Kommentar zu Demai 7:1

המזמין את חבירו. אומר מע"ש – and where he stipulated/make a condition from the eve of the Sabbath (i.e., Friday), it is permitted to separate tithes but if he didn’t stipulate [from the eve of the Sabbath], it is forbidden, for it is taught in the Mishnah [Tractate Shabbat, Chapter 2, Mishnah 7]: “if it is a matter of whether or not it is getting dark, they do tithe what is doubtfully tithed produce,” but if it is definitely dark, they do not. But here we are speaking when his fellow invited him and did not lodge him, for if he did lodge him, it states above in Chapter Four [Mishnah 2]: “He eats with him on the first Shabbat, even though he doesn’t believe him regarding tithing.” Alternatively, there, [it refers to] a young man who married a virgin, and here on the rest of the Sabbaths.

Introduction This mishnah provides a way for a person who does tithe to eat on Shabbat with a friend who does not tithe. The problem is that it is forbidden to tithe on Shabbat, so the one who does tithe will have to tithe on Friday the produce that he will eat on the next day.

הרי הוא מעשר – but the Great Tithe/Terumah Gedolah (i.e., the 1/50th for the Kohen) he does not have to separate out for those who do not observe certain religious customs regarding tithes and Levitical cleanness (i.e., the עם הארץ) are not suspected regarded it [as they do tithe it – for failure to so invokes the death penalty], as we explained in Chapter 1 (see Mishnah 3), but on one out of one-hundred that he separates on the morrow, he says: “Behold this is First Tithe,” and the rest of the tithe which is nine [parts] that he is still liable for in order that there will be ten out of one-hundred, he measures for him the one and afterwards says: “this is the one that I made for [First] Tithe at first, it is made for the heave-offering of the tithe on the nine [parts] that are near it.

One who invites his friend [before Shabbat] to eat with him [on Shabbat], and [his friend] does not trust him in respect of tithes, [the friend] may say on the eve of Shabbat, “What I will set apart tomorrow, behold it shall be tithe, and what is nearest to it shall be the rest of the tithe. That which I made tithe will become the terumah of the tithe for the whole, and the second tithe is to the north or to the south and it shall be exchanged for money.” What the friend who tithes must do is separate on Friday the tithes from the food that he will eat on Shabbat at his friend’s home. We should note that he is separating tithes from demai, doubtfully tithed produce and not from “tevel” certainly untithed produce. This procedure would not work with tevel. Furthermore, since this is demai, he need not separate terumah because ame haaretz were not suspected of not separating terumah. The first thing he does is declare that 1/100 of the food will be tithe, along with the other 9/100 that are adjacent to it. This makes 10/100 of the food tithe, as is required. The first 1/100 is then declared to be terumah for the tithe. Finally he declares that the second tithe is adjacent to the first tithe, either to the north or to the south. The second tithe he then declares redeemed for money. On the next day he can now eat all of the food served to him, except for the part that he made into terumat maaser. He can eat the tithe because the food served to him was only demai, and as we have explained, tithes taken from demai may be eaten by their owner. He may eat the second tithe because he redeemed it for money.

מעשר שני – will be to its north or to its south, and will be redeemed with the coinage, and it is found that on the morrow, there is no need to separate tithe, other than the heave-offering of the tithe alone, and he eats and drinks the rest.