Study Avodah Zarah folio 45B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
And here, they disagree with regard to the status of a tree that one planted and only subsequently worshipped. The first tanna holds that a tree that one planted and subsequently worshipped is permitted, and R' Yosei HaGelili holds that a tree that one planted and subsequently worshipped is forbidde
The Talmud asks: From where does Rav Sheshet infer that R' Yosei HaGelili holds that such a tree is forbidden? It is from the fact that the Mishnah teaches in the last clause: For what reason is an ashera forbidden? It is because it is the product of human involvement and did not grow by itself, an
The Talmud notes: And R' Yosei, son of R' Yehuda, also holds that a tree that one planted and subsequently worshipped is forbidden. As it is taught in a baraita with regard to the verse: “You shall destroy all the places where the nations that you are to dispossess served their gods, upon the high m
Therefore, the next verse states: “And you shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and burn their asherim with fire” (Deuteronomy 12:3). Even a tree that was worshipped only after it was planted is forbidden.
Rather, if the trees themselves are forbidden, why do I need the phrase “under every leafy tree”? That phrase comes to teach a halakha in accordance with the opinion of R' Akiva; as R' Akiva says: I will explain and decide the matter before you. Everywhere that you find a high mountain, or an eleva