Taamei Hamitzvos - The Fruit of a Sapling
Mitzvos 246-247; Vayikra 19:23-25.
We may not eat from the fruit of a tree for the first three years, during which the fruits are called orlah, meaning “blocked” [from benefit]. During the fourth-year, there is a separate Mitzvah to eat the fruit in Yerushalayim, or else to redeem the fruit and use the money to purchase fruit in Yerushalayim and eat it there. The fruits of that fourth year are called neta revai, meaning “saplings of the fourth [year].”These days, we redeem the neta revai.
Ramban explains that the purpose of these two Mitzvos is to honor Hashem by refraining from eating from our produce until we “offer” some of it to Him, by enjoying it in His holy city and praising Him there. During the first three years, when a tree is a weak sapling, it is too weak to ripen its fruit. It produces few fruits, which are lacking in both taste and fragrance, and thus not fitting as an offering. Most trees do not even produce any fruit at all until the fourth year. It emerges that these two Mitzvos are really two parts of one Mitzvah, whose purpose is to praise Hashem for His kindness that is evident in fruit.
As to why these Mitzvos apply only to fruit trees, we may suggest that Hashem’s kindness is especially apparent within fruit trees, since they produce fruit regularly, which are colorful, sweet, ready-to-eat, and nutritious. Moreover, mankind could subsist without fruit (Tosafos, Berachos 37a.), so their existence reveals an added aspect of Hashem’s loving-kindness.
Ramban adds that the Torah prohibits eating orlah also because it is unhealthy. According to Sefer HaChinuch, an added benefit of bringing neta revai to Yerushalayim is that at least one member of every Jewish family will frequent the holy city of Yerushalayim and study Torah there until he finishes consuming the fruit. Thereby, there will be Torah in every Jewish home. This, he explains, is the reason for the similar Mitzvah to eat maaser sheini in Yerushalayim.
Moreh Nevuchim (3:37)records the practice of idolaters to plant a tree for a deity and to eat its first crop in their house of idolatry. He explains that the Torah commands us to do the opposite and bring the first crop to His house. Since most trees do not produce fruit until the fourth year, neta revai applies only then. He adds that idolaters would use witchcraft to make trees produce fruit earlier. To prevent such practice, the Torah prohibits us from eating the fruit during the first three years.
On the esoteric level, orlah corresponds to the foreskin, the orlah of circumcision. Just as the foreskin is associated with impurity, orlah fruit are subject to forces of impurity, which is why they are not beneficial and why idolaters would practice witchcraft upon them. In the fourth year, a force of holiness begins to develop, making it possible to eat the fruit sanctity in Yerushalayim. See Rabbeinu Bachya,Recaniti, and Metzudas David.
The Sages compare the first years of a fruit tree’s life to that of a person: For the first three years, a person cannot speak properly; in his fourth year, the child is taught to recite Torah tzivah lanu and the first verse of Shema Yisrael (see Yoreh Deah 245:5) - paralleling the fourth year of a tree which is designated for sanctity. After that year, the child begins to learn the Torah properly, which is the “fruit” of a Jewish person.
We may suggest that just as teaching a child to speak words of Torah from the earliest time he can speak dedicates his life to further study, bringing a tree’s first fruit to Hashem shows that all of its future fruit come from Him and demonstrate His kindness to mankind.
