Study Rosh Hashanah folio 12B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
משתבא השמש — אין תורמין ומעשרין מזה על זה, לפי שאין תורמין ומעשרין, לא מן החדש על הישן, ולא מן הישן על החדש. אם היתה שניה נכנסת לשלישית — שניה מעשר ראשון ומעשר שני, שלישית — מעשר ראשון ומעשר עני.
after sunset, so that they belong to the new year, one may not set aside teruma and tithe from the one to the other, as one may not set aside teruma and tithe from the new crop for the old nor from the old crop for the new. If it was the 2nd year of the Sabbatical cycle going into the 3rd year, the halakha is: From what he picked in the 2nd year he must set aside first tithe, which he gives to a Levite, and second tithe, which he eats in Jerusalem; from what he picked in the 3rd year, he must set aside first tithe and poor man’s tithe, which he gives to one who is needy.
מנא הני מילי? אמר רבי יהושע בן לוי: ״כי תכלה לעשר את כל מעשר תבואתך בשנה השלישית שנת המעשר״, שנה שאין בה אלא מעשר אחד. הא כיצד? מעשר ראשון ומעשר עני, ומעשר שני יבטל.
From where are these matters derived that during the 3rd year one must set aside poor man’s tithe and not second tithe? R' Yehoshua ben Levi said: The verse states: “When you have made an end of tithing all the tithes of your produce in the 3rd year, which is the year of the tithe” (Deuteronomy 26:12). This is referring to a year when there is only one of the two tithes that had been given in the previous years. How so? One sets aside first tithe and poor man’s tithe, which is explicitly mentioned in that section, and second tithe is nullified that year.
או אינו אלא אף מעשר ראשון נמי יבטל — תלמוד לומר: ״ואל הלוים תדבר ואמרת אליהם כי תקחו מאת בני ישראל את המעשר אשר נתתי לכם מאתם בנחלתכם״, הקישו הכתוב לנחלה: מה נחלה אין לה הפסק — אף מעשר ראשון אין לו הפסק.
Or perhaps it is not like this, but in fact even first tithe is nullified during the 3rd year and only one tithe is set aside, i.e., the poor man’s tithe. Therefore, the verse states: “Thus speak to the Levites, and say to them: When you take of the children of Israel the tithes which I have given you from them for your inheritance” (Numbers 18:26). The verse juxtaposes the first tithe that is given to the Levites to an inheritance of land: Just as with regard to an inheritance there is no interruption, as by Torah law a landed inheritance cannot be sold in perpetuity, but rather it passes from one generation to the next without interruption, so too, with regard to the first tithe that is given to the Levites there is no interruption, but rather it is taken every year.