Priestly Gifts and Offerings Outside the Land

The Gemara clarifies the rules of assigning priestly gifts, the special leniencies of diaspora produce, and the timeline for consuming a firstborn offering.

Trading Discretion Over Priestly Dues

The owner of agricultural produce or an animal possesses טובת הנאה (benefit of discretion), which is the right to choose the recipient priest. The baraita discusses an Israelite who set aside תרומה (priestly grain tithe) from his grain pile. Another Israelite offers him a coin so that he delivers the tithe to the donor's priestly grandson. The Gemara permits this exchange between Israelites, but forbids a priest from paying to redirect gifts to another priest.

The Gemara restricts this arrangement strictly to תרומה, because it has קדושת הגוף (inherent sanctity) and cannot be redeemed. For מתנות כהונה (priestly animal gifts), payment is prohibited even between Israelites. These animal gifts possess קדושת דמים (monetary sanctity), and commercializing them might lead people to treat them as secular meat. Following this distinction, the Rema rules that an owner cannot accept payment to direct priestly gifts to a specific priest.

הֵא לְךָ סֶלַע זֶה, וּתְנֵהוּ לְבֶן בִּתִּי כֹּהֵן — מוּתָּר. אִם הָיָה כֹּהֵן לְכֹהֵן — אָסוּר.

Take this sela coin for yourself and give it to my daughter’s son who is a priest, it is permitted. But if it was a priest to a priest, it is prohibited. (Bekhorot 27a:2)

Leniencies of Diaspora Produce

Because תרומת חוצה לארץ (teruma from outside the Land of Israel) is rabbinic, the Sages treated it with great leniency. Rava rules that the prohibition against a priest assisting at the threshing floor does not apply to diaspora gifts. An owner may therefore give this teruma to a priest in return for his labor.

Shmuel adds that produce outside the Land may be eaten before separating teruma, taking the required portion only afterward. Furthermore, diaspora teruma mixed with ordinary unconsecrated produce is nullified in a simple majority. Unlike biblical teruma, which requires one hundred parts of non-sacred food, Rabba intentionally mixed diaspora teruma in a simple majority to eat it in impurity.

אָמַר שְׁמוּאֵל: תְּרוּמַת חוּצָה לָאָרֶץ — בְּטֵילָה בְּרוֹב. רַבָּה מְבַטְּלָהּ בְּרוֹב, וְאוֹכֵל לָהּ בִּימֵי טוּמְאָתוֹ.

Shmuel says: Teruma from outside of Eretz Yisrael is nullified in a majority. Rabba would nullify it in a majority and eat it during his days of impurity. (Bekhorot 27a:6)

Impurity and Dough Offerings

Shmuel establishes that diaspora teruma is not subject to the strict biblical bans concerning ritual impurity. It is prohibited only to a person whose ritual impurity issues directly from his body, such as a בעל קרי (one who had a seminal emission) or a זב (one with an unnatural bodily discharge). Contact impurity, such as touching a human corpse or an animal carcass, does not disqualify a priest from eating it.

Ravina applies this principle to חלה (dough offering) outside the Land. A woman who is a נדה (menstruating woman) may separate the dough offering and give it to a young priest who is free of bodily impurity. If no pure minor priest is available, she burns that portion in the oven and separates a second piece, which an adult priest may eat despite his impurity.

Eating the Firstborn Animal

The Mishnah states that a בכור (firstborn male animal) must be eaten within its year, whether it is blemished or unblemished. The Gemara demonstrates that this year is calculated from its own birth or readiness, rather than according to the standard calendar year. If the animal is born in the middle of a calendar year, its personal year extends into the subsequent year.

The school of Rav interprets the biblical phrase 'year by year' as teaching that an unblemished firstborn offering may be eaten for two days and one night. This timeframe equates the consumption of the sacrificial firstborn to that of a peace offering.

Priestly agricultural dues outside the Land are subject to major leniencies regarding nullification and ritual impurity, while a firstborn animal must be consumed within its own individual year.

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