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Week 71 - Thursday - 5 April 2001

NEDARIM: CHAPTER 8: MISHNAH 3

: "Until the harvest," "until the vintage,” “until the olive harvest" - he is prohibited only until it arrives. This is the rule: whatever has a set time, and he said "until it arrives" - he is prohibited until it arrives; if he said, "until it will be" - he is prohibited until it is over; and whatever does not have a set time, whether he said, "until it will be," or he said "until it arrives" - he is prohibited only until it arrives.

Kehati

We learned in the previous mishnah that there is a difference between one who says in his vow, "until Passover" and one who says "until it will be Passover, since the wording "until" means until it arrives, and the wording "until it will be" means until it is over. This mishnah continues to discuss these wordings, and teaches that there are times when this difference does not exist, and even one who says "until it will be" is prohibited only until it arrives, and not until it is over.

If one says, "Konam this thing that I taste - Until the harvest" - i.e., the time of harvesting the crops in the fields, or - "until the vintage" - the time of the grape harvest, or - "until the olive harvest" - the time of picking the olives, he is prohibited - from the item prohibited him by vow, only until it arrives - the time of the harvest, or the grape harvest, or the olive picking; and the same applies to one who says, "until it will be the harvest," or "until it will be the vintage," or "until it will be the olive harvest" and he is prohibited only until it arrives.

This is the rule - the Sages said: whatever has a set time - such as Passover, whose duration is seven days, and similarly the other holidays, and he said "until it arrives" - or he said only "until," he is prohibited until it arrives - the beginning of this time period; if he said, "until it will be" - he is prohibited until it is over - the end of this time period, as was explained in the preceding mishnah; and whatever does not have a set time - the period of its duration is not known, such as the harvest, the grape harvest, and the olive picking, since at times they are shorter and at times longer, according to the blessing of that year and the yield of the harvest, whether he said, "until it will be," or he said “until it arrives” - he is prohibited only until it arrives - for we say, the person taking the vow does not allocate an indeterminate period of time for his vow, and he meant only till the beginning of the time of the harvest or of the grape harvest or of the olive picking.

NEDARIM: CHAPTER 8: MISHNAH 4

"Until the summer," "until it will be summer" - until the people begin to bring in in baskets. "Until the summer will pass" - until they fold up the maktzu'ot. "Until the harvest" - until the people begin to gather the wheat harvest, but not the barley harvest. Everything is in accordance with the place of his vow. If he was in the mountain, in the mountain, and if he was in the valley, in the valley.

Kehati

The previous mishnah taught that if a person allocates the time period for his vow until one of the agricultural seasons, he is prohibited only until that period arrives, because it does not have a set duration. This mishnah continues to discuss when is the beginning of the "summer" season, i.e., the period in which figs finish ripening and are picked, and the "harvest" season, which was already mentioned in the preceding mishnah.

If one says, "Konam this thing that I taste - Until the summer,” or - "until it will be summer" - and he is prohibited only until the arrival of summer, since the summer does not have a set time; he is therefore forbidden the item which he prohibited to himself by vow - until the people begin to bring in - the picked figs - in baskets - i.e., many figs had already ripened, and people had begun to collect them and put them in baskets.

And if one said, "Konam this thing that I taste - Until the summer will pass," then he is prohibited - until they fold up the maktzu'ot - the special fig cutting knives, for cutting them up and preparing from them fig-cakes, for at the end of the summer it was usual practice to fold up these knives and to put them into their sheaths and store them until the following year (Rashi, Tiferet Yisrae1); according to another interpretation, the maktzu'ot were the mats which were spread out in the fields in order to dry the figs upon them; when the mats were folded up and put away for the following year, this was a sign that the summer was over.

If one says, "Konam this thing which I taste - Until the harvest," he is prohibited the item which he prohibited himself by vow - until the people begin to gather the wheat harvest, but not the barley harvest - for the unqualified word "harvest" in popular usage means the wheat harvest, from which bread fit for human consumption is baked (the barley harvest preceded the wheat harvest).

Everything is in accordance with the place of his vow - the rule for vows is that the wording of the person taking the vow is interpreted in accordance with the place where he took the vow; if in that place the barley harvest is simply called "harvest," then he is prohibited until the people begin to gather the barley harvest (Rabbeinu Nissim; Bartenura); and similarly, If he - the person taking the vow, was - at the time he took the vow - in the mountain - where the time of the harvest is later than in the valley, he is prohibited until the time of the harvest arrives in the mountain, as was taught in a baraita (in the Gemara): "If a person takes a vow 'until the summer' in Galilee and went down to the valleys, even though the summer has arrived in the valleys, he is prohibited until the summer arrives in Galilee"; and if he was in the valley - at the time he took his vow, he is prohibited the item which is prohibited him by vow until the time of the harvest arrives - in the valley.

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