Up a Tree (I)

It is prohibited on Shabbos to disconnect any living thing from its life source.  Included in this is reaping wheat, plucking apples, and tearing a branch off a tree.  Among many Rabbinic prohibitions in this area, the Rabbis forbade climbing or using a tree on Shabbos.  They were concerned that one would pluck fruit from the tree with out thinking.  As is normally the case with Rabbinic decrees, they made a blanket decree that includes all trees.  A tree is defined as a vegetative growth attached to the ground that is somewhat stiff, or will become so.  The prohibition only applies to that part of the tree that is more than three tefachim (24 cm) above the ground.  (However some prohibit the use of all fruit trees, even if they are under three tefachim.)

There is a dispute in the gemara about a branch that comes out of the tree above three tefachim and then dips down to with in three tefachim.  Is it permitted to use the lower portion of the branch?  Rabbah rules that it is permitted and Rav Sheshes rules that it is prohibited.  Rabbah’s logic is that “anything within three [tefachim] of the ground is like ground”.  Rav Sheshes’s logic is that “since it grows from something that is prohibited, it is [also] prohibited”.