Commentary for Terumot 9:10

הזורע תרומה שוגג יופך - he ploughs and turns it over, in order that will not grow, and there is nothing in this.

Introduction This mishnah and the rest of the chapter deals with the issue of a person who planted terumah, which is prohibited. The problem with having planted terumah seeds is that the rabbis decreed that the plants that grow from the seeds will be terumah as well. This seems to have been a way of preventing a person from intentionally planting his terumah seeds.

ומזיד יקיים – since it was called by the designation of Terumah/heave-offering on the field, it would appear like losing the heave-offering.

He who plants terumah, if unwittingly, may overturn it, but if intentionally, he must allow it to remain. If one plants terumah accidentally, meaning he didn’t know that the seeds were terumah seeds, the mishnah is lenient and allows him to overturn the plants before they grow into terumah. This way he will be able to replant his field with regular, more lucrative plants (the price of terumah is lower than that of hullin). However, if he plants them intentionally, the mishnah penalizes him for having done so and he must allow them to remain and then he will have to treat the plants as terumah.

ואם הביאה שליש אפילו שוגג יקיים – because it is prohibited to destroy the Terumah/heave-offering.

If it had already grown a third of its full size, whether he had planted it unwittingly or intentionally, he must allow it to remain. The previous section referred to a situation where the plants had barely begun to grow. If they have already grown to 1/3 of their eventual size, then even if they were planted unintentionally, they must be allowed to remain because it is forbidden to actively destroy terumah. Before they grow to 1/3 of their size they are not treated as terumah, and therefore one can overturn them.

ובפשתן מזיד יופך – and even if it brought forth one-third, in order that the chips will not benefit, and he will think that the seed alone is what is Terumah/heave-offering and is prohibited. But the essence of the flax is because of the chips and not because of the seed.

But in the case of flax, even when planted intentionally he must overturn it. The exception to this rule is flax, which must be overturned when planted intentionally even when it has grown to over 1/3 of its eventual size. The reason is that the flax capsules which contain the flax seeds remain hullin. Since he will benefit from the use of these capsules, the rabbis penalized him for having planted terumah seeds in the first place. He shouldn’t receive any “hullin” benefit when what he planted was terumah. However, if he planted flax unintentionally, it is treated like all other plants and it may be overturned if it has not yet grown to 1/3 of its eventual size.

בדמי תרומה – that the growth of heave-offering is forbidden to foreigners (i.e., non-Kohanim).

Introduction This mishnah begins to deal with the rules that apply to a field that has been sewn with terumah seeds. As we stated before, the plants are now considered terumah, at least by decree of the rabbis.

לא ילקטו אלא עניי כהנים – for we suspect that when they glean it they will cast it into their mouths.

And it is subject to gleanings, the forgotten sheaf and peah. The agricultural gifts must be given from this field, just as they must be given from a normal field.

אם כן לא ילקטו אלא טהורים – because a ritually impure Kohen is prohibited with [consuming] Terumah/heave offering. And the Halakha is according to Rabbi Akiva.

Poor Israelites and poor priests may glean them, but the poor Israelites must sell theirs to priests for the price of terumah and the money becomes theirs. There is now a debate concerning who may take the gleanings, the sheaves that have fallen to the ground and must be left for the poor. According to the first opinion, both poor Israelites and poor priests may collect the gleanings. Poor Israelites will have to sell the gleanings to priests because these gleanings are treated like terumah and cannot be eaten by Israelites. However, the poor Israelites can keep the money for themselves because the gleanings did belong to them, unlike terumah which one separates from one’s produce which must be given free to the priest.

Rabbi Tarfon says: only poor priests may glean them, lest [the others] forget and put it into their mouths. Rabbi Tarfon holds that poor Israelites cannot collect these gleanings lest they forget that they are terumah and they eat them themselves. Since poor people are not used to treating their gleanings like terumah, it would indeed seem likely that this would be a problem.

Rabbi Akiva said to him: if that be so, then only those who are clean should be allowed to glean. Rabbi Akiva points out that if we are concerned lest people forget that the usual rules of gleanings don’t apply here, then even poor priests shouldn’t collect. Generally, anybody can collect terumah, even people who are impure. However, if the person was impure when collecting the terumah, he would cause the terumah to become impure, thereby rendering it forbidden for consumption. So according to Rabbi Tarfon’s logic, even poor priests shouldn’t collect the gleanings lest they forget that the gleanings are terumah and they defile them. Rabbi Akiva seems to say that just as we let poor priests collect, and we are not concerned lest they be impure, so too we should let poor Israelites collect and not be concerned lest they eat the gleanings themselves.

וחייבת במעשרות – First Tithe and Second [Tithe], and the same law applies with heave-offering/Terumah.

Introduction This mishnah continues to discuss how to deal with a field that has been planted with terumah seeds.

ובמעשר עני – if it is the third year or the sixth year of the Shmittah (the seven year agricultural cycle), when the Poor Man’s Tithe is practiced on them.

And it is also subject to tithes and poor man’s tithe. As stated above, this field is subject to the usual agricultural offerings.

החובט – growth of these heave-offerings with a staffs, behold this is praiseworthy , in order that he won’t need to muzzle the cattle that threshes it, for it is prohibited to allow her to eat with heave-offering if she is not the cow of a Kohen.

Both Israelites and priests that are poor may accept them, but the poor Israelites must sell that which is theirs to the priest for the price of terumah and the money belongs to them. This opinion seems to match that which we saw in section two of yesterday’s mishnah. Even a poor Israelite, or in the case of tithes, a Levite, may accept these gifts, but they must then sell them to a priest because they are terumah and a non-priest cannot eat them.

כפיפות – baskets.

He who beats the grain with sticks [instead of threashing with an animal] is to be praised. Normally, threshing is done by having an animal walk on the grain. The problem is that the animal will eat the grain and the animal is not allowed to eat terumah. The only exception is a beast that belongs to a priest that beast can eat grain that was intended to be used as animal fodder. The person cannot muzzle the animal because the Torah prohibits one from muzzling an animal while it is threshing (Deuteronomy 25:4). The best solution would be to beat the grain with sticks and not use an animal at all. One who does so is to be praised.

מאותו המין – of unconsecrated produce, if it is wheat, wheat, and if it barley, barley.

But he who threshes it [by having an animal walk on it] what should he do? He must suspend baskets from the neck of the animal and place in them from the same kind, with the result that he will neither muzzle the animal nor feed it terumah. If the person still wants to thresh by the traditional method of using an animal, he should suspend baskets from the animal’s neck that contain the same type of grain that the animal is threshing. This way it won’t want to eat the grain it is threshing because it can eat the same grain even more easily from the basket. In this way he prevents both problems the animal is not muzzled and it doesn’t eat terumah.

נמצא לא זומם – meaning to say, he does not muzzle (by complying with the Torah law in Deuteronomy 25:4) and place a muzzle in its mouth, for behold it eats from the same species.

ולא מאכילה תרומה – in the basket, it is of unconsecrated produce that is supending by its neck that she consumes.

גדולי תרומה תרומה – from the Rabbis the Rabbis made an ordinance because of ritually impure heave-offering in the hand of a Kohen, just as that it should not be delayed/tarried with him until the time of sowing in order to sow it, and it comes to a stumbling block/snare, and because of this, they decreed that growth of heave-offering is like heave offering.

Introduction Our mishnah distinguishes between plants that grow from terumah and plants that grow from various other agricultural offerings.

וגדולי גדולין חולין – he did not go back and sow that growth, its growth would be unconsecrated produce.

What grows from terumah is terumah, but that which grows from growths [of terumah] is hullin. As we have learned, plants that grow from terumah seeds are considered to be terumah. This is because the rabbis punished the person who planted the seeds and dictated that the new plants would be terumah as well. According to the Talmud, the reason for this punishment is that the rabbis feared that a priest would keep the seeds until it was time for planting and that he would defile them by keeping them for so long. However, if these plants have seeds and then they are planted, the new plants are not considered terumah. The rabbis did not punish him in this case, because the status of the seeds was only “terumah derabanan.”

הטבל – its growth is unconsecrated produce because the majority of it is unconsecrated produce.

As for untithed produce, first tithe, after-growths from the sabbatical year, terumah grown outside the land, mixtures of hullin with terumah ( and first-fruits what grows from them is hullin. In contrast with the case, the rabbis did not rule that plants that grow from other various types of agricultural offerings would retain their status. We shall see some qualifications of this rule below in mishnah six. The rabbis seem to have been stricter with terumah because it is strictly forbidden to non-priests and it is forbidden to cause terumah to become impure.

ומעשר ראשון – also because its majority is unconsecrated produce.

What grows from dedicated produce and second tithe is hullin and it is to be redeemed [at its value] at the time when it was sown. Dedicated produce and hullin are usually redeemed for money. The money becomes holy and is either given to the Temple, in the case of dedicated produce, or used to buy food in Jerusalem, in the case of second tithe. If a person plants seeds that come from dedicated produce or second tithes, the plants that grow from them are hullin, but he must redeem the new plants according to the value of the seeds that he used to plant them. In other words, when the mishnah says that they are hullin, what it means is that the plants themselves are not treated as if they were holy and need to be redeemed, but that one must still exchange money for the value of the seeds that he used.

וספיחי שביעית – because they are not found and are not practiced in every year.

ותרומת חוץ לארץ – also because it is not found.

המדומע – that its majority is unconsecrated produce.

ובכורים – that are not found [that are] practiced other than with the seven species (i.e., wheat, barley, pomegranate, [grape] vines, figs, olives and date honey – see Deuteronomy 8:8).

גדולי הקדש ומעשר שני חולין – that if he sowed from them one Seah and added several Seah, it is unconsecrated produce. Even with something where its seed does not disintegrate..

ופודה אותם בזמן זרעם – he redeems all the storehouse with the value of that Seah.

מאה לגנה של תרומה – a field that was sown with garden beds and there are one hundred garden beds of heave offering and one of unconsecrated produce and it is not known which of these is of unconsecrated produce.

Introduction Our mishnah and the following mishnah distinguish between two types of plants: those whose seeds disintegrate in the soil and those whose seeds do not.

כולן מותרים – it is a leniency that they (i.e., the Rabbis) made with regard to the growth of heave-offering that one garden bed of unconsecrated produce is permits many garden beds with something where its seed has disintegrated.

If a hundred rows were planted with terumah seeds and one with hullin, they all are permitted, if they are of a kind whose seed disintegrates in the soil. If the seed of the plant disintegrates in the soil then the rabbis were especially lenient and allowed one to treat as hullin a case where 100 rows were planted with terumah and one with hullin. Meaning a mixture is permitted even if only a very small percentage is grown from hullin. This leniency is possible because the plants that grow from terumah seeds are not terumah “deoraita” from Torah law.

אבל בדבר שאין זרעו כלה – one [garden-bed] of heave-offering prohibits one-hundred of unconsecrated produce, because the land does not neutralize with one and one-hundred.

But if they are of a kind whose seed does not disintegrate in the soil, then even if there be a hundred [rows] of hullin and one of terumah, they all are prohibited. This is the flipside to the previous section. If it is a type of plant whose seed does not disintegrate, then even if there are one hundred rows of hullin and one of terumah, they all must be treated as terumah. This is because the rule that terumah is nullified in a 100-1 ratio does not apply when the terumah is still attached to the ground.

הטבל גדוליו מותרים – with an incidental meal, when he ate [he needs to say, like the rest] of the eatables forbidden to be consumed pending the separation of sacred gifts, that their work was not completed.

Introduction This mishnah continues to deal with the difference between plants whose seeds disintegrate in the soil and plants whose seeds do not.

בדבר שזרעו כלה – now the Tanna/teacher explains this matter that is taught in the Mishnah above (Mishnah 8), that eatables forbidden to be consumed pending the separation of sacred gifts, its growths are unconsecrated produce and they would not be so other than with something where its seed disintegrated.

As for untithed produce, what grows from it is permissible if of a kind whose seed disintegrates [in the soil]. If one plants seeds that come from untithed produce, and it is a type of plant whose seed disintegrates in the soil, then the plant that grows from the seeds is “permitted.” What this in actuality means is that this plant is treated like all other plants as far as the issue of tithing. One can eat from the fruit before it becomes liable for tithes, which usually occurs when one finishes processing the grain by making it into a pile. We shall discuss in great detail when produce becomes liable for tithes in tractate Maasrot.

אבל בדבר שאין זרעו כלה – meaning to say the garlic is considered that its seed disintegrates like the barley, and it (i.e., the Mishnah) took “barley” because there is nothing in the grains where its seed disintegrates and is lost quickly like barley. Another explanation: the garlic which is large like barley, its seed does not disintegrate, but less than the equivalent of a barley seed, its seed disintegrates. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yehuda.

But if of a kind whose seed does not disintegrate, then even what grows from plants which grew out of it are forbidden. However, if the seed does not disintegrate in the soil then it must be treated like untithed produce even before the new fruit would normally become liable for tithes. Because the seed was liable for being tithed before it was planted, and the seed was still there, one will in all cases have to tithe this produce before it is eaten, even if it is eaten out in the field, where one can usually eat food without tithing it. The mishnah is quite strict on this issue and rules that this rule applies not only to the plants that grow from the original seeds, but the next generation of plants as well. It seems that the mishnah can be extra strict in this case because the result of their being untithed is not so drastic all he has to do is tithe them a bit earlier than normal.

Which is the kind whose seed does not disintegrate? Like luf, garlic and onions. Rabbi Judah says: garlic is like barley. The type of produce whose seed does not disintegrate in the soil seems to be bulbous vegetables, such as luf (arum, a type of onion), onions and garlic. Grain is a type of produce whose seed does disintegrate in the soil. Rabbi Judah holds that garlic is like barley and that its seed does disintegrate in the soil.

המנכש – tears out bad grasses that grow amindst the grain and the vegetables.

He who weeds allium plants (whose seeds do not for a Gentile, even though the produce is untithed he eat from them in a casual fashion. Allium are plants whose seed remains in the soil. The mishnah discusses a situation where a Jew is working in a field owned by a Gentile but they are in the land of Israel. The plants that grow in such a field must be tithed before a Jew eats them. If the Jew had planted this field with untithed allium plants, he would not be allowed to eat them from even in a casual fashion until he had tithed them. However, since the Jew is working in the Gentile’s field and the Gentile planted them, the rabbis were lenient and allowed him to eat from them in a casual fashion before he had tithed them.

בחסיות – such as garlic and LOF (plants similar to colccasia, with edible leaves and root, and hearing beans – classified with onions and garlic) and onions and leek-green plants, all of these are called חסיות/leeks.

Saplings of terumah which had become unclean and were re-planted, become clean from their uncleanness. Saplings are parts of plants that are cut off and then replanted elsewhere to make them grow stronger. In this case the saplings were cut off and then became impure. By planting them again they lose their impurity because plants attached to the ground cannot be impure.

אע"פ שפרירותיו – of the idolater are eatables forbidden to be eaten pending the separation of sacred gifts, for this Tanna holds that there is no acquisition for an idolater in the Land of Israel to release him from the obligation for tithing, and the growth of eatables forbidden to be eaten pending the separation of sacred gifts is eatables forbidden to be consumed pending the separation of sacred gifts like something where the seed does not disintegrate, nevertheless, he eats from them an incidental meal.

But they must not be eaten until the edible part [of the stalk] has been lopped off. Rabbi Judah says: he must [before eating] lop off a second time that which grew on the edible part. Nevertheless, when they replant them they must lop off the edible part of the plant because that part should not be eaten at all, even by priests. The rabbis were strict with regard to the edible parts and continued to treat them as impure terumah which cannot be eaten. The new fruit that grows back will be pure and can be eaten by priests. Rabbi Judah rules more stringently and says that he must lop off twice before he can eat.

שתילי תרומה – as, for example, saplings of cabbage and a species of beets. שנטמאו ושתלו טהרו מלטמא – and since they were attached/fastened to the ground, they became neutralized from he law of food. And if you should say that since the essence of the decree that the growth of heave-offering is like heave-offering, it is not other than because ritually impure heave-offering is in the hand of the Kohen, perhaps he will tarry near it and will become a stumbling block regarding him. Yet, since he purified it, he tarries with it. And one can say that heave-offering that is sold at a greatly cheapened price because it is not appropriate other than for ritually pure Kohanim and if it is defiled, it requires burning. Therefore, even if they would give heave-offering to a Kohen in order to sow it, he would [you must say “lose”] from abolishing his field. But if they were the growths of unconsecrated produce, he would detain the ritually impure heave-offering in order to sow it.

ואסורים לאכול – it is a mere preference.

עד שיגום האוכל – cut all that is appropriate for eating, and what will grow afterwards will be permitted.

עד שיגום וישנה – he will cutg what that grew also a second time, and and what that would grow from the second time onwards will be permitted. But the Halakha is not according to Rabbi Yehuda.