Challah, Chapter 4, Mishnah 7. This mishnah deals with the status of produce grown in Syria. Syria holds a unique position throughout the laws of the Torah: in some respects it is treated like the Land of Israel, and in other respects it is not. The reason is that King David conquered Syria and annexed it to the Land of Israel before the body of the Land of Israel itself had been fully conquered, and therefore it never received the full status of the Land of Israel. Our mishnah discusses this status with regard to several laws.
The status of a gentile's produce in Syria:
One of the laws that applies to Syria is that when a Jew grows produce there, his produce is obligated in Terumah and maaser, whereas the produce of a gentile in Syria is exempt. In the Land of Israel there is a dispute as to whether a gentile's ownership removes produce from the obligation of maaser, but in Syria all agree that a gentile's produce is exempt from Terumah and maaser.
Our mishnah addresses two topics: the law of a Jew who is a sharecropper for a gentile in Syria, and the status of challah in Syria - and it is for this reason that it appears in our tractate.
Two challos outside the Land:
Outside the Land of Israel it was the practice in the times of the Mishnah to separate two challos:
The challah that is burned - by rabbinic law the lands outside Israel carry the tumah of the lands of the nations, since the entire territory outside the Land of Israel is considered impure. Consequently the challah separated there becomes tamei, and challah that is tamei must be burned.
The challah that is given to the kohen - a second challah is separated as a commemoration of the law of challah being given to the kohen, and that one is given to a kohen.
In the Land of Israel, by contrast, only one challah is separated. From here flows the dispute over the status of Syria with regard to the tumah of the lands of the nations: does it carry that tumah like everywhere outside the Land, or is it treated like the Land of Israel, which is pure?
The wording of the mishnah:
"Yisrael shehayu arisin l'nochrim b'Surya" - a Jew who leases land from a gentile takes a percentage of the produce and hands the rest to the owner, or hands a percentage to the owner and keeps the rest for himself.
"Rabbi Eliezer mechayev peiroseihen b'maasros u'vashevi'is" - the produce is obligated in maaser and in the laws of the seventh year. Some explain that by strict law it should have been exempt, since the land belongs to a gentile, but the Sages decreed that it be obligated - either as a penalty, so that a person should not hire himself out as a sharecropper for a gentile, or so that people should not establish their livelihood in Syria, since we want them to settle in the Land of Israel.
"V'Rabban Gamliel poter" - the produce is exempt from maaser and from the laws of the seventh year, for since the land belongs to a gentile it carries neither the law of maaser nor the law of shemittah.
Their dispute regarding challah:
Rabban Gamliel: in Syria two challos are separated - one is burned and one is given to a kohen, as is the law outside the Land. His position is consistent: just as he viewed the land as belonging to a gentile and exempted it from maaser and the seventh year, so too he gives Syria the status of outside the Land.
Rabbi Eliezer: Syria has the status of the Land of Israel, and therefore only one challah is separated there.
The mishnah relates that at first the practice was to adopt the leniency of Rabban Gamliel - the exemption from maaser and the seventh year, together with the leniency of Rabbi Eliezer - separating only one challah. But these two contradict one another: Rabban Gamliel's leniency is based on Syria being considered outside the Land, while Rabbi Eliezer's leniency is based on its being treated like the Land of Israel. One cannot hold both at once, for either it has the status of the Land of Israel or it has the status of outside the Land.
Therefore "chazru linhog k'Rabban Gamliel bishtei derachim" - they went back to following Rabban Gamliel in both matters: regarding maaser and the seventh year they exempted the produce as is the law outside the Land, and regarding challah as well they separated two challos, as is the law outside the Land.