The Feast of Harvest, Firstfruits, and the Turning of the Year

Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 23:16

"And the feast of harvest": Rabbi Yishmael says, whenever Shavuot falls on the Sabbath, the festival day after the Sabbath, one keeps the feast and reaps. "The firstfruits of your labors": by inference from another verse that says, "the firstfruits of the wheat harvest" (Exodus 34:22). I have heard only of wheat; from where do I learn of barley? Scripture says, "which you sow in the field." I have heard only of what one sows; from where do I learn of what grew on its own? Scripture says, "which is in the field." I have heard only of what is in the field; from where do I learn of what is on the roof, in the courtyard, and on dry ground? Scripture says, "the firstfruits of all that is in their land" (Numbers 18:13). Another interpretation: "the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of your labors" teaches that one does not bring firstfruits before Shavuot, and if he brought them, they are not accepted from him. "And the feast of ingathering at the going out of the year": by inference from another verse that says, "you shall surely tithe all the yield of your seed, which comes forth from the field year by year" (Deuteronomy 14:22). I do not know when the year is; Scripture says, "the feast of ingathering at the going out of the year," and elsewhere it says, "the turning of the year" (Exodus 34:22). When does the year go out? You must say, at the turning. One might think the turning of Tevet; Scripture says "feast," and the turning of Tevet has no feast. One might think the turning of Nisan, for it has a feast; Scripture says "the feast of ingathering," which has ingathering, and the turning of Nisan has no ingathering. One might think the turning of Tammuz, for it has ingathering; Scripture says "the feast of ingathering at the going out of the year," and elsewhere "the turning of the year," the turning that has a feast and ingathering and in which the year goes out. Which is this? This is the turning of Tishrei. "When you gather in your labors": you have in them only ingathering. From where that each and every kind has its own ingathering? Scripture says, "when you gather in your labors," each and every kind has its own ingathering. From here they said: on the first of Shevat is the New Year for the tree, the words of the House of Shammai; and the House of Hillel say, on the fifteenth of it. Every tree whose fruit budded before the fifteenth of Shevat belongs to the past year; after the fifteenth of Shevat, it belongs to the year to come.

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