The prohibition on orlah fruit (lit. "uncircumcised" fruit) is a command found in the Bible not to eat fruit produced by a tree during the first three years after planting. In rabbinical writings, the orlah prohibition (Hebrew: איסור ערלה) is counted as one of the negative commandments among the 613 commandments. Outside of the land of Israel the prohibition also applies to a certain degree. Etymology The Hebrew word orlah literally means "uncircumcised". The use of this term is explained by Shlomo Ephraim Luntschitz as meaning "hidden and sealed" and it alludes to the creation itself. Context Commentators generally assume that the law was good agricultural practice, and that early harvesting would conflict with careful cultivation and pruning during the first three years in order to insure later good harvests and allow maturing of the trees. Grape vines produce fruit in three to six years, almond trees produce some flower buds in the fourth year and some fruit in the fifth, and sources from the Ancient Near East suggest that a good crop of dates was expected in the fourth year. In discussing the commandment that the fruit could not actually be eaten until the fifth year, Rooker (2000) notes that in the Code of Hammurabi a tenant-gardener could not eat of the fruit of an orchard until the fifth year, when he shared the produce with the owner. Rabbinical writings The Mishna stipulates that Orlah fruit must be burnt to guarantee that no one benefits from them, and even a garment dyed by way of pigment derived from Orlah is to be destroyed. The ancient custom in the Land of Israel was to mark the ground surrounding Orlah-plantings with crushed potsherds (), so as to signify that the fruit grown on the trees are forbidden to be eaten until after the first three years. The Sifra points out that the three year count begins on Rosh HaShana (the Jewish new year) and not "tree years" (the Jewish agricultural holiday of Tu Bishvat). Thus, the fruit of a tree only two years and 30 days old may not be considered forbidden. Outside of the land of Israel The Jerusalem Talmud stipulates that "safek orlah" (uncertainty if the product is indeed orlah) is permitted outside of the land of Israel. However, Rabbi Yochanan, in a letter sent to Rav Yehudah and quoted in the Babylonian Talmud, took a starkly stringent approach