Translation:Mishnah/Seder Zeraim/Tractate Orlah/Chapter 1/5

Introduction

On the connectivity of roots and such.

Hebrew Text

אילן שנעקר ובו בריכה, והוא חייה ממנה--חזרה הזקנה להיות כבריכה. הבריכה שנה אחר שנה, ונפסקה--מונה משעה שנפסקה. סיפוק גפנים, סיפוק על גבי סיפוק--אף על פי שהבריכה בארץ, מותר. רבי מאיר אומר, מקום שכוחה יפה, מותר; מקום שכוחה רע, אסור. וכן בריכה שנפסקה, והיא מלאה פירות--אם הוסיף במאתיים, אסור.

English Translation

If a tree was uprooted but one root remained [connected to the ground], it is exempt. And how large must that root be? Rabban Gamliel says in the name of Rabbi Elazar the son of Yehudah of Bertota: As [the thickness of] a stretching pin [used to stretch cloth]. If a tree was uprooted and it had a [planted] rooted shoot [i.e., it had a low lying branch which was bent and planted into the ground] and the tree is now deriving nourishment [only] from the [new] shoot, the old [detached] tree now assumes the status of the shoot [and since the shoot is now considered as if freshly planted, thus, both it, and the old tree, now require three years of orlah]. If one [bent and] rooted [a branch into the soil the first year and after it grew rooted the new branch the following] year [and did so repeatedly, year] after year, and it [the first shoot] became detached, [all the shoots are considered as being newly planted and] one counts [the three years] from the time it became detached. [It was the usual practice to graft one long vine shoot onto the length of another.] [The law regarding]: Connected grafted shoots of vines, and [regarding] grafted, vine shoots, growing on other grafted, vine shoots, even if he rooted [and planted the middle section into the ground, it is not viewed as newly planted and its fruit] are permitted. Rabbi Meir says: In a case where the potency [of the graft] is strong [and it draws its nourishment from the mother vine], it is permitted, but where the potency [of the graft] is weak [and draws its nourishment from the rooted middle of the vine] it is [considered newly planted fruit and is] prohibited. So, too, regarding a bent-down [rooted] shoot which has become detached and it is full of fruit [since, as we will see later, in 2:1, that orlah which got mixed up with non-orlah requires a two hundred to one ratio for neutralization], if the fruit increased [in size] one two-hundredth [part after its detachment] it is prohibited.