Study Moed Katan folio 3B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
When Rav Dimi came from Eretz Yisrael to Babylonia, he stated a tradition he had heard from the rabbis in Eretz Yisrael: One might have thought that one would be flogged for the addition, but a teaching states an exemption from lashes. Rav Dimi noted: But I do not know what teaching or what addition
The rabbis disputed the meaning of this tradition. R' Elazar said: The addition in question is plowing during the Sabbatical Year, for which there is no explicit prohibition in the Torah, and so it may be regarded as an addition to the labors explicitly enumerated in the Torah. And this is what it
This is logical, because if one is flogged for plowing, why do I need all these details that were enumerated in the verse, i.e., pruning and picking grapes? Rather, one must certainly conclude that these were singled out in order to teach that one is flogged only for these specific labors, but not f
And R' Yoḥanan said: This addition is referring to the extra days that the rabbis added to the prohibition against performing agricultural labor, before Rosh HaShana of the 7th year, when the Sabbatical Year formally begins. And this is what it is saying: One might have thought that one would be f
The Talmud elaborates: What are the extra days before Rosh HaShana? As we learned in a Mishnah (Shevi’it 1:1): Until when may one plow an orchard on the eve of the Sabbatical Year? Beit Shammai say: One may plow so long as the plowing is beneficial for the fruit already on the trees. Once the plowi