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Please include
Israel's captive soldiers in your tefillot: Zecharia Shlomo ben
Miriam Baumel, Tzvi ben Penina Feldman, Yekutiel Yehuda Nachman ben Sarah
Katz, Ron ben Batya Arad, Guy ben Rina Chever.
Monday, 18 Sivan 5773 – May 27, 2013
The Torah in Parashat Shelach introduces the mitzva of challa,
which requires giving a portion of one’s dough to a kohen. The Gemara in Masekhet Sanhedrin
(112b) establishes that the challa obligation does not apply to dough
produced from grain of ma’aser sheni before it is brought to Jerusalem. The obligation of
ma’aser sheni requires bringing a tenth
of one’s produce to Jerusalem and eating it there, and it is forbidden to
ma’aser sheni outside the city (unless it is exchanged for money, in which
case the money must be used to purchase food in Jerusalem). The Gemara comments that if grain
designated as ma’aser sheni is made into dough before it is
brought to Jerusalem, challa is not taken.
Rashi explains that since the dough at that stage is forbidden for
consumption, the mitzva of challa does not apply, as this
mitzva is restricted to dough that can be eaten. And therefore even if one brings the
baked product to Jerusalem, where it becomes permissible for consumption,
challa need not be taken, since the mitzva did not apply at the time
the dough was prepared.
Seemingly, this halakha
should also apply in the case of one who prepares dough with newly harvested
grain before Pesach. Produce of the
early spring harvest is forbidden for consumption until after the 16th
of Nissan, when the korban ha-omer offering consisting of new
produce was offered in the Beit Ha-mikdash. We might assume, then, that if a
person prepares a batter with new grain before the 17th of Nissan,
with the intention of eating the baked product later, when the new grain becomes
permissible, he does not have to take
challa.
Just as in the case of ma’aser sheni outside Jerusalem, the
grain is forbidden for consumption at the time when the batter is prepared, and
thus the mitzva of
challa does not apply, even when it becomes permissible.
One might, however, distinguish between the two cases. It is true that in both cases the
food in question is currently forbidden but will later become permissible. However, in the case of ma’aser
sheni, time alone does not change the food’s status; one must transport the
food to Jerusalem for it to be permissible for consumption. And it is perhaps for this reason
that we can ignore the eventuality of its becoming permissible – which depends
on voluntary human action – and thereby exempt it from
challa. In the case of the new grain before
Pesach, however, the grain becomes permissible automatically on the 17th
of Nissan. And even though in the
times of the Beit Ha-mikdash the permissibility of the new grain
depended upon the omer offering,
several Acharonim maintained that even if the offering was not brought,
the grain automatically became permissible on the 17th of Nissan. Hence, the status of grain before the
17th of Nissan, which is currently forbidden but guaranteed to become
permissible, cannot necessarily be compared to that
ma’aser sheni before it is brought to Jerusalem, which becomes permissible only after it is
transported to the city. As such,
one might contend that in the case of new grain, the challa obligation
applies even before the 17th of Nissan since it is guaranteed to
become permissible.
This distinction is made by the Sha’agat Aryeh (97), who, elsewhere in his writings (Turei Even,
Rosh Hashanah 7b), writes that the new grain automatically becomes permissible
on the 17th of Nissan.
This is the contrast to the Minchat Chinukh (303), who claimed that if,
in the times of the Mikdash, the
korban ha-omer was not offered on the 16th of Nissan, the grain
remained forbidden until the next year when the omer offering could be
brought. In his view, it would seem,
this case cannot be distinguished from the case of ma’aser sheni, and
thus challa should not be required from the new grain. Yet, oddly enough, the
Minchat Chinukh later (385) accepts the
Sha’agat Aryeh’s distinction, and rules that challa must be
taken from the new grain, even though
it is currently forbidden.
(Taken from Rav Michael Yechiel Elias’
Minchat Mordekhai, Parashat Shelach)
Rav David Silverberg |
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