Commentary for Challah 4:5

ר"ע פוטר – He follows his line of reasoning that it goes back and becomes Hallah retroactively.

Introduction This mishnah is a continuation of yesterday’s mishnah. It continues to discuss a situation where a person separated hallah from dough that was smaller than the minimum measure.

נמצא חומרו קולו – the stringency of Rabbi Akiba who said above (Mishnah 4) that when he takes Hallah from one Kab that becomes Hallah and has become sanctified, causes him to be lenient and to exempt with two Kabim when he took his Hallah from this [Kab] on its own and that [Kab] on its own.

Two [separate] kavs [of dough], this one had its hallah removed on its own, and this one had its hallah removed on its own, and then he went back and made of them one dough: Rabbi Akiva exempts; But the sages make it liable. There were two separate kavs of dough, and the owner took hallah out of each of them even though both were exempt because they were not of sufficient quantity to be liable. In yesterday’s mishnah we learned that according to Rabbi Akiva that which he removed and called hallah is actually hallah, whereas the other sages hold that it is not. So to Rabbi Akiva, both batches are considered dough whose hallah has been removed, whereas the other sages would hold that no hallah has been removed from these two. After having separated hallah from the two batches he now goes and makes one batch of dough out of them. Now the dough is large enough to be liable for hallah. Rabbi Akiva says that since hallah has already been removed, the mixture of the two batches is not liable for hallah. The sages hold that the dough he separated from the batches when they were separate is not considered hallah and hence “hallah” has never really been taken out of this dough. Therefore, he has to separate hallah from the mixed batch.

It turns out that the stringency of his [first] ruling leads to the leniency of his other ruling. The rabbis love paradoxes, or at least surprising twists of halakhah. In this case, the stringency of Rabbi Akiva in the previous mishnah, that he considers that which was separated to be hallah, leads to the leniency in today’s mishnah the mixed batch is exempt. The opposite could be said about the other rabbis their leniency in yesterday’s mishnah, that which was separated is not considered hallah, leads to their stringency in today’s mishnah the mixed batch is liable. While this section doesn’t really add any information, it is the type of phenomenon that the Mishnah loves to pay attention to.