Bais HaVaad on the Parsha, Parshas Kedoshim

Staying Grounded

May 9, 2024

Excerpted and adapted from a shiur by Rav Moshe Ze’ev Granek

When you shall come to the Land and you shall plant any food tree, you shall treat its fruit as orlah; for three years it shall be orlah to you, they shall not be eaten.

Vayikra 19:21

If fruit is picked early, the Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chaim 202:2) says its bracha is ha’adamah rather than ha’eitz, and ha’adamah is recited on grapes smaller than pul halavan (a small white bean), but since we do not know exactly what size that is, one should wait until the grapes are large. By contrast, other species are ha’adamah only until the fruit begins to grow (misheyotziu pri). The Gra and Nishmas Adam disagree and rule that only once the fruits have reached onas hama’asros (one third of full size) is their bracha ha’eitz.

The Shulchan Aruch bases his ruling on the Rosh (Brachos 6b), who explains that this is derived from the Mishnah that says one may not cut down a fruit tree during Shmitah after the fruit begins to grow or a grapevine after the grapes reach pul halavan size, because one may not destroy edible fruits that have kedushas Shvi’is. The Gemara (Brachos 36b) says this is the shiur for orlah too, and the issur starts when the fruit begins to grow, though it is inedible.

But the Gra and Nishmas Adam hold that rather than Shmitah and orlah, brachos should be compared to trumos and ma’asros, where the rule is that fruits are liable upon reaching onas hama’asros, when they are somewhat edible.