TheWholeTorah.aiBeta

Terumos Chapter 11, Mishnah 1: Avoiding Waste of Truma

Chavrusa Learning

Maseches Terumos, Chapter 11, Mishnah 1. This is the final chapter of the tractate, and its entire subject is the requirement not to destroy Terumah and not to cause it to go to waste. Accordingly, the Mishnah defines here which uses are permitted with Terumah foods and with the parts that come along with them - the seeds, the juices and the like.

"Ein nosnin develah u'grogaros l'soch ha'murayes mipnei she'hu me'abdan":

One may not place develah or grogaros into murayes. First, the meaning of the words:

  • Develah - a pressed fig.

  • Grogaros - a dried fig.

  • Murayes - a type of spread or sauce that they used to prepare from the oils and innards of fish. Using salt, they would extract the oils, and the result was a salty liquid containing the fish oil along with additional flavors. It was customary to add a fig flavor to it as a sweetener.

With Terumah figs, however, it is forbidden to do so, because he is destroying them: after the figs have been soaked in the salted fish oils in order to draw out their sweetness, they end up being thrown away. They are not eaten, since they have absorbed fish oil and become repulsive. Even though this is an ordinary and accepted use, and sweetening murayes with figs is a common practice, since the end result is that the figs are not eaten but go to waste, the Mishnah forbids it.

"Aval nosnin es ha'yayin la'murayes":

Adding wine to murayes sauce is permitted, since the wine adds flavor to the murayes in its normal manner, and in the end the murayes and the wine are eaten together. This is an ordinary thing to do, and there is no loss involved at all.

"V'ein mefatmin es ha'shemen":

One may not add Terumah spices to oil (such as olive oil) in order to give it a fragrance and turn it into a kind of perfume. There are two reasons for this:

  1. The spices themselves are no longer eaten afterward but are discarded, just as in the previous clause of the Mishnah.

  2. The oil itself is also downgraded: before it was perfumed it was ordinary olive oil, and it was used the way olive oil is eaten; but now, once it has become perfumed oil, it is not eaten but rubbed on the body. This downgrading from its normal use as food is likewise forbidden.

"Osin es ha'yayin yeinomlin":

Yeinomlin was a beverage in which honey and pepper were added to wine - something like a first cousin of today's sangria: spiced wine, rich in flavor. One who drinks this beverage drinks the honey and pepper in it along with the wine. Since all of these are ordinary uses of foods, whether the wine is Terumah or the honey and pepper are Terumah, it is permitted, for this is a common practice and everything is consumed in its normal manner. Incidentally, this beverage is sometimes called in the Gemara by the name 'kunditon' - wine spiced with honey, pepper and additional ingredients.

"Ein mevashlin yayin shel Terumah mipnei shehu mema'ato" - one may not cook wine of Terumah, because he thereby diminishes it:

Wine of Terumah may not be cooked, and there are two reasons for this:

  • Diminishing the quantity: When wine is cooked, part of the water in it evaporates, so the volume of wine is reduced. The one who cooks it has thus lessened the amount of wine available for consumption, and that is a loss of Terumah.

  • Diminishing the consumers: The Bartenura adds that cooked wine is less desirable, and fewer people want to drink it. It turns out that the one who cooks it reduces the number of consumers available for this Terumah wine.

"Rabbi Yehudah matir mipnei shehu mashbicho" - Rabbi Yehudah permits it, because he thereby improves it:

Rabbi Yehudah holds that cooking improves the wine. Not necessarily because the taste gets better, but because it preserves the wine for a longer period - something like pasteurization, which extends the wine's life - and that is an improvement in its own right, and therefore he permits it. The halachah, however, does not follow Rabbi Yehudah; rather, it is forbidden to cook wine of Terumah.

In summary: This Mishnah opens the chapter that deals with the prohibition of causing a loss to Terumah. We learned that one does not put pressed figs or dried figs into fish brine, since they will end up being thrown away, whereas putting wine into fish brine is permitted, since it is all eaten together. One does not spice oil with seasonings, both because the seasonings are lost and because the oil is downgraded from the level of food to the level of anointing. In contrast, one may make wine into yenomlin, since this is an ordinary use that everyone has need of. And finally, one does not cook wine of Terumah, because cooking diminishes it both in quantity and in importance, and although Rabbi Yehudah permits it because of the improvement to the wine - the halachah does not follow his view.