The Lived Mishnah·A Zeman Nakat Project
Tisha B'Av Series
Mishnah 39 of 41
אִם אֶשְׁכָּחֵךְ יְרוּשָׁלָיִם
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ZeraimSederסדרזְרָעִים
Maaser SheiniMasechtaמסכתמעשר שני
5Perekפרקה׳
2Mishnahמשנהב׳
נושא · Topicהַעֲלָאַת כֶּרֶם רְבָעִי לִירוּשָׁלַיִםBringing Kerem Revai up to Yerushalayim
Mishnah מעשר שני ה׳:ב׳ · Maaser Sheini 5:2
כֶּרֶם רְבָעִי הָיָה עוֹלֶה לִירוּשָׁלַיִם מַהֲלַךְ יוֹם אֶחָד לְכָל צָד.
וְאֵיזוֹ הִיא תְחוּמָהּ:
אֵילַת מִן הַדָּרוֹם,
וְעַקְרַבַּת מִן הַצָּפוֹן,
לוֹד מִן הַמַּעֲרָב,
וְהַיַּרְדֵּן מִן הַמִּזְרָח.
וּמִשֶּׁרַבּוּ הַפֵּרוֹת,
הִתְקִינוּ שֶׁיְּהֵא נִפְדֶּה סָמוּךְ לַחוֹמָה.
וּתְנַאי הָיָה הַדָּבָר, שֶׁאֵימָתַי שֶׁיִּרְצוּ, יַחֲזֹר הַדָּבָר לִכְמוֹת שֶׁהָיָה.
רַבִּי יוֹסֵי אוֹמֵר, מִשֶּׁחָרַב בֵּית הַמִּקְדָּשׁ הָיָה הַתְּנַאי הַזֶּה.
וּתְנַאי הָיָה, אֵימָתַי שֶׁיִּבָּנֶה בֵּית הַמִּקְדָּשׁ, יַחֲזֹר הַדָּבָר לִכְמוֹת שֶׁהָיָה.
Kerem revai was brought up to Yerushalayim within a day’s walk in every direction.
And what is its boundary?
Eilat from the south,
Akrabat from the north,
Lud from the west,
and the Jordan from the east.
When the fruit became plentiful,
they enacted that it be redeemed near the wall.
And the matter was conditional: whenever they wish, it reverts to as it was.
Rabbi Yossi says: from when the Beis HaMikdash was destroyed, this condition came to be.
And it was conditional: whenever the Beis HaMikdash is rebuilt, it reverts to as it was.
case/objectrestrictive rulingpermissive rulingTannacondition
Transcript
Summary Chart
Bringing Kerem Revai up to Yerushalayim▾
CaseRulingReason
Within what distance must Kerem Revai be brought up (not redeemed)?Within a day's walk in every direction—
What is that boundary?Eilat (south), Akrabat (north), Lud (west), the Jordan (east)—
Once the fruit became plentiful?It may be redeemed near the wall—
When does the arrangement revert to the original rule?Tanna Kamma: Whenever they wish—
Rabbi Yossi: The redemption arose at the Churban; it reverts when the Beis HaMikdash is rebuilt—
All Meforshim
Mishnah Insights
Why fourth-year fruit had to be carried to Yerushalayim — and what the Churban left of the rule▾

Why a day's walk had to bring the fruit itself

Kerem revai follows the law of maaser sheni — brought up to Yerushalayim to be eaten, or redeemed and the money brought up. But within a day’s walk the Sages required carrying the fruit itself rather than redeeming it, Rambam explains, ‘to adorn the markets of Yerushalayim with fruit’ (l’atter shukei Yerushalayim).

A revocable takanah, and R' Yossi's reading

When fruit grew plentiful in Yerushalayim they allowed even the nearby grower to redeem it, close to the wall — but made the leniency conditional, revocable whenever they wished, lest the fruit thin out and the markets again need adorning (Rambam). R’ Yossi holds that from the destruction of the Mikdash the condition simply stands: with no Yerushalayim to bring the fruit to, it may always be redeemed.

What Tosafos Yom Tov reads into the condition

Tosafos Yom Tov reads a broad principle out of the condition. A takanah set by a vote needs another vote to undo (Beitzah 5b), and a later beis din cannot annul an earlier one’s unless greater in wisdom and number (Eduyos 1:5). The enactors feared a later beis din might not be greater, so they built in the condition and undo the takanah themselves once its reason is gone. From this, Tosafos Yom Tov says, Rambam ruled (Hilchos Mamrim 2:2) that even after a reason lapses only a greater beis din may annul it; the Raavad reads our mishnah otherwise. He adds that R’ Yossi’s ‘from the Churban’ is one of Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai’s takanos (Rosh Hashanah 31b).

שְׁאֵלַת חָכָם

Lechem Shamayim presses Tosafos Yom Tov on exactly this: is the mishnah’s condition really a case of one beis din undoing an earlier beis din’s takanah at all? Letting the fruit be redeemed again, he argues, only puts neta revai back under its own Torah law, which was always redeemable. If nothing is being annulled, the whole structure Tosafos Yom Tov builds on the condition falls away.

Series Insights
Series context▾
← Previous
Moed Katan 3:6
How the Churban changed a mitzvah's very weight
Mishnah 39 of 41
Maaser Sheini 5:2
An arrangement suspended for want of Yerushalayim
Next →

Where this sits

The series closes on an arrangement built entirely around Yerushalayim (fruit carried in to fill its markets), now stilled because there is no Yerushalayim to carry it to. R’ Yossi reads the destruction into the mishnah’s own condition: what was made revocable ‘whenever they wish’ is, since the Churban, simply held open. Fittingly for a series on the Churban, the last word is a practice waiting on the day it can resume — the redemption we still await.

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