We continue our study of Maseches Orlah, chapter 3, and before us is Mishnah 6. The Mishnah deals with the law of bundles of fenugreek that grew in the forbidden mixture of kilei hakerem, and with the question of their status when they became mixed with permitted bundles.
The words of the Mishnah:
"Mi shehayu lo chavilei tiltan shel kilei hakerem - yidaleku" - one who had bundles of fenugreek of kilei hakerem, they must be burned. Fenugreek (tiltan) is generally used as animal fodder, although at times it can also be used as human food. When it was sown in the forbidden mixture of kilei hakerem it becomes forbidden to derive any benefit from it, and this is its law: burning. It is not enough that it simply not be eaten; rather, since it belongs to the category of things forbidden in benefit - from which one may not derive any benefit at all - there is an obligation to burn it.
"Nisarvu ba'acherim - kulam yidaleku, divrei Rabbi Meir" - if they became mixed with others, all of them must be burned, these are the words of Rabbi Meir. If the bundles of fenugreek of kilei hakerem became mixed with other bundles of fenugreek that are not kilei hakerem, Rabbi Meir holds that the entire mixture requires burning. And it makes no difference how large the forbidden quantity that became mixed in was; even if it is nullified by far more than one in two hundred, everything is burned.
Rabbi Meir's reasoning:
Everything depends on the fact that the forbidden item is found within a bundle. The Yerushalmi teaches us that a bundle consists of at least twenty five stalks, and when dealing with a bundle of that size, the way it is sold is not by weight but by count: one bundle, two bundles, three bundles. And Rabbi Meir holds, as we will see in the next Mishnah, that anything whose manner is to be sold by count and not by weight has great importance, and therefore it is not nullified in a mixture.
"Vachachamim omrim: ya'alu b'echad umasayim" - and the Sages say: they are nullified in one out of two hundred. The Sages disagree with Rabbi Meir and hold that these bundles do not possess an importance that prevents nullification, and therefore their law is like that of any mixture: they are nullified and are neutralized in one out of two hundred.
In summary: bundles of fenugreek of kilei hakerem are among the things forbidden in benefit, and their law is burning. The Tannaim disagree about a case where they became mixed with permitted bundles: according to Rabbi Meir, since bundles are sold by count (and a bundle is at least twenty five stalks, as the Yerushalmi states), they are not nullified at all, and the entire mixture is burned; and according to the Sages they do not possess this importance, and they are neutralized in one out of two hundred.
In the next Mishnah we will examine at length Rabbi Meir's position regarding an item sold by count and the rule that it is not nullified in a mixture.