Cheshvan 5780 Issue no. 13

Emunat Itecha 125

Halachic responsa translated from the Emunat Itecha periodical:

A. Payment at the end of a fruit picking tourism event.
B. Planting a Yemenite etrog tree next to a lemon tree or an etrog tree of a different strain.
C. Using an aloe vera leaf to facilitate shoots taking root.

To read the responsa in English, click here.
To download the entire issue 125 of Emunat Itecha, click here.

Tu BiShevat Seder

We are currently working to improve our Tu BiShevat Seder, which we first put out last year together with the Center for Religious Affairs in the Diaspora, World Zionist Organization.

 

KBY Visits Torah VeHa'aretz Institute

Overseas students studying at KBY (Yeshivat Kerem B'Yavneh) came on a Friday for a tour of Torah VeHa'aretz Institute. After a lecture and a tour of the hothouses at Torah VeHa'aretz Institute, there was a workshop on taking terumot and ma'aserot. By the end of the workshop, each student separated terumot and ma'aserot; for some it was their first time ever performing the mitzvah. Thank you to Rabbi Zvi Davidson for organizing the tour.

Lectures and Workshops

Interested in a lecture about Tu BiShevat?
Invite us for a practical halachah class on the mitzvot that depend on the Land of Israel.

Q&A

Rabbi Yehuda HaLevy Amichay

Question: There is a guava tree in my apartment building’s shared courtyard (with 15 families). Every week I pick two to four fruits and take them home. Am I supposed to take terumot and ma’aserot from the guava with a blessing? If the tree was in a public playground, would its fruit also be subject to terumot and ma’aserot?

Answer: A tree in a shared courtyard, where there is an understanding that only those who live in the apartment building may eat the fruit, is considered private property. It follows that if you take at least two fruits, they are subject to terumot and ma’aserot with a blessing, along with all the other relevant halachot. This, of course, is as long as all the residents of building give their consent that any resident may partake of the fruit.

If anyone can pick fruit from trees in public playgrounds, however, these trees are considered ownerless (hefker), so they are not subject to terumot and ma’aserot.