Economy 16 Chapter XNUMX: Under the Romans after the destruction of the Second Temple: Small or large farm

On the cultivation of wheat in the Province of Palaestina - the name given by the Romans to Judea after the suppression of the Great Revolt

"Oh"! How difficult are the days of the researchers of antiquity among the people of Israel, especially since the destruction of the Second Temple and onward, because until then it was possible to feed the lines of research also with more historiographical information, that is, the writings of Josephus, when they are compared with various archaeological findings, and from the destruction onward, when there is no We have Yosef ben Mattheyo, although he died thirty years later, but he hardly deals with the history of the Judea-Judea province. Saturated with quite a bit of fairy tales and other fantasies. Moreover, due to the lack of ability to impose the laws of the Sanhedrin and its regulations on the Jewish public, it will be very difficult to find out and check whether the Jewish public scattered throughout the Land of Israel, let alone in the scattered Mediterranean diasporas, acted according to the Sanhedrin's instructions in various fields, and especially in the fields of the economy, which is the core of the discussions in the series the research in question. However, we will make an effort and tilt our ears and look at the reading of the lines of this chapter, as well as its predecessors and the ones that follow it, and we will understand that the things and conclusions arising from this chapter are a limited guarantee.

The Midrash presents us with an instructive picture of the Roman Empire encouraging planting in the Province of Palestine, when the Roman involvement in agricultural issues in the country also emerged in the matter of the "Treasury" as follows: "Rabbi (Yehuda the President) and Rabbi Yossi Barbi Yehuda were walking along the road. They saw one ACM coming towards them. Amerin three miles he asked Eil Len (they said: three words - questions - he will address us): What will I say? (Who are you?), and what is your art? (Your occupation?) And where will I go? (where are you going?). What is Athens? : Yehudain. What are you doing? - Pragmatotine (dealers) and where can I get Azelin? To store (buy) wheat from the storehouse (shopping center, market) Divanai (Hellenistic? of Yavneh?) (Beresheet Rabba page 8).

We heard more about this treasure from the mouth of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Kousbi and from the mouth of Rabbi Meir who emphasizes - "Rabbi Yossi said: What are the words supposed to be? In the treasury of an individual (that is, a farmer or his family), but in the treasury of kings they follow the majority (in the city or in the Sanhedrin). They said to him: After she instructed us (so in the text) to build a treasure in front of (within) the wall, which is a damai (separation from the grain as a contribution to the priests, and of the rest, a tenth to the Levites), most of it was Kutites (Samaritans), but a treasure that is poured into it from abroad to the land , such as Regev's treasury, is liable according to account (according to price or according to Regev's determination adjacent to the account area west of Gers/Geresh)".

In the Tosveta (Sviiyat 1:XNUMX) Rabbi Yehuda, Rabbi Shimon and Rabbi Yossi testify about the "tenth" that eats from the treasure after the clearing" and in the midrashim the "treasure" is mentioned in the Greek-Hellenistic nomenclature as "Tasvariot" and this will make it easier for us to understand the term "treasure" in the Talmudic literature As a constraint imposed on the population to purchase grain from the Roman silos as a kind of tax.

This case involves the almost revolutionary process of making the economy of the Land of Israel more and more intensive, as in the mishna which tells about "the one who receives a field (barrisot) from his friend..." (Baba Metzia 1:XNUMX), so obviously, compared to the later Tosefta which emphasizes that "he who rents a field from his friend and was in it ( In the field) grain to harvest, grapes to harvest, olives to harvest..." (ibid.) as reflecting the transition to an intensive farm.

One of the problems that arose in relation to the intensive method was the interest loan. This farm required a relatively large amount of money and a regular supply of materials, seeds, work tools and more, and for this reason Rabbi Yehuda allowed a Jew to be even one party to the usury transaction. And in the Jerusalem Talmud (Baba Metzia chapter XNUMX, end of p. at the beginning of p. XNUMX) Rabbi Shimon ben Gamaliel the president says as follows: "He is trespassing on his field and is not afraid of usury." how? He received his name (from him, from Peloni) in ten Korin Hitin. He said to him: Give me one rock (price) and I will give you twelve Korin to thresh, it is allowed...". And in this context, the conversation between Matrona (a respectable lady with a lot of assets) and Rabbi Yehuda and the words of Rabbi Haya against usury, which actually indicates its existence among the agricultural community in Israel, is important and significant. Here we have before us another testimony of the victory of reality over the clear biblical teaching in the form of Lanchari Tishikh (take a bite = usury) and your brother do not tishikh. When this biblical instruction was of almost sacrosanct importance, but, as mentioned, reality prevailed over the instruction and exceeded it: the members of the Sanhedrin behaved more according to the prevailing reality at the time.

The Babylonian Talmud distinguishes well and in an interesting way between the large economy of the "first generations" and the smaller, intensive economy of the "last generations" of the days of Rabbi Yehuda (from the 30s of the second century AD onwards), in terms of a very sharp statement in the chronological context. And even if we compare the Mishnah regarding "the grain bins (a geometrical shape according to the field and the orchard) between the olives" (Pah 1:3) and the Jerusalem Talmud of the days of Rabbi Yehuda Hanasi, we will confirm the above conclusion. And even Rabbi Shimon ben Gamaliel states in this context the proper space between field and field in plowing: "so that there is cattle passing through his bones" and in another wording: "a pair of cattle" (Tosefta XNUMXa XNUMX XNUMX).

Elsewhere in the Mishnah we are informed that "he who buries the Luf (in the ground) in the seventh year, Rabbi Meir says: No less than two saats (that is, he shall not bury in one dig less than two saats, which is a dozen cabins) up to a height of three tapahs (27 cm) ) and patted dirt on top of him. And the sages say: It will not be less than four cubits to the height of a tap, and a tap of dirt on top of it" (Shivit 2:XNUMX). We have before us an interesting testimony that confirms the trend of intensity in agriculture, and the result is the praise of the fruits. This trend is confirmed, as mentioned, in the deliberations of the Sanhedrin and its laws.

The flax, for example, was sown densely, according to Rabbi Shimon: "The flax in the grain adds (so in the text) one out of twenty-four in the fall to Beit Sa'ah" Kalaim 2). That is, if there is in the seeds mixed one of the twenty-fourths of the amount that is sown with a seed of grain and it is 50 cubits by 50 cubits. But of garden seeds, there are no sowers in this area, but less than that, such as Keb. And if there is grain in the sea, one out of twenty-four grains will be reduced.

In relation to the diluyeh, the Mishnah says: "(Whoever wants to plant) a pumpkin (marks) (for) a birk, (is considered) a vegetable (from which one should distance 6 taphas) ​​and (who wants to plant a single pumpkin near ten and a half dies). His field was sown with grain and he asked to plant a row of dilu'in in it, giving her six taphams (vacant, distant from the grain) for her work. The growth (the row and the thinned leaves entered into the six taps) will displace (the leaves that spread into the six taps) in front of it. Rabbi Yossi says: We give her (for a row of dilu'ahs a profit) (for) her work four cubits (twenty-four tapahim). They said to him: Has this gotten worse from the vine (a row of vines, which is not given to her for her work, but - six taps in the middle)? He said to them: We find that this is worse than the vine..." (Mishnat Kalaim 7:XNUMX). Here too, as in the previous cases, the members of the Sanhedrin demonstrate a great deal of knowledge about agriculture, especially in relation to the intensive economy.

Into this cauldron of evidence is integrated, so it seems, the whole issue of the Seventh on its problems and consequences, to which my teacher and rabbi, the late Prof. Shmuel Safrai, devoted a detailed study ("Mitzvah Sheviyat in the reality after the destruction of the Second Temple", p. 304 ff.), which opens with the statement that This mitzvah was without a doubt, one of the most difficult mitzvahs to maintain, and this from an economic point of view for a large public, most of whom lived from their work in the field, and that apart from the prohibitions on sowing and harvesting in the field, pruning and harvesting trees, which are included in it, we find in the Tanait tradition of Darbanan many prohibitions such as the prohibition of eating aphihim, i.e. the prohibition of gathering and eat grain and vegetable stubble grown in the seventh as stubble from the harvest and gathering of the sixth year. Or the prohibition of working the soil in the sixth year, which is not intended for the needs of that year, but it also contains preparation for the seventh year.

Prof. Safrai assumed that in the decree on the shemita, which Israel did not give their lives for, they mainly mean the demand for the payment of taxes in the year of the shemita, which many in Israel did not face the decree, and the commandment of the Sabbath was loosened as it appears from the sources such as "Collections of the Sabbath" and "Sherodi of the Sabbath", giving up Yes, there seems to be a recognition of this reality and you hear in the Mishnah Dor Usha in the Galilee (after the revolt of Ben Kusba), even about an entire city of "Savior eaters", and this is how the laws were determined according to the practice of transgressors, of which there were certainly not a few. And the same colloquialisms such as "Eaters of Sheviyat" or "Suspects of the Sheviyat" were coined in the reality after Ben Khosva's rebellion. And the evidence about the perpetrators of the Shabbat offenses and the allegations against them do not bring up the reality of plowing and sowing on the Shabbat, but of eating fruits on the Shabbat, and at most - preparing the soil and improving it for the next year.

In Rabbi Yehuda Hanasi's generation there were changes in the status of the seventh, both as a result of his regulations and on the basis of his teaching and method in perceiving the place of the seventh in halacha 103844 (cited p. 1 et seq.). In this spirit, this president exempted Ashkelon from the tithe obligation as well as Beit Shan, Kesarin, Beit Govrin, Kfar Zemach and Kini, both for humanitarian, socio-economic and demographic reasons.

At the same time, the permits that reduced the dependence on the seventh commandment were known, but did not challenge the customs and prohibitions of the seventh as a whole. However, there were other permits of this president to undermine the status of the Sheviyat, and indeed Rabbi Yehuda the Hanasi ordered that there is no Sheviyat at this time from the Torah except from Darbanan (that is, from the instructions of the Sanhedrin), and on this basis the President tried to allow the shemita at all (and I published an article on this in Hidan) And for example he allowed to consume vegetables on the evening of Shabbat immediately, and this on the basis of his previous permission to import grain and vegetables from abroad even on the time of Shabbat. And this with the sophistication of processes of first dry and pickled products and then the fresh vegetable. And first he allowed it in the areas of Sefer such as in Bashan and the Golan (where Rabbi Yehuda Hanasi had large areas of Irisyot) and then in the rest of the Land of Israel. And so he did with fruits such as figs and grapes.

These regulations were closely related to the technological changes and innovations of agricultural activity among the Jews of the Land of Israel also due to the effects of Roman agriculture on that of the Land of Israel, such as the promotion of the dates for harvesting vegetables and fruits. For example: "We are setting up the plantings until Rosh Hashanah." Rabbi Yehuda (Bar Ilai) says: If they were blessed before the seventh day, they are also taken on the seventh day" (Tosefta Sheviyat 6:1). Or - "You harvest a field on the eve of Shabbat so that you can raise vegetables on Shabbat, and no more but even on Shabbat you harvest them so that you raise vegetables for the evening of Shabbat." Onions entered on the eve of Shabbat for Shabbat, they are pounded so that they are easy to be sterilized" (Tosefta Shem 2:1). "Rabbi Shimon permits plowing in the white field until Pesach, and in the Ilan field until the assembly and permits taking the leaf from the cluster, even though it was said before him that this work and similar ones are done until Rosh Hashanah" (Misnath Sheviyat XNUMX:XNUMX-XNUMX). Rabbi Elazar Bar Zadok allows watering the branches of the tree even on the seventh day and Rabbi Shimon allowed to anoint the tree with oil on the seventh day.

These permits, not only eased the difficult living conditions in the seventh year, but they had the effect of undermining the status of the seventh year in general, and this in terms of a real revolution.

In the period in question, we witness exaggerated, somewhat legendary testimonies about the size of the produce, its nature and nature, such as: ""The people of Jericho ... gather palm trees all day long" (Mishnet Pesachim 8:XNUMX), and in the Jerusalem Talmud in connection with this practice it was emphasized that "... and with the consent (with the consent) of the sages ( The members of the Sanhedrin) used to do..." (Talmud Yerushalmi Pesachim, chapter XNUMX XNUMX p. XNUMX).

In Ein Gedi it is written that the vineyard yield reached the norm four to five times a year and Rabbi Meir testified that he saw with his own eyes in Beit Shean "Beit Saa makes seventy chorins" in terms of an unimaginable astronomical yield. Rabbi Yehuda Hanasi reported on a horseradish that grew in his neighborhood and had sixty thousand leaves of husk and prophesied that "In this world the grain lasts for six months and the tree for twelve months, but in the future to come the grain lasts for one month and the tree lasts for two months" (Yerushalmi Talmud, Taaniyot chapter 50 XNUMX p. a). What's more, according to his prediction, the roots of the wheat will sprout in XNUMX cubits of soil and the roots of the fig sprout in flint at all. Rabbi Haya the Great reported that "an act that weighed seven quarts of ollots (the vineyard) in a bird" (Talmud Yerushalmi Pah Chapter XNUMX:XNUMX p. XNUMX) and the vines are the size of goats and the cluster in the vineyard of Rabbi Ferori (Fridi) in Bnei Brak reaches the dimensions of the size of an ox. Rabbi Shimon ben Halfta praises the mustard in his house that he used to climb and ascend as a fig head testifies to a cob of cabbage in Abba's house that they used to ascend and descend on a ladder and another priest and priestess of this kind.

The above-mentioned chizbets testify on the one hand to a serious boom in the field of agricultural crops and especially in intensive farms, including farms of the style of Roman villas, against a background of technological and botanical innovations, and on the other hand, the desire of the sages of the Sanhedrin to integrate as many Jews as possible in the fields of agricultural work.