Kiddushin, Daf Lammed Tet, Part 3

 

Introduction

This is the last passage about the obligation of kilayim outside of the Land.

 

רב חנן ורב ענן הוו שקלי ואזלי באורחא

חזיוהו לההוא גברא דקא זרע זרעים בהדי הדדי

א"ל ניתי מר נשמתיה

א"ל לא חווריתו

 

R. Hanan and R. Anan were walking along a path, when they saw a man sowing [diverse] seeds together.

One said to the other, Let the master come and ban him.

He replied, This halakhah is not clear to you.

 

This story takes place outside of Israel. When the two rabbis see someone planting diverse seeds, one rabbi wants to put the planter under a ban, a very serious punishment. The other rabbi refuses, telling his fellow that this halakhah is not clear to him.

 

ותו חזיוהו לההוא גברא דקא זרע חטי ושערי בי גופני

א"ל ניתי מר נשמתיה א"ל לא צהריתו לא קיימא לן כרבי יאשיה דאמר עד שיזרע חטה ושעורה וחרצן במפולת יד

 

Again they saw another man sowing wheat and barley among vines.

One said to the other, Let the master come and ban him.

He replied, These halakhot are not clear to you. Do we not hold like R. Yoshayah, that [he is not liable] unless he sows wheat, barley, and grapeseed in the [same] hand-throw?

 

This time they see another Jew sowing seeds in a vineyard, and again one rabbi wants to ban the man. But again, the other rabbi refuses, this time explaining that his fellow does not know that one is not liable for sowing seeds in a vineyard unless he throws down the different seeds in the same act. We should maybe detect here a note of one rabbi rebuking another for trying to punish someone without being 100 percent sure that he is deserving of the punishment.

 

רב יוסף מערב ביזרני וזרע

א"ל אביי והאנן תנן הכלאים מדברי סופרים

א"ל לא קשיא כאן בכלאי הכרם כאן בכלאי זרעים כלאי הכרם דבארץ אסורים בהנאה בח"ל נמי גזרו בהו רבנן כלאי זרעים דבארץ לא אסירי בהנאה בח"ל נמי לא גזרו בהו רבנן

 

R. Joseph mixed seeds and sowed [them].

Abaye said to him: But we learnt: Kilayim is forbidden [outside the Land] by the words of the Scribes!

He said to him: There is no difficulty, this one, [the Mishnah] refers to kilayim of the vineyard; this [my action] refers to kilayim of seeds. Kilayim of the vineyard, which in the Land is prohibited to derive benefit from, outside the Land, the rabbis also decreed against it; kilayim of seeds, however, of which [even] in the Land it is not prohibited to derive benefit therefrom, are not prohibited by the rabbis outside the Land.

 

The rules of mixed seeds in a vineyard are stringent inside the Land one may not derive any benefit from them. Therefore, outside the Land the rule is also stringent. But the rules regarding planting mixed seeds are lenient inside the Land one may not eat the plants that grow, but one may derive benefit from them. Therefore, this rule is not observed outside the Land.

 

הדר אמר רב יוסף לאו מלתא היא דאמרי דרב זרע גינתא דבי רב משארי משארי

מאי טעמא לאו משום עירוב עירובי כלאים

 

Subsequently R. Joseph said: What I have said is not valid, for Rav sowed the garden of the rabbinic academy in rows [of separate species].

What is the reason? Surely in order [to avoid] the mixture of kilayim?

 

R. Joseph now retracts his statement that outside of the Land one may plant mixed seeds. The basis for this retraction is the actions of Rav, a Babylonian amora, who seems to plant the garden of the rabbinic academy in rows in order to prevent the mixture of the seeds.

 

אמר ליה אביי בשלמא אי אשמעינן ארבע על ארבע רוחות הערוגה ואחת באמצע שפיר אלא הכא משום נוי ואי נמי משום טרחא דשמעא היא:

 

Abaye said to him: If it had taught us four by four sides of the furrow and one in the middle, this would go well. But here he did so on account of beauty. Alternatively, in order to save the attendant trouble.

 

Abaye rejects R. Joseph s reading of why Rav planted the garden in rows. If he had planted it in the way that gardens were to be planted in order to avoid the mixing of the seeds (four sides of a square, each with a different species and one row of another species in the middle), then we could be sure that he was doing so in order to avoid the problem of kilayim. But since this is not what Rav did, we can offer other assessments of his motivation. He might have done so either because this makes the garden look nicer or to save the attendant, the one harvesting the vegetables, the trouble of having to search for what he was looking for.