Kommentar zu Demai 5:5
הַלּוֹקֵח מִן הֶעָנִי, וְכֵן הֶעָנִי שֶׁנָּתְנוּ לוֹ פְרוּסוֹת פַּת אוֹ פִלְחֵי דְבֵלָה, מְעַשֵּׂר מִכָּל אֶחָד וְאֶחָד. וּבִתְמָרִים וּבִגְרוֹגָרוֹת, בּוֹלֵל וְנוֹטֵל. אָמַר רַבִּי יְהוּדָה, אֵימָתַי, בִּזְמַן שֶׁהַמַּתָּנָה מְרֻבָּה, אֲבָל בִּזְמַן שֶׁהַמַּתָּנָה מֻעֶטֶת, מְעַשֵּׂר מִכָּל אֶחָד וְאֶחָד:
In Bezug auf jemanden, der von einer armen Person kauft, und für eine arme Person, der Brotstücke oder Scheiben Feigenrunden gegeben werden, gibt er von jedem den Zehnten. Aber für Datteln und getrocknete Feigen kann er sie mischen und [den Zehnten aus der Mischung] nehmen. Rabbi Yehuda sagt: Wann [ist das der Fall]? Wenn das Geschenk eine große Menge ist; aber wenn das Geschenk eine kleine Menge ist, muss er jeden einzeln zehnten.
Bartenura on Mishnah Demai
הלוקח מן העני – going around begging at the doors.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Demai
Introduction
This mishnah deals with buying produce from a poor person who goes begging from door to door. The problem is that he may receive his food from many different people, some of whom may have tithed and some who do not. As we have stated before, one cannot separate tithes from food that has already been tithed in order to exempt food that has not been tithed.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Demai
פלחי דבילה – pieces of cakes of pressed figs.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Demai
One who buys from a poor man, and similarly a poor man to whom they given slices of bread or pieces of fig-cake, he must tithe every piece. One who buys from a poor man must be concerned lest every single piece of bread that he gets originates from a different person, and that some of it may have already been tithed. Therefore, he must tithe each slice of bread separately. The same is true, the mishnah notes, for the poor man himself. When he goes begging and receives slices of bread from various people who may themselves not separate tithes, he must separate tithes from each slice of bread separately.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Demai
בולל ונוטל – stamping on the dates or the dried-figs and combining them together and they are mixed and combined and it is found that he separates for tithing from that which is obligatory for he holds that there is a mixture in something dry. But slices of bread or pieces of fig-cake are not mixed and he comes to separate tithes from that which is exempt for that which is liable [for tithing].
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English Explanation of Mishnah Demai
But in the case of dates and dried figs he may mix them together and take [the tithes from the mixture]. The rabbis were lenient in the case of dates and dried figs because separating tithes from each and every one separately would be a rather large difficulty. Since this is only demai, there is room to be lenient.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Demai
שהמתנה מרובה – at the time when all give a large gift, that all of the gifts are equivalent, then the mixture is effective.
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English Explanation of Mishnah Demai
Rabbi Judah said: When is this so? When the amount [of dates or dried figs] given to the poor man was large; but when the amount was small, he must tithe each separately. Rabbi Judah limits this leniency to a case where the poor person received a large amount of dates or figs. In such a case it would truly be a hardship to separate from each date or fig separately. However, if there was not a large amount, the rabbis insisted that he tithe each fig or date separately. In other words, they were only lenient when tithing from each separately would have caused a lot of extra hassle.
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Bartenura on Mishnah Demai
אבל בזמן ש המתנה מועטת – that is to say, one gift is smaller than its neighbor or is not mixed well, for perhaps not all of them had separated his priestly gifts and we are suspect that perhaps he is separating tithes from the majority for the minority. So appears the explanation of this Mishnah in the Jerusalem Talmud.
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