Babylonian Talmud: Tractate Nedarim

Folio 57a

MISHNAH. [IF A MAN SAYS]. 'KONAM BE THESE FRUITS TO ME, BE THEY KONAM FOR MY MOUTH,' OR 'BE THEY KONAM TO MY MOUTH,' HE IS FORBIDDEN [TO BENEFIT] FROM WHAT IS EXCHANGED FOR THEM OR WHAT GROWS FROM THEM. [IF HE SAYS KONAM] IF I EAT OR TASTE OF THEM, HE IS PERMITTED [TO BENEFIT] FROM WHAT IS EXCHANGED FOR THEM OR WHAT GROWS OF THEM, [THAT IS] IN A THING OF WHICH THE SEED ITSELF PERISHES: BUT IF THE SEED DOES NOT PERISH,¹  EVEN THAT WHICH GROWS OUT OF THAT WHICH [FIRST] GREW FROM IT IS FORBIDDEN. IF HE SAYS TO HIS WIFE, 'KONAM BE THE WORK OF YOUR HANDS TO ME,' 'KONAM BE THEY FOR MY MOUTH, OR 'KONAM BE THEY TO MY MOUTH':²  HE IS FORBIDDEN THAT WHICH IS EXCHANGED FOR THEM OR GROWN FROM THEM. [IF HE SAID, KONAM] IF I EAT OR TASTE [THEREOF]'. HE IS PERMITTED WHAT IS EXCHANGED FOR THEM OR WHAT IS GROWN FROM THEM, THAT IS IN A THING OF WHICH PERISHES THE SEED ITSELF, BUT IF THE SEED DOES PERISH, EVEN THAT WHICH GROWS OUT OF THAT WHICH [FIRST] GREW FROM IT IS FORBIDDEN. [IF HE SAYS TO HIS WIFE, 'KONAM THAT] WHAT YOU WILL PRODUCE I WILL NOT EAT THEREOF UNTIL PASSOVER' OR 'THAT WHAT YOU WILL PRODUCE, I WILL NOT WEAR UNTIL PASSOVER', HE MAY EAT OR WEAR AFTER PASSOVER OF WHAT SHE PRODUCES BEFORE PASSOVER. '[THAT] WHAT YOU PRODUCE UNTIL PASSOVER I WILL NOT EAT', OR '[THAT] WHAT YOU PRODUCE UNTIL PASSOVER I WILL NOT WEAR', HE MAY NOT EAT OR WEAR AFTER PASSOVER WHAT SHE PRODUCES BEFORE PASSOVER.³  [IF HE SAYS, KONAM] BE ANY BENEFIT YOU HAVE FROM ME UNTIL PASSOVER, IF YOU GO TO YOUR FATHER'S HOUSE UNTIL THE FESTIVAL⁴  IF SHE GOES BEFORE PASSOVER SHE MAY NOT BENEFIT FROM HIM UNTIL PASSOVER:

1. E.g., garlic or onions; these, when placed in the soil, do not rot away, but grow so that their growths always contain part of the original.
2. And she was paid by means of agricultural produce.
3. The reference is to her earnings in general, which he may not expend on food or clothing.
4. [H] where unspecified denotes generally the Festival of Succoth, cf. I Kings VIII, 2.

GEMARA. IF A MAN SAYS TO HIS WIFE, 'KONAM BE THE WORK OF YOUR HANDS TO ME,' 'FOR MY MOUTH,' OR 'TO MY MOUTH, etc.' Ishmael, of Kefar yama,³  — others say, Kefar Dima⁴  — propounded⁵  the case of an onion that has been pulled up in the seventh year and planted in the eighth, and its growth exceeds the stock. And this is what he asked: The growth is permitted, whilst the stock is forbidden:⁶  but since the growth exceeds the stock, the permitted growth comes and annuls what is forbidden;⁷  or is it not so?⁸  He came before R. Ammi, and he could not solve it. He then went before R. Isaac the smith,⁹  who solved it from the following dictum of R. Hanina of Torata¹⁰  in R. Jannai's name: If one plants an onion of terumah, and its increase exceeds the stock, it is [all] permitted.¹¹  Said R. Jeremiah, others state, R. Zerika, to him, Do you abandon two and follow one? Now who are the two? — [i] R. Abbahu, who said in R. Johanan's name: If a young tree¹²  already with fruit is grafted on an old one, even if it multiplies two hundredfold, it [the original fruit] is forbidden.¹³  [ii] R. Samuel son of R. Nahmani said in R. Jonathan's name: If an onion is planted in a vineyard and the vineyard is [subsequently] removed, it [the onion] is forbidden.¹⁴

Then he [Ishmael] again went before R. Ammi, who solved it from the following: For R. Isaac said in R. Johanan's name: If a litra¹⁵  of onions was tithed¹⁶  and then planted, the whole of it must be re-tithed.¹⁷  This proves that the yield nullifies the stock.¹⁸  Perhaps, however, this is different, being in the direction of greater stringency!¹⁹  — But [it can be solved] from the following: For it was taught: R. Simeon said:

1. After having enjoyed benefit from him.
2. Num. XXX, 3.
3. The former and modern Jabneel near Tiberias. V. Horowitz, Palestine, pp. 322ff.]
4. In the original the difference is denoted by the single letter.
5. Lit., 'brought up in his hand'.
6. The produce of the seventh year, if retained for private use after a certain period, were forbidden for use. V. p. 183, n. 16.
7. If something forbidden becomes mixed up with something permitted, the latter exceeding the former (the ratio of excess differs: generally it must be sixty times as much), the latter annuls the former, and it is all permitted. Here too, the stock is used with the increase.
8. Rashi, Tosaf. and Asheri regard the problem as referring only to annulment, but that it is certain that the increase itself is permitted. Ran, however, interprets the problem as relating to the increase: either it is permitted, in which case it also annuls the stock, or all is forbidden since it grew from prohibited stock.
9. The Rabbinate being unpaid (cf. infra 37a), many Rabbis were tradesmen or workers. E.g., Hillel was a woodcutter before he became nasi; R. Joshua was a charcoal maker, and there was a R. Johanan who was a sandal maker.
10. This is the conjectured meaning of [H] otherwise [H].
11. To a lay Israelite. So likewise in our problem.
12. I.e., less than three years old, the fruit of which, called 'orlah, is forbidden.
13. Though elsewhere 'orlah is nullified by such an increase.
14. For when growing there together, they were 'forbidden mixture', (Deut. XXII, 9) and hence the onion was forbidden. Though the vines were removed, and the further growth of the onion permitted, yet the original remains forbidden. (Ran.: yet it is all, including the increase, forbidden). Both these statements are opposed to the first in R. Jannai's name.
15. [G], the Roman Libra, a pound.
16. I.e., all the priestly dues were separated from it.
17. I.e., both the stock and the increase.
18. Though the stock had been tithed once, the whole must he re-tithed, the original being assimilated to the increase.
19. I.e., whereby assimilating the original to the increase the law is more stringent, it is so assimilated. But the problem is whether the original is regarded as nullified though thereby a prohibition is raised.