exilarch (Rashi). [Tosaf.: 'Being a wealthy man'; Tosaf. being of the opinion that it was R. Nahman b. Jacob who was the Exilarch's son-in-law. For an explanation of Rashi's view, v. Hyman. Toledoth II p. 930.]
18. Al. 'east wind'. Al. 'a she-devil'.
19. Hos. XIII, 15.