PROPER HAFROSHAS TERUMAH: FIT TO BE TITHED?

Outline of the Beis HaVaad Parsha Shiur on Parshas Ki Savo

Given by Rav Yosef Jacobowitz

לא עברתי ממצותיך ולא שכחתי

“I did not transgress any of your mitzvos and I did not forget” (Devarim 26:13)

Rashi includes three halachos of teruma/maser in “transgressing your mitzvos”:

Not separating from:

  • one type of produce on another (min al she’eino mino)
  • the newer year’s produce on an older year’s produce (chadash al yashan)
  • produce detached from the ground on produce still growing in the ground (talush al hamechubar) and vice-versa

 

This seems to indicate they are really one halacha, with one fundamental principle, as we will see in the examples below.

Mishna (Terumos 1:5): One may not be mafrish (separate) from yashan on chadash or vice-versa.

  • Rash (and others): The source of this is from the words shana b’shana (Devarim 14:22), produce for each year must have tithes taken only from that year’s produce.
  • Rambam (Perush HaMishnayos): Source is from “vharemosem mimenu” (Bamidbar 18:26), “you shall raise from it,” the same min must be used, and produce from different years is apparently considered like different minim.
  • Gemara (Bechoros 53b): Kol chelev yitzhar v’chol chelev tirosh, etc. (Bamidbar 18:12), “all of the choice of the oil and all of the choice of the wine,” the repetition of chelev teaches that one cannot separate from one min on another.

How can the Rambam argue with the Gemara’s source of not separating for min al she’eino mino? 

Two possible answers:

  • The Gemara shows only that chelev, tirosh etc. are considered two different minim.
  • The source that one may not separate tithes from one min on a different min according to Rambam is the word mimenu. 

 

Rambam (Hilchos Terumos 5:2): One may not separate teruma from one min on another based on the pasuk “kadagan min hagoren vchameleah min hayakev” (Bamidbar 18:27), which mentions grains (goren) separately from wine (yakev).

  • Mahari Kurkos: Isn’t that also against the pasuk quoted by the Gemara above?
  • Perhaps they are considered different entities, but the source that min al eino mino is not valid is from the Rambam’s pasuk here (or the one quoted in the Perush HaMishnayos).