Rosh Hashana 13

The rabbis want to know how we measure plants for tithing.  Do we simultaneously tithe plants that grow at different paces?  How can we know the precise time at which we should harvest a plant and tithe?  The rabbis wish to determine if produce should be gathered, or harvested, before Rosh Hashana so that the tithing is counted as part of the old year.

Rabbi Yirmeya, a general rabble-rouser it would seem, challenges Rabbi Zeira.  "And the Sages are able to discern exactly between one third and less than one third of growth?"  Rabbi Zeira counters that Rabbi Yirmeya is always being instructed to not take himself out of halacha; all of the Sages measures are indeed exact.  

To prove that point, we look at the requirements regarding pure water for ritual immersions and how food might maintain its ritual purity even when exposed to an exact amount (at least one egg-bulk) of impurity.  

Steinsaltz teaches us in a note that the egg-bulk is the most basic unit of measurement for our Sages.  And even the egg-bulk measure is debated.  While a modern egg would measure 50cc, ancient eggs were much larger.  An egg was thought to be a the size of 2x2x1.8 fingerbreadths.  To make things more confusing, there were three time periods with three different measures, each growing by 20%.  So depending on the measure of fingerbredths, a wilderness egg would measure either 57.6cc or 99.5cc.  A Jerusalem egg, using the measures of the Second Temple period, would measure either 69.1cc or 119.4cc.  And a Tzippori egg, using measurements created later in the town of Tzippori, would measure 82.9cc or 133.3cc.  Now those were big eggs!

What is fascinating here is the conscious juxtapositioning of precision with ambiguity.  Given its name, how could our forefathers and foremothers share an exact understanding of a fingerbreadth's measurements?  And yet the rabbis looked to these measures for precision and clarity.  At the same time that Rabbi Yirmeya critiqued his colleagues for their flawed methods, he is chastised for repeatedly questioning halacha.  And then he is given examples of 'precision' that rely on imprecise measurements and faulty concepts. 

After the rabbis discussion about different amounts of produce for tithing, they look at a number of exceptions.  We are told that rice, millet, poppy and sesame that take root before Rosh Hashana are tithed with the outgoing year (unless it is a Sabbatical year).  The cowpea plant is discussed as well; its stalks, seeds and flowers can be harvested and used.  One of the many reasons explaining the differences in these legumes, or kitniyot, is that they do not ripen all together, at one time.  They can be harvested at different times over the course of a season in order to best capture the ripe produce.  

A note teaches us that in ancient times these harvests were ongoing.  Modern agriculture allows crops to yield their produce all at the same time, so that harvesting is done only once.  This is a concept that I have never considered before; I never thought to question why rice or millet ripen all at once.  I assumed that this modern reality was simply 'natural'.