literally FORESKIN, and by an extension the Torah uses for trees rather than people, THE OFF-LIMITS PERIOD of a fruit tree’s first years. Leviticus 19:23–25 (already on these pages) is the law itself: a newly planted tree’s fruit counts arelim, uncircumcised, off-limits, for three years; in the fourth year the whole crop is holy, a praise-offering to Jehovah; only in the fifth year may an owner actually EAT of it. Genesis 17:11 mints the literal sense on a person’s own flesh; this is the same root applied to a tree’s fruit, and the two together are the only two places in the Torah the word marks off something as not yet fit for ordinary use by an act of time rather than of blood. ⭐ Deuteronomy 20:6 assumes this law without naming it: the man exempted from battle for a vineyard he has not yet chalal—released to common use—is a man whose vines have not yet reached their fifth year. The verb and the noun name the two ends of the same waiting period. → first discussed at Lev 19:23