[Avodah] The daf yomi in Chulin 128a Tanaim hold the thekishus planted in an otsits sh???aino nakuf is yonaik min ha'aretz- is their botany different than ours?

[hankman]

RMB wrote:
> Who said "yoneiq min haaretz" is a scientific statement altogether?

> If the point of halakhah is to hone our souls (deveiqus or sheleimus),
> then what is relevent to it is not the scientific explanation of events,
> but the psychological one. How is the object or event perceived, or
> perceivable (if the person could have seen it, but didn't). Not how it is.

> Think of the words metzi'us or mamashus -- the world is as people
> experience it first-hand, not as how we can objectively deduce it is
> through tools and further reason.

As I wrote the last time we discussed science in the gemara (achbor)
this kind of answer leaves me unsatisfied. I would expect that the
gemara be scientifically correct as well unless we accept R. Slifkin's
premise which I used to assume myself prior to many gedolim banning his
books. Now I am simply conflicted whenever I encounter this issue.

RMB wrote:
> Thus, a pot with a hole in it isn't sufficiently separated from the
> ground *to be thought of* as distinct.

We are talking about an otsits shaino nakuf but the nof is leaning over
its edge.

RMB wrote:
> Besides, where does the vapor come from? At the height of an herb or
> vegetable, isn't most of it evaporating off the ground right below
> the branch?

I thought about that too, but I doubt it is the answer. I think most of
the water vapor is from the atmosphere mostly taken up over the oceans
and large bodies of water. There is precious little evaporation going
on over ordinary soil except perhaps immediately after a heavy rain and
this is not likely to sustain a plant. Furthermore I am not sure that
just water vapor would be considered a nutrient (I am not to sure about
this last point). Also if it is yoneik derech avir it mystifies me why
only if it is directly over the earth but not it the plant is just inside
the lip of the otsits. Air does not move in straight lines of site like
a light ray, but wafts about all over in eddies etc. and could get to
the plant even within the lip of the otsits and this would be recognized
even just psychologically by the hamon am of their day as well.

Kol Tuv
Chaim Manaster