Sheviis 1:2 — What counts as an orchard

The Lived Mishnah·A Zeman Nakat Project
Mesechta Sheviis
Mishnah 2 of 89
Audio · Listen with Ephraim Diamond
Listen with Ephraim Diamond · 5:25 0:00 / 5:25
0:00
5:25
Speed
Click any Hebrew phrase above to jump to where Ephraim reads it · Highlight holds while he discusses each phrase
ZeraimSederסדרזְרָעִים
SheviisMesechtaמסכתשביעית
1Perekפרקא׳
2Mishnahמשנהב׳
נושא · Topicאֵיזֶהוּ שְׂדֵה הָאִילָןWhat counts as an orchard
This Mishnah is:drawing the boundarywhat does that mean?
Mishnah שביעית א׳:ב׳ · Sheviis 1:2
אֵיזֶהוּ שְׂדֵה הָאִילָן,
כָּל שְׁלֹשָׁה אִילָנוֹת לְבֵית סְאָה,
אִם רְאוּיִין לַעֲשׂוֹת כִּכַּר דְּבֵלָה שֶׁל שִׁשִּׁים מָנֶה בָּאִיטַלְקִי, חוֹרְשִׁים כָּל בֵּית סְאָה בִּשְׁבִילָן.
פָּחוֹת מִכָּאן, אֵין חוֹרְשִׁין לָהֶן אֶלָּא מְלֹא הָאוֹרֶה וְסַלּוֹ חוּצָה לוֹ:
What is [considered] an orchard?
Any three trees per beis se'ah -
if they are fit to yield a kikar develah of sixty Italki maneh, one may plow the whole beis se'ah for their sake.
Less than this, one may plow for them only [room for] the picker and his basket, standing outside it:
A reading aid, not an exact translation.

This English is a clause-by-clause rendering to help you follow the Hebrew. It is not word-for-word literal, and it is not a transcript of the recorded shiur — the audio carries explanation and context the translation deliberately leaves out.

case/objectrestrictive rulingpermissive rulingconditiongeneral rule
Structure
The Mishnah's Structure▾
אֵיזֶהוּ שְׂדֵה הָאִילָן — שְׁלֹשָׁה תְנָאִים, מָקוֹם אֶחָד שְׁלֹשָׁה אִילָנוֹת the count בֵּית סְאָה the area — 50×50 amos כִּכַּר דְּבֵלָה שֶׁל שִׁשִּׁים מָנֶה the yield שְׂדֵה הָאִילָן חוֹרְשִׁים כָּל בֵּית סְאָה
Summary Chart
What counts as an orchard▾
CaseRulingReason
What counts as a sedei ha'ilan (orchard)?Three trees · within one beis se'ah · fit to yield a fig-cake of sixty Italian maneh—
And if they qualify — or fall short?The whole beis se'ah is plowed; otherwise — only the fig-gatherer and his basket's space—
Transcript
A machine transcript of the recorded shiur.

This is the shiur as spoken, transcribed automatically and left unedited — the wording is Ephraim's, and occasional transcription errors remain. It follows the audio word by word.

All Meforshim
Mishnah Insights
An amalgam of commentaries, including original insights.

These insights draw on the commentaries to this Mishnah and on the recorded shiur. Those commentaries often rest on earlier sources — the Gemara, the Yerushalmi, the Rishonim, and one another — without always saying so; where they do, we generally cite the one we read. Every commentary consulted is kept, verbatim, with this card.

Fit, not yielding: three words that decide an orchard▾

אִם רְאוּיִין — if they are fit

The mishnah asks whether the trees are fit to produce the yield, not whether they are producing it. Rash MiShantz shows the distinction is deliberate, since the next mishnah assesses a barren tree, which produces nothing at all, as though it were a fig tree. Lechem Shamayim asks how a tree that is not producing can be judged, and answers that it goes by size: if a fig tree of that size would have produced the required cake of figs, this tree qualifies.

מְלֹא הָאוֹרֶה וְסַלּוֹ — the picker's fill and his basket

Where the trees do not qualify as an orchard, only the space taken up by a man picking the fruit with his basket beside him may be plowed. Bartenura explains oreh as the one who picks figs, and shows that each crop has its own word: goder for dates, botzer for grapes, mosek for olives. The word for a vineyard appears in Tehillim 80:13. R' Shlomo Sirilio, quoted in Melechet Shlomo, supplies the measure from the Yerushalmi in Kilayim, which puts a picker and his basket at two amos.

הָאוֹרֶה — the fig-picker

R' Shlomo Sirilio, quoted in Melechet Shlomo, notes that the mishnah could have said botzer, the word for one who picks grapes, since the Yerushalmi gives the two-amah measure about a vineyard. It says oreh, the word for one who picks figs, because throughout this perek every tree is assessed as though it were a fig tree, and the mishnah keeps its language to match.

כָּל שְׁלֹשָׁה אִילָנוֹת — any three trees

Three trees make a grove here, and the same three make a grove for bikkurim (Bikkurim 1:11). Sotah 7:2 requires five trees before a man is sent home from the army for his grove. Mishnat Eretz Yisrael explains that in Sotah a grove is judged by the rules of a vineyard, and a vineyard is never fewer than five vines: Beis Shammai holds a single row of five is already a vineyard, while Beis Hillel does not count it until there are two rows (Kilayim 4:5).

לְבֵית סְאָה — per beis seah

A beis seah is an area of fifty amos by fifty. Yachin, whose comment on this clause Sefaria files at 1:5, explains that the area is not measured to the owner's advantage. Trees standing close together are treated as though they stood at the centre of the square, and the square is plowed around them; a tree standing outside the square does not join the count; and one may not shift the square so that the trees sit on its edge.

עוֹלָמוֹ שֶׁל הַמִּשְׁנָה
כִּכַּר דְּבֵלָה שֶׁל שִׁשִּׁים מָנֶה בָּאִיטַלְקִי — a fig-cake of sixty Italian maneh

Figs do not keep, so they were dried and pressed into a round loaf from which pieces were broken off as needed. A maneh is a weight of a hundred dinar, used across the Middle East from the time of Tanach into the Hellenistic period, and Mishnat Eretz Yisrael notes that weights recovered by archaeology carry the inscription 'Italian litra'. Rambam reckoned the mishnah's sixty maneh at a little over sixty-two litra, which is roughly twenty-nine kilograms of pressed figs.

‹ ›
הֲדַרַן עֲלָךְ מַסֶּכֶת שְׁבִיעִית
A siyum · Mesechta Sheviis

You have learned every Mishnah of Sheviis — all 101 steps, from the introduction through the pruzbul. Hadran alach: we will return to you.

Hear the Siyum — the Summary of the Mesechta Back to the Mesechta
▶ Listen from here on the radio