However, the fruit of the tree is still considered Orlah (fruit that grew
within the first three years of the tree's life) even after the third Rosh
Hashanah passes. It remains Orlah until the fifteenth of Shevat ("Tu
b'Shevat") after the third Rosh Hashanah. Similarly, although the tree is
considered to have completed four years upon the arrival of the fourth Rosh
Hashanah, its fruit remains Revai (fruit of the fourth year) until Tu
b'Shevat following the fourth Rosh Hashanah, as the Gemara derives from
verses in the Torah.
The Rishonim dispute under which conditions the year is extended until Tu
b'Shevat (see also Chart #1).
(a) RASHI (DH Peros) concludes that by planting something more than thirty
days before Rosh Hashanah, one benefits by gaining seven and a half months
of time, from Tu b'Shevat of the third year (after the third Rosh Hashanah)
until the fourth Rosh Hashanah. That is, when one plants a tree within
thirty days of Rosh Hashanah, one must wait until the fourth Rosh Hashanah
for the fruit that grows from that tree to no longer be Orlah.
Why does Rashi say that by planting the tree more than thirty days before
Rosh Hashanah one gains only the time between Tu b'Shevat and Rosh Hashanah
(seven and a half months)? One gains an entire year -- from Tu b'Shevat of
the third year to *Tu b'Shevat* of the fourth! By planting early enough, one
gains a year by not having to wait until the Tu b'Shevat after the fourth
Rosh Hashanah!
The ROSH (Hilchos Orlah #9, printed in the back of Maseches Menachos)
explains that Rashi inferred from the Gemara that says "the fruits of *this*
plantling are Asur until Tu b'Shevat," that only for *this* tree -- which
was planted more than thirty days before Rosh Hashanah -- does the third
year end at Tu b'Shevat. If, however, one planted the tree within thirty
days before Rosh Hashanah, one must wait three years until the fourth Rosh
Hashanah (the passage of the first Rosh Hashanah does not count as one year,
since the tree was planted less than thirty days before that Rosh Hashanah),
but one does not have to wait until Tu b'Shevat after the fourth Rosh
Hashanah.
Furthermore, Rashi was bothered by the following statement of the Gemara
that says that "*sometimes* the fourth year arrives and the fruits are still
Asur because of Orlah, and *sometimes* the fifth year arrives and the fruits
are still Revai." If every tree, no matter when it was planted, must wait
until Tu b'Shevat in order for its fruit to become permitted, then the fruit
of *all* trees are Asur when the fourth year arrives, and not just
"sometimes!"
It must be that only fruits of a tree planted more than thirty days before
Rosh Hashanah are Asur until Tu b'Shevat. If a tree was planted within
thirty days before Rosh Hashanah (and thus the first year is not completed
until the following Rosh Hashanah), then it is not necessary to wait until
Tu b'Shevat of the fourth year for the fruits to become Mutar.
This is also the opinion of RABEINU SHMUEL BAR DAVID cited by the SHITAS
RIVAV on the Rif. The Shitas Rivav proposes a logical explanation for the
difference between trees planted more than thirty days before Rosh Hashanah
and trees planted within thirty days. He says that when one plants a tree
within thirty days before Rosh Hashanah, although the time before Rosh
Hashanah is not considered to be one year for the tree (because there are
not thirty days before Rosh Hashanah from the time that it was planted),
nevertheless a partial year has passed *before the first Tu b'Shevat*, and
that time period is considered like one year (since it is more than thirty
days) as far as the mature, three year old tree is concerned. By the time
the third Tu b'Shevat arrives (which is before the fourth Rosh Hashanah, see
timeline in Chart#1 for clarity), the tree has already passed three full
years as far as Orlah and Revai are concerned. One merely has to wait until
Rosh Hashanah after that third Tu b'Shevat in order to eat the fruits (since
the tree must wait for both the Rosh Hashanah of trees [15 Shevat] and the
Rosh Hashanah of plants [1 Tishrei] to pass). After three Tu b'Shevat's and
three Rosh Hashanah's have passed the fruit is permitted.
According to this logic, if one plants a tree any time between Rosh Hashanah
and [30 days before] Tu b'Shevat, one does not have to wait until the Tu
b'Shevat after the third Rosh Hashanah.The fruit is no longer Orlah when the
third Rosh Hashanah arrives (because three Tu b'Shevat's have passed).
(b) The RAMBAM (Hilchos Ma'aser Sheni 9:11-12) rules like Rashi, that one
only needs to wait until Tu b'Shevat if he planted the tree more than thirty
days before Rosh Hashanah. If one planted it less than thirty days before
Rosh Hashanah, then the third year ends on Rosh Hashanah (the fourth one
that passes from the time he planted the tree), and it is not necessary to
wait until the following Tu b'Shevat.
The Rambam adds, though, that if one plants a tree any time between Rosh
Hashanah and Tu b'Shevat, then one must wait three years *to the day*
("mi'Yom l'Yom") in order for the fruit to be permitted (in contrast to
waiting only until the third Rosh Hashanah, as Rashi holds). This opinion is
mentioned independently by the Me'iri (except that he maintains that even if
the tree is planted during the thirty days before Rosh Hashanah one must
wait only three years to the day and not until Rosh Hashanah.)
The logic of this ruling might be as follows. The Rambam holds that the
fruit is no longer considered Orlah if, after the third Rosh Hashanah has
passed, the tree *either* completes the third year of its life *or* Tu
b'Shevat passes. Both events are considered the completion of a year. (Three
Rosh Hashanah's must pass first, since the year of an plantling [Orlah], as
opposed to a tree [Revai], is measured by three Rosh Hashanah's, as Rashi
explained.) If one planted the tree after Tu b'Shevat and before Rosh
Hashanah (at least thirty days before Rosh Hashanah), then after three Rosh
Hashanah's have passed, the first of the two dates to arrive is Tu b'Shevat,
which arrives before three complete years pass. Therefore we are lenient and
permit the fruit at that Tu b'Shevat. If one plants the tree after Rosh
Hashanah and before Tu b'Shevat, then after three Rosh Hashanah's have
passed, the first date to arrive is the third year mark, before Tu b'Shevat.
Since three full years mi'Yom l'Yom arrive before Tu b'Shevat of the third
year, the fruit becomes permitted and one need not wait until Tu b'Shevat.
In addition, the Rambam implies that if one planted the tree within thirty
days of Rosh Hashanah, it is not enough to wait three years mi'Yom l'Yom.
The passage of the first Rosh Hashanah does not count (because thirty days
have not passed), and one must wait until the fourth Rosh Hashanah, which is
a few days after three years mi'Yom l'Yom. At that point, it has already
attained three years mi'Yom l'Yom, and therefore it is no longer Orlah. (The
Me'iri does not add this condition.)
(c) The RA'AVAD (Hilchos Ma'aser Sheni 9:11) also maintains that it is not
necessary to wait until the Tu b'Shevat after the third Rosh Hashanah, if
one is not relying on a partial year to be considered as a full year for at
the beginning of the three year period. He proposes a different line of
reasoning, though. He says that when one relies on a leniency by considered
a partial year as a full year, then one must add extra days at the end of
the three-year period and wait until Tu b'Shevat (which is the Gezeiras
ha'Kasuv mentioned in the Gemara). The Gezeiras ha'Kasuv does not apply if
one was relying on a full year as the first year. Thus, if the tree was
planted less than thirty days before Rosh Hashanah, then since one waits
three full years (until the fourth Rosh Hashanah), one does not have to wait
until Tu b'Shevat following the fourth Rosh Hashanah.
In practice, this opinion differs from the opinions of Rashi and Rambam with
regard to trees planted between Rosh Hashanah and Tu b'Shevat. Rashi
maintains that such trees do not have to wait until the Tu b'Shevat after
the third Rosh Hashanah, because by the third Rosh Hashanah, three Tu
b'Shevat's have also passed. The Rambam also maintains that such trees do
not have to wait until the Tu b'Shevat after the third Rosh Hashanah,
because we follow the date of the three-year mark, mi'Yom l'Yom (which
occurs after the third Rosh Hashanah, before Tu b'Shevat). The Ra'avad,
though, would hold that one must wait until the following Tu b'Shevat (after
the third Rosh Hashanah), because he holds that as long as was have counted
even one day less than an entire year as year one in the beginning of the
three year period one must wait until Tu b'Shevat of the fourth year for the
fruit to be Revai. The RITVA also cites such an opinion.
(d) The BA'AL HA'ME'OR, RASHBA, and RITVA argue with the Ra'avad and say
that there is no logical basis to limit the Gezeiras ha'Kasuv (which teaches
that fruits are sometimes Orlah even into the fourth year) to plants that
had as their first year only a partial year, since the verse says nothing
about a partial year. Rather, they maintain that the Rosh Hashanah for Orlah
and Revai is *always* Tu b'Shevat, and it does not matter when the tree was
planted. Three years (for Orlah) and four years (for Revai) are considered
complete only when Tu b'Shevat arrives.
What do these Rishonim do with the inferences of Rashi (see (a) above) in
the Gemara, which imply that there are some trees which do not follow Tu
b'Shevat?
According to these Rishonim, when the Gemara says that "the fruits of *this*
plantling are Asur until Tu b'Shevat," it does not mean to imply that there
are fruits that become Mutar before Tu b'Shevat. Rather, it means that even
though this plant is considered one year old when the first Rosh Hashanah
arrives a month later, and even one month is considered like a full year,
nevertheless we are stringent with respect to its fourth year. It is still
Orlah until Tu b'Shevat after the third Rosh Hashanah. The Gemara is
emphasizing that even *this* plantling is Asur until Tu b'Shevat, even
though Halachically it is more than three years old. (ROSH ibid., see also
Me'or and Rishonim.)
Similarly, when the Gemara says that "sometimes" a tree remains Orlah into
the fourth year until Tu b'Shevat, it does not mean to imply that sometimes
it is Mutar at the beginning of the fourth year (i.e. Rosh Hashanah).
Rather, the Gemara says "sometimes" only because most trees do not bear
fruit before Tu b'Shevat, and therefore in practice the tree will not
actually bear Orlah fruit in its fourth year. Whenever a tree *does* bear
fruit before Tu b'Shevat, that fruit will be Asur until Tu b'Shevat arrives.
"Sometimes" means that when fruits happen to ripen before Tu b'Shevat, they
will be Asur. The fruit that ripens in the normal season (after Tu b'Shevat)
will not be Asur because three-years-plus-Tu-b'Shevat have already passed.
It is interesting to note that Rashi's comment on this topic is quoted by
the Ran and printed with the Rif somewhat differently than in our texts.
There, Rashi, omits the last words in DH u'Peiros, which state that when the
tree is planted more than thirty days before Rosh Hashanah one profits the
fruit grown "from Tu b'Shevat until Rosh Hashanah." Accordingly, there is no
inference at all from Rashi that the need to wait until Tu b'Shevat applies
only when the tree was planted less than thirty days before Rosh Hashanah.
Rashi could be ruling like these latter Rishonim, who hold that one must
always wait until Tu b'Shevat. Indeed, even Rashi in our texts (DH Peiros
and DH Pe'amim) clearly explains the words "this" and "sometimes" (which
were the sources for the first three opinions cited above) the same way the
Ba'al ha'Me'or and others explain them. (Perhaps there was a second version
of Rashi's commentary, in which Rashi changed his mind from his first
version, and a combination of both versions were printed in our Gemara.)