Kil'ayim (tractate)


Kil'ayim is the fourth tractate of Seder Zeraim of the Mishnah, dealing with several biblical prohibitions of mixed species, namely, planting certain mixtures of seeds, grafting different species of trees together, growing plants other than grapevines in vineyards, crossbreeding animals, working a team of different kinds of animals together, and mixing wool and linen in garments.
The prohibitions are derived from the Torah in and.
Like most tractates in the order of Zeraim, it appears in the Mishnah, the Jerusalem Talmud and the Tosefta only; there is no Babylonian Talmud for this tractate.

Subject matter

This tractate concerns the laws regarding various types of mixtures of agricultural products that are forbidden according to the Torah, in accordance with and. Specifically, the Mishnah deals with the exact definition of the following categories of prohibitions:
The types of seeds determined to be included within this category are the five species of grain of the Land of Israel,, legumes, and greens whose roots or stalks are consumed by humans. Since the vineyard is particularly specified in the Deuteronomy passage, it is treated specifically. The prohibitions concern domestic animals; wild animals and birds are not mentioned in this tractate, but the Mishnah in Bava Kamma notes these cases.
The laws are derived from a relatively straightforward reading of the Torah, and the details discussed in the tractate are deduced through logic, analogies with other areas of law, or by application of the general rules to specific objects and situations.
Because the prohibitions only apply to the mixing of distinct species, but not to variants of a single species, the tractate contends with the botanical or biological classifications of seeds, trees or animals, from the standpoint of establishing which are or are not separate species.
Since the prohibition in the vineyard is spelled out in the Torah, along with an explicit warning “lest the fruit of your seed which you have sown, and the fruit of your vineyard, be defiled,” it is treated more stringently, and the produce of such a mixture does not become permitted after the fact, as would occur in the case of mixed seeds.
The Jerusalem Talmud, in addition to its commentary on the laws cited in the Mishnah and Tosefta, contains Aggadah, with biographical stories about Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi and his contemporaries, another version of which also appears in the Babylonian Talmud.

Structure

The tractate comprises nine chapters and 77 paragraphs. It has a Gemara – rabbinical analysis of and commentary on the Mishnah – in the Jerusalem Talmud; there is also a Tosefta for this tractate.
Kil’ayim is the fourth tractate in the order Zera'im, after Demai and before Shevi'it. In medieval genizah fragments of the Mishnah, in the Vienna manuscript, and in printed editions of the Tosefta, however, it is sixth, coming after Terumot and Shevi'it and this position follows the general principle that the tractates are arranged in descending order according to the number of their chapters.
In the Tosefta, Kil’ayim appears as the sixth tractate, and is divided into five chapters.
There is no Gemara in the Babylonian Talmud for this tractate, or indeed for any of the tractates of this order of the Mishna, other than tractate Berakhot, as the laws related to agriculture that they mostly discuss generally have no practical application outside of the Land of Israel.
The topics of the chapters are as follows:
The sages cited in Mishnah Kil’ayim cover all the generations of tannaitic activity, from Rabbi Eliezer ben Jacob who lived during the Second Temple period through the second generation of Tannaim including Rabbi Tarfon, Rabbi Eliezer ben Hurcanus, Rabbi Joshua ben Hananiah, and Rabbi Ishmael, to the scholars of Yavne, Rabbi Akiva and his principal disciples, Rabbi Meir, Rabbi Judah bar Ilai, Rabbi Jose ben Halafta, and Rabbi Simeon bar Yochai.
More than 60 species of plants are named in this tractate and more are mentioned in the Tosefta and the Jerusalem Talmud. Many of the mishnayot discuss the methods of plowing and sowing and care of field crops, fruit trees, and especially vines. Hence this tractate is an important source for understanding agriculture, horticulture and viticulture in ancient Israel.

Commentaries

Medieval commentaries on this tractate include the following:
In modern times, the following have been published:
Works that are of assistance interpreting the many botanical references in the tractate include:
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