of the land.

8. The school of Shammai say, "a man must not sell a ploughing heifer on
the Sabbatical year"; but the school of Hillel allow it, "because the
buyer may slaughter her." He may sell fruits in the time of sowing, and
may lend another man his measure, even if he know that the other man have
a threshing-floor, and he may change money for him, even if he know that
he have laborers. But if it be openly declared, all is forbidden.

9. A woman may lend to her companion on the Sabbatical year, even when she
is suspicious, a flour-sieve or a grain-sieve, and a hand-mill and an
oven; but she is neither to pick the wheat nor grind it with her. A woman
of a special religious society may lend to the wife(61) of an ordinary man
a flour-sieve, or a grain-sieve, and may pick wheat, or grind it, or sift
it, with her. But when she (the wife of an ordinary man) pours in the
water, she (a woman of a special religious society) must not touch the
flour (to knead it) with her, lest she strengthen the hands of a
transgressor. And all these things were not said save for the sake of
peace. And we may strengthen the hands of idolaters in the Sabbatical
year, but not the hands of Israel; and in salutation we may ask after
their peace, for the sake of peace.

Chapter VI

1. Three countries (are included) in the laws of the Sabbatical year. In
all the possessions of those who returned from Babylon--from the (border)
of the land of Israel and to Cezib,(62) we may not eat cultivated fruit,
and we may not cultivate the ground. And in all the possessions of those
who came up from Egypt from Cezib, and to the river of Egypt, and to the
Amana,(63) we may eat cultivated fruits, but we may not cultivate the
ground. From the river of Egypt, and from the Amana to the interior, we
may eat the fruits and cultivate the ground.

2. Men may labor in that which is separated from the ground in Syria, but
not in that which is attached to the ground. They may thresh, and shovel,
and tread out, and make sheaves, but they must not reap the grain nor
glean the grapes, nor beat the olives. This is the rule; said Rabbi Akiba,
"all things similar to that which is allowed in the land of Israel, men
may do in Syria."

3. "Onions upon which fell rain and they sprouted?" "If the leaves on them
be dark, they are forbidden; if green, they are allowed." Rabbi Chanina,
the son of Antigonus, said, "if they can be pulled up by their leaves they
are forbidden