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 16^th 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 17^th 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 17^th 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 17^th of Nissan.  Hence, the status of grain before the 17^th 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 17^th 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 17^th 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 16^th 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)