Commentaire sur Démaï 6:12

עם הארץ שאמר לחבר קח לי – as for example, that the member of the order for the observance of Levitical laws in daily intercourse (i.e., the חבר) was going to the market to purchase vegetables for himself and said to the person who does not observe certain religious customs regarding tithes and Levitical cleanness (i.e., an עם הארץ) said to him: “Buy for me also a bunch of vegetables and the member of the religious order for the observance of Levitical laws in daily intercourse took two undefined bunches – and did not explicitly state: “this one is for me, and that one is for the person who does not observe certain religious customs regarding tithes and Levitical cleanness, he is exempt from tithing that which he gives to the person who does not observe certain religious customs regarding tithes and Levitical cleanness, for there is a choice that when he gives it to the person who does not observe certain religious customs regarding tithes and Levitical cleanness, that is the one (i.e., the bunch) that he took initially for his own deeds, and that a person who is a member of the order for the observance of Levitical laws in daily intercourse does not exchange with what is his. Another explanation from the Jerusalem Talmud: A person who is an עם הארץ that said to a חבר: “Buy for me a bunch of vegetables and the seller is a חבר.” And he knows that the purchaser is buying for an עם הארץ and that the חבר did not purchase anting for himself, this bunch of vegetables is exempt from tithing of doubtfully tithed produce, for since the seller is a חבר and he knows that he (i.e., the purchaser who is a חבר) is buying for the needs of an עם הארץ , he doesn’t sell him unless he has tithed it, for this what we said above in Chapter Two [Mishnah 2] that is prohibited to sell to an עם הארץ unless he had tithed it first. But if the חבר purchased one for himself and one for the עם הארץ and hey became combined, he is required to tithe for perhaps what he sold him for himself was not tithed, for someone who sells to a חבר does not have to tithe and it is upon the purchaser to tithe, as we stated above in Chapter 2.

Introduction This mishnah deals with a chaver (a rabbinic associate) who is acting as an agent for an am haaretz. The question is: does the chaver have to tithe that which he buys for the am haaretz?

ואפילו הן מאה – even if one of his became combined with one-hundred of that belonging to the עם הארץ.

If an am haaretz said to a chaver, “Buy me a bundle of vegetables,” or: “Buy me a loaf of bread,” the chaver may buy it without checking [whether it had been tithed], and he is exempt [from tithing it]. In this case the chaver acts as the agent for the am haaretz and when he buys the produce, it never actually belongs to the chaver. He need not tithe the produce that he gives to the am haaretz nor does he need to check to see if the produce had been tithed because this is not a case of a chaver giving untithed produce to an am haaretz, rather it is treated as if the am haaretz bought it directly for himself.

גלוסקין – a nice loaf of bread.

But if the chaver said: “This one I am buying for myself and this one for my friend,” and they got mixed up, he must tithe [them both], even if there were one hundred [for the am haaretz.] However, if he declared that a certain part was for himself and a certain part for the am haaretz and then he mixed up the produce and no longer knew which of it was for the am haaretz and which for himself, he must tithe it all. The problem is that he might have given the am haaretz the portion that was his, and as we have learned throughout the tractate, it is forbidden to give an am haaretz untithed produce because it is known that he will not tithe it. This is true even if he bought one hundred times the amount for the am haaretz in other words, it is true even if tithing will cost him a significant amount of money.