Mishnah 8 in chapter 1 also deals with gemar melachah - the completion of the processing of the crop. Having discussed grain, wine and oil, we now turn to figs. There are two main ways figs are consumed: as a round cake of pressed figs, and as the figs themselves, whether fresh or dried.
The Cake of Pressed Figs:
The Mishnah opens with the igul, the round cake of pressed figs. The common practice was that after the figs had been pressed together into a sort of cake, an outer gloss would be given to it - much like brushing egg on a challah: one would take a cut grape and pass it over the outer surface of the cake. This act is the completion of the processing, and in the words of the Mishnah: "Ha'igul mishe'yachlikenu" - from the time one smooths it, that is, glosses its outer surface with a grape.
Two Disputes Between the Tanna Kamma and Rabbi Yehudah:
Let us digress briefly in order to clarify the status of that smearing of grape on the outside of the fig cake, concerning which the Tanna Kamma and Rabbi Yehudah disagree on two questions.
The First Dispute - a Grape of Tevel:
May one use a grape of tevel in order to smooth the cake? We have already seen in this chapter a dispute about the status of fruit juice, whether it has the status of the fruit itself; and even though the ruling is that it is nothing more than mere secretion, it is certainly forbidden rabbinically to drink the juice of tevel fruit. Hence the question: may a person take a grape or a fig that are tevel and smear the juice that comes out of them as a sort of coating on the outside of the fig cake?
The Tanna Kamma permits it: the juice that goes from the grape or the fig onto the fig cake is lost and is not drunk, and it is therefore not significant.
Rabbi Yehudah forbids it: fruit juice remains significant, and therefore one must first tithe the fig or the grape before using them to gloss the cake.
The halachah follows the Tanna Kamma: we do not attach significance to the gloss produced by rubbing a grape or a fig on the outside of the fig cake.
The Second Dispute - Susceptibility to Tumah:
The second question concerns the liquid on the outer surface of the fig cake: is this smearing considered hechsher, that is, does it render the food - in this case the cake - susceptible to receiving tumah. In this part the Mishnah speaks only of grapes, since wine is one of the seven liquids that render food susceptible to tumah (among them wine, oil and blood), whereas a fig and its juice do not render food susceptible at all.
The Tanna Kamma: even if he smoothed the cake with grapes, the cake remains not susceptible to receiving tumah.
Rabbi Yehudah: the liquid is significant, and it therefore renders the fig cake susceptible to receiving tumah.
Here too the halachah follows the tanna kamma, that this does not effect hechsher.
Completion of Work in Dried Figs:
The second way in which figs are eaten - besides fresh figs - is as dried figs, that is, grogaros. With dried figs, the moment they are pressed down into the vessel, that is the completion of their work. In the words of the Mishnah: "b'chavis mishe'yadush" - in a barrel, from the time he presses them down with a stick; "u'v'megurah mishe'ya'agel" - when he stores them in a storehouse, from the time he arranges them in a sort of circle.
The Question of the Second Batch:
What is the law when a person pressed figs into a vessel only halfway, and afterward added more figs on top of them: is the additional batch significant, as a second batch or as a second harvest?
Bear in mind that with figs, unlike other kinds of produce, there is not just one harvest. We already noted this in Maseches Peah, that figs are exempt from peah because they are not all gathered at once, but rather grow on the tree throughout the summer. Therefore it is possible that a person will press his figs and put them into a barrel, and weeks later bring another batch and add it to that same barrel. The question is whether the second batch is relevant to the processing of the first batch, or whether the two are independent of one another.
The practical difference: if the second batch matters for the pressing of the first batch, then placing the first batch in does not count as completion of work, since it is still waiting for the second batch, and therefore the batch at the bottom has not yet reached completion of work. But if the second batch has no bearing on the first, then packing the first batch alone is enough to be considered completion of work, and it becomes forbidden as soon as it is put in there, and casual eating is prohibited.
The Case in the Mishnah:
The Mishnah illustrates this with the case of "hayah dash b'chavis u'me'agel b'megurah" - he pressed a batch of dried figs into the barrel or arranged them in the storehouse, and before he brought in the second batch the barrel broke or the storehouse opened up and the figs spilled out. May one still eat from them casually?
Tanna kamma: "lo yochal meihem arai" - the completion of work has already taken place, since he packed them into the barrel or brought them into the storehouse.
Rabbi Yosei permits: since filling the barrel or the storehouse to the top is an inseparable part of processing the figs, and this barrel was not filled before it split open, no completion of work took place in it, and casual eating remains permitted until the entire vessel is filled with pressed dried figs.
The Halachah:
The Bartenura follows the Rambam and rules that the halachah is not like Rabbi Yosei, but like the tanna kamma - casual eating is forbidden, even if the vessel was not filled to the top with dried figs. However, many other commentators take the opposite approach, based on the Yerushalmi, and rule like Rabbi Yosei: as long as the vessel holding the dried figs has not been filled, they have not reached completion of work.