Comentario sobre Terumot 9:4

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.