Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] After going through all the laws to do with Trumas and Maisrus and Maisa, Rishon, Maisa Oni, Maisa Shayni, we now come to the very last tithe which is separated. And interestingly, this last one is very similar to the first tithe which is separated, namely truma. So the last one is called challah, and that's a portion of one's dough after he separated all the tithes from the grain when it was in grain form. So then he makes it into dough. And once it's dough, he needs to separate a gift called challah. And, and just like Truma, it goes to the kohen. And just like Truma, a non kohen is never allowed to eat challot, even with the kohen's permission. And just like Truma, the punishment for a non kohen who eats challah by mistake is that he has to pay back the value plus a chemesh, plus a fifth, as well as that it cannot become just like truma. And if it does become, then it still needs to be given to a kohen, but then the kohen has to burn it, although the kohen can still benefit from the burning, just like Truma. Now, now, another similarity between challah and truma is that midoraya, there is no fixed amount which you have to separate from the dough and give it to a kohen. Midoraisa, even if you just separate a tiny amount and you give it to a kohen, you fulfill your obligation. However, Midrabanon, it has to be a significant amount such that the Cohen would consider it a gift which he can actually gain from. And we'll see that in general, that amount is 1 24th of the dough. Sometimes it's half the amount. And we'll learn more about that later on in the Maserda.
[00:01:28] The obligation of challah only applies in Eretz Yisrael. The Torah explicitly says, when you come to Eretz Yisrael, then this mitzvah will apply. And in that way, it's the same as the rest of the tithes. However, the big difference between challah and the rest of the tithes is that Midorbannon Challah applies everywhere, even outside of Eretz Yisrael. Whenever you bake bread in an oven, one has to separate challah. And the main reason for this is so that the whole concept of challah doesn't get forgotten. Because if the Jewish people live outside of Eretz Yisrael for so many years, as they did end up doing so, if they would have never separated Challah from bread, then there was a danger that they would forget the whole concept of Challah. They would forget about the obligation. And even when they returned to Eretz Yisrael, they wouldn't separate Challah when they need to. So to prevent that happening, the jabbonim, it's an obligation everywhere. Now, according to most opinions, the obligation in Eretz Yisrael is only Midori sah if the majority of the Jewish people live in Eretz Israel. And therefore, according to those opinions, nowadays, the obligation of challah even inside of Eretz Yisrael is only Midrabanan. However, there are opinions who hold that even nowadays, despite the majority of the Jews not being inside of Eretz Yisrael, the obligation in Eretz Yisrael is mid orayasa. Be it as it may, the Torah's obligation of challah applies to lehem, to bread. Now, Halachic bread is only that which is baked from five main grains. And therefore five. Five things, five types of grain would make the bread obligated in Challah. And that is hachitim, wheat, vasa, oyim, barley, va, kusmin, spelt, v', shebula, shul and oats, va, shifrain and rai. These are the five primary grains. And only bread which is baked from one of these five grains, haraelu, khairamba, bhalla, would be obligated in Challah. Now, how exactly do we know that the word lechem bread only applies to these five main grains?
[00:03:19] The answer is it's learned from exer shova, from matzah. Exer shoba is where the same word appears in two different places in this context.
[00:03:28] And because of that, you're able to derive laws from matzah and apply them to Challah as well. So just like with regards to matzah, it has to be made from one of these five grains, as we'll see in the next Mishnah. So true, the same applies to Challah. Furthermore, we're going to learn in a couple of Mishnah's time that dough is only obligated in Challah if the whole dough itself is a minimum size one and a quarter kav. And the Mishra tells us that umitz tov and zaimzer, the different types of grains combine, meaning that if, let's say the dough made up one and a quarter kav, but inside the dough was wheat flour and barley flour, since they are all part of the same dough, we consider it one, and therefore it is obligated in Challah. Now, another Law which applies specifically to these five primary grains is the law of Chadosh. And that is that the crop which grew that year is forbidden to be eaten until Pesach, when the carbon omer is brought on the second day of Pesach, and only after that point are you allowed to eat the produce which grew that year. Now, that prohibition only applies to these five grains.
[00:04:32] So these five grains would be forbidden under the law of Chadosh before Pesach, before the carbon omer is brought on Pesach. And again, this is because the Torah uses the word when talking about the prohibition of chadosh, and it uses the same word with regards to matzah. So just like matzah has to be made from one of those five grains, so too chadosh only applies to those five grains.
[00:04:51] Now, as well as you not being able to eat the new produce before the common omer has been bought on Pesach, one is also not allowed to harvest the chodosh, the new produce, before that time. And therefore it is also forbidden to harvest those five grains which grew that year before the koben omer is bought on the second day of Pesach. Now, what exactly is considered that year's produce? So the Mishnah says any grain which took root so it was properly part of the ground and growing khidim al oymer before the carbon omer is bought, that year's oimer permits them. So you'll be allowed to harvest that produce and eat it whenever you like. The imlav. However, any produce which didn't take root before the omer was brought as soon as yavu hamer haba is forbidden to be harvested or eaten until the following year's koben oimer is brought up. So that means that new produce is any produce which took root after last year's koban, which is mishn beis. As we learned before, one who eats the size of an olive of matzah on the first night of Pesach, Yotzer DEI Chayvose has fulfilled his obligation of eating matzah on the first night of Pesach, and that is only if the matzah was made out of one of those five grains. And this is very much connected to the next halacha, which is kozais chometz. If somebody eats the size of an olive of chometz on Pesach, Chayev beyechores is liable to the punishment of qreis, which is when one dies early. And there are other aspects of the punishment too. Now, the reason why I say these two laws are connected is because the Torah's obligation of eating matzah is put in the same posse and right next to the prohibition of eating.
[00:06:28] And it's learned from there that only grain which can physically become, and that's only these five grains, only those grains can be used in order to fulfill your mitzvah of matzah. And then once we know that matzah can only be fulfilled with those five grains, we then apply that law to challah as well and chodosh, as we described in the previous Mishnah. Now, just like it's forbidden to eat chomets on Pesach, it's also forbidden to own chomets. In fact, it's even forbidden to own a mixture of chomets and other things which aren't chomets, if you have a drink or a cooked dish which is a mixture of chomets and something else that is also forbidden to own. And therefore the Mishnah says this.
[00:07:06] If one of these five grains gets mixed together with another species, another type of grain, somebody who owns that, hides it over by Pesach, transgresses an avera of owning that on Pesach. And in fact, he transgresses two averas, one of owning chomets, and the second aveyra is owning a mixture of chomets and something else. The Torah says that that's a separate avera to own something which is a mixture of chomets and something else as well. And the mishra is going to go on to something else which only applies to the five main grains. And that is, with regards to Nidorim, a need, there is a vow which somebody can make to prohibit himself from benefiting from something. And so hanadimu na pas umanatuvua, one who makes a need there against benefiting from bread, or tavua. Tavua literally means grain, and in the Torah, tavua can refer to many types of grains, not just these five primary grains. However, since when people talk about Tavuah and the way that people use the word Tavuah only refers to these five grains. So as rabohem, he would be forbidden to benefit from those five grains. And if he makes an aida against bread, he'll be forbidden to benefit from bread made from those five grains, but all other grains he would still be able to benefit from.
[00:08:14] That is the opinion from Meir, who holds that these are the two only terms which would refer specifically only to these five primary grains. Now, the chachom and the chachom Say hanadmina Dogon Onu makes a neither from Dogon, which literally means that which is piled up also would only be forbidden to benefit from those five primary grains, because that is what people generally refer to when they use the word doggon. However, contrary Meir, since dagon literally means that which is piled up, people, people also use it to refer to other grains, not just these five primary grains. And therefore, according to if somebody were to make a neither against Dogon, they wouldn't be able to benefit from any grain which is piled up, not just these five grains. And the Mishnah ends off with a sort of introduction to the next few mishnayes, and that is that these five grains are obligated in both, and they are also obligated in the tithes, the various gifts of one's produce which need to go to Kanem or Leviim, or poor people. So these five grains are obligated in both, and maestros mishn gimel. On the other hand, the following things are obligated in challah, but of Truman and maestros, they would be exempt from the rest of the tithes, such as truma, which goes to a Cohen, or my sirishim, which goes to a Levi. So what is on that list?
[00:09:31] This refers to individual stalks which are dropped at the time of the harvest. And there's a mitzvah that needs these need to be left for the poor, the hashika, these are bundles which are forgotten in the field, and again they need to be left for the poor.
[00:09:43] And the corner of the field at the edge of the field, which also needs to be left for the poor. So the reason why these are these are exempt from maestros is because the Torah says the reason why you give maestros to the Levi, for example, is because the Levi does not have a portion with you in the land, so he's missing out. So therefore you should give this to him to compensate. Now, that doesn't apply to lekat shikha and paya, because any poor person, even a Levi, as long as he is poor, is able to collect the lekat shikha paya. And therefore the Levi is not worse off than Yisra' El when it comes to these lekat shikhan paya. And therefore when a poor person collects the lekat chikhan paya, he does not need to tithe it and give anything to the Levi or the Kohen. Rather, he can eat it all himself without tithing it. However, these things are obligated in challah, and this is learned from a posse, which adds in extra words. And that teaches that there's an extra case where you're obligated, namely this case, the hefka produce, which grew when it was ownerless, so it grew by itself, no one owned it, and then somebody picked it off the ground and became the owner then. Now this produce is exempt from tides, because again, even a levy could have taken it from the ground since it was ownerless. However, it's obligated in challah, because by the time it was turned into dough, it was already owned by somebody. And the challah obligation is dependent on when it is dough. So even if it was ownerless when it grew, now it is owned by somebody, and therefore it is obligated in. Now the next one on the list is maceration, from which the trumus micer was taken. The halach is that a tenth of one's produce needs to go to a Levi, and that's considered my Sirishan. And then once the Levi receives that, he has to separate a tenth of that and give it to a kohen as trumas maisa. Now the halacha is that if a Levi received mycerition before the owner separated truma gedola from his produce, in general he separates truma first, and that goes to a Cohen. But if instead of doing that, he first gave the maceration to the Levi, that means that this mycerition still needs truma to be separated from it, and therefore the levy will also have to separate truma as well as the trumas meissa, and give that to a Cohen as well. However, there's an exception, and that is that if the lady receives the mysorition before the produce was even obligated in truma, meaning before the produce had been fully processed. So the halach is that he is exempt from truma gedairah, since that obligation never even started. Now he will be obligated in trumas meisser, because that anyway starts when the Levi receives it. So if he receives maceration, he always needs to give a tenth of that to a Cohen. But the truma obligation only applies to fully processed food, and therefore this lady will be exempt from paying that. So when the Mishra says he's exempt from tithes, that's referring to the tithe of truma. However, he is obligated in challah. Again, why? Because the obligation of challah begins once it's a dough, and the Levi makes it into a dough, and there's no reason to exempt him in that case, and therefore he is obligated in Challah. All right, next one on the list. Why is shaming the hek, the shanifdu, my, or produce, which belongs to the beis hamikdash, which are redeemed. Now, both my and hekdesh are exempt from tithes because they are not considered to be the owner's possession. They're considered to be the beis hamikdash or hashem's possession, as it were. And we're referring to a case where they were redeemed onto money, so their sanctity was transferred from the produce onto money, which means that the produce became regular produce. However, this only occurred after the produce became obligated in trumas and maestris, which means at the time of the obligation, the produce itself was my sashani or Hector, and therefore it was exempt from tithes because it's not their own possession. And the obligation of trimas and mystos is only on your own produce, but not if it belongs to the base hamikdash or hashem. However, it's still obligated in challah because it was redeemed before it was made into dough, which means that by the time it was made into dough, and the obligation of challah set in, the produce is regular produce, which didn't have sanctity. And therefore it is considered your own produce, your own dough, and therefore it's obligated in challah. And Alan Misha gives a very similar case to Heckdash, a type of hackdash, in fact, and that is ummisar ha omer, the remainder of the omer flour. Now, the omer was an offering of flour which was very fine flour. And in fact, to make sure that it was very, very fine and soft without any large bits, the flour was sifted 13 times. Now, because of that, there was lots of flour which was coarse and made up of larger pieces, larger bits of flour, and they didn't get through the sieve, so they weren't part of the carbon omer. However, even that part was considered hector. It belonged to the base hamikdash. Now, what they would do with that flower, the part of the flower which wasn't offered up as the carbon, is that they would redeem the sanctity of the flower onto money. So the money would now be considered hector, and the flower would be not sanctified, and anybody would be able to use the flower for their own needs.
[00:14:22] Now, once you receive that flour, do you need to separate tithes from it? So the answer is, of course not, because produce becomes obligated in tithes when it's processed, and that's usually once it's piled up as stalks, but it's a way earlier stage than when it's turned into flour. So the obligation already passed, and at the time that it became obligated, it belonged to the base hamikdash, and therefore it was exempt. But the obligation can't set in later on if it didn't set in when the produce was fully processed. And therefore it's exempt from tides. But once again, it's obligated in challah because the flour is made into dough once it's owned by somebody, and at that stage, it's not owned by the bes hamikdash, and therefore it is obligated in challah. Okay? And finally, grain, which didn't reach a third of its growth and it was cut off the ground before reaching a third of what it would grow, what a plant like that would grow. So that is exempt from maestros from the tides, as we learned at length in Masecha's maestros, that only produce which which reaches its stage of growth, at which it becomes edible and at which the seeds can germinate and produce other seeds inside the ground. Only once it's reached that significant stage of its growth does it become obligated in maestros. However, it is still obligated in khama, because, as we learned in the previous mishnah, as long as the grain can become chomets, they can be turned into into dough and rise. So then it's obvious, and that can occur with this produce, even if it hasn't reached its significant stage of its growth. However, says growing which hasn't reached a third of its growth is also exempt from the obligation of challah. And this is because, as we mentioned before, challah is compared to truma. So just like produce is only obligated in truma once it's reached a significant stage of its growth, the same would apply to challah, at least according tribal.
[00:16:08] Now we've got the exact opposite.
[00:16:11] The following things are obligated in maestros in the tides of the termina challah, but are exempt from the obligation of challah. So firstly, as we saw before, all grains outside of the five main grains will be obligated in maestros, but not in challah. So, for example, hairez rice and millet, va pragim and poppy seeds, va shumshmein and sesame seeds, va kitnyois and various legumes and beans. And we already seen this concept earlier on in the first mishnah as well as that, as we alluded to before, there's a minimum amount of dough which is obligated in challah. So something which is smaller grain, which it will produce less than a kav, and a quarter of flour. So that will be exempt from challah, but still obligated in maisrus, since even the smallest amount, even one stalk, would be obligated in maisros. Now, the remainder of the mishnah lists types of does which are exempt from challah. Now, of course, the type of dough has no bearing on the obligation of maisros because maces have to be separated before it's made into dough. As soon as it's all been harvested and piled up, that's when the ties have to be separated. So this discussion only applies to challah. And Misha tells us that it has sufganin, some sort of sweet wafer, vahadavshonin dough, which contains honey, voha, eskiritin. This is a very thin type of wafer or cracker, the khalas hamas reis. This is bread which was cooked in quite an unusual way. They would put the dough into a frying pan and then pour boiling hot water onto the dough while it was in the frying pan. So in all of these four cases, they are exempt from challah because challah only applies to bread and because these are all very unusual and they're not the regular way that you bake bread. And the dough as well is quite an unusual way to make dough. The dough used for these things is much thinner than usual, and because of that, it does not come under the category of those things which are obligated in challah. And finally, the hamadumah madum is a mixture of truma and is unsanctified produce, regular produce. So if truma is mixed in with, unless there's a hundred times more chuma, the entire mixture is considered forbidden for non kohanim, just like the truma. Now, you would think that since really a lot of the mixture is so, it should be obligated in challah. It's true that truma is exempt from challah, but chulin is obligated. However, it's learned from a posse which says that as a result of making something challah, it will become truma. It will gain truma status. So that implies that before you make it challah, it hasn't got truma status. However, in the case of a maduma, we do treat the entire mixture as truma, even if technically it's made up of lots of. We treat it all as truma, and because of that is it is exempt from challah, as that pasuk implies.
