With good fortune we open the sixth chapter of Maseches Terumos, a beautiful chapter dealing with the forbidden eating of Terumah and its consequences. The entire chapter revolves around a single verse found in Vayikra (22:14).
The verse at the foundation of the chapter:
"V'ish ki yochal kodesh bishgagah, v'yasaf chamishiso alav, v'nasan lakohen es hakodesh" - "a man," meaning someone who is not a kohen, who ate kodesh unintentionally, adds a fifth to the principal and gives the kohen new kodesh in place of what he ate.
What exactly is this "unintentional" act? There are three possibilities:
He did not know that a non-kohen is forbidden to eat Terumah.
He did not know that the food in front of him was Terumah, and ate it thinking it was permitted to him.
He did not know - according to many opinions - that the consequence of eating Terumah is death at the hands of Heaven, a severe punishment, and therefore ate without realizing the significance of his act.
"Kodesh" - the four types of Terumah:
In the context of the mishnayos before us, "kodesh" means Terumah, the sanctified property of the kohen. Accordingly, the verse applies to all four forms that Terumah can take:
Terumah gedolah - the first portion separated for the kohen.
Terumas maaser - the portion the Levi gives to the kohen.
Challah - the portion given to the kohen from the dough, after the flour and water have been mixed together.
Bikkurim - the first fruits of the seven species with which Eretz Yisrael is praised, brought to the kohen and to the Beis HaMikdash and waved there.
All four have the status of Terumah, and in all of them the verse applies to forbidden eating done unintentionally.
Calculating the fifth - milbar and not milgo:
In all four cases the requirement is to add a fifth, and it is worth settling the calculation once and for all. A non-kohen who ate four grapes of Terumah is required to return four new grapes to the kohen and to add a fifth grape to them - a total of five grapes for having eaten four. This is what the Torah means when it says "v'yasaf chamishiso alav": he ate four, he adds a fifth.
In today's terms this is an addition of twenty-five percent, not twenty percent, and this is where the common mistake lies. Sometimes the Torah uses the method of "milgo," calculating from within the original amount, but here the calculation is "milbar," according to the total sum. It emerges that of the five grapes given to the kohen, four are the principal - the return of the main amount - and the fifth is the payment of the chomesh, an addition that can be called a penalty payment.
That additional fifth functions as a mechanism of atonement for the unintentional eating, and for that reason - as we will see later in the Mishnah - the kohen has no right to waive the fifth. The one who ate must be able to give it to the kohen, so that he attains atonement for having eaten Terumah unintentionally.
The words of the Mishnah:
"Ha'ochel Terumah shogeg" - a non-kohen who ate one of the four types of Terumah unintentionally, whether he did not know that it was Terumah, or did not know that it was forbidden to him, or did not know that the consequence is death at the hands of Heaven. The Mishnah will go on to stress that this applies specifically to an unintentional act, as the verse indicates: if he ate deliberately, knowing that it was forbidden, there is no payment of a fifth. But when he ate unintentionally, an opening is given to him to receive atonement, by restoring what he consumed to the kohanim and adding the fifth.
This deserves careful attention throughout the entire chapter, since two separate matters stand before us:
Monetary restitution - for taking something that is not his. Even with no element of Terumah involved at all, one who walks into his friend's pantry and eats his breakfast cereal must repay him its value. This is a basic law that stands on its own, monetary repayment for taking something he has no right to.
Payment of the fifth - a special, additional obligation that the Torah imposed upon him, and within it lies also the virtue of granting atonement.
It emerges that the one paying the kohen accomplishes two separate things: he restores the kohen to his full financial position, and he fulfills the requirement of the verse to return the sacred item. And as we shall see, there is almost a law of conservation of sanctity here: the payment is made from properly tithed produce, ordinary food that becomes Terumah the moment it is given to the kohen, and thus new Terumah is created and there is no loss to the total amount of Terumah in the world. Moreover, by adding the fifth he actually increases sanctity in the world, and acquires atonement for himself.
"Meshalem keren vachomesh" - he must restore the principal, the original quantity he consumed (the four grapes he ate), and add to it a fifth grape as the payment of the fifth.
"Echad ha'ochel v'echad hashoteh v'echad hasach" - it makes no difference whether he consumed the Terumah by eating, by drinking, or by anointing it on his skin. A person who rubs olive oil on his skin, and the oil is absorbed through the skin, is considered as though he drank the oil.
The Bartenura is precise that this refers specifically to anointing with oil and to drinking things that are fit for drinking, such as wine. But one who drinks the oil, or anoints the wine on his skin, is not obligated to pay the fifth. The reason is that the obligation applies only to consumption in its normal manner: one who smears wine on his skin is not using it as an ointment or a treatment but is destroying it, and one who drinks olive oil on its own is not really drinking it but wasting it, since it does not provide him with nutrients but rather makes him ill. Only when the consumption - by eating, drinking, or anointing - is done in the way that this particular food is ordinarily consumed does the law take effect, and the consumer is required to restore what he consumed plus the fifth.
Regarding anointing, the Rishonim disagree as to whether the obligation is from the Torah or rabbinic. In practice everyone agrees that "anointing is like drinking," and the law of the Mishnah applies to it as well, except that some hold that the obligation is rabbinic, and the verses cited on the matter are merely a support for a rabbinic idea.
"Echad Terumah tehorah v'echad Terumah temei'ah" - it makes no difference whether the Terumah that the non-kohen ate was pure, meaning food that the kohen would have eaten, or impure, food that the kohen cannot eat but that he can at least burn and benefit from at the time of its disposal. In all these cases he pays the principal and the fifth.
But there is a great difference between them in the manner of payment. If the food was pure and fit for a kohen to eat, he must pay specifically with food, as the verse says, "the sacred item" - something that can once again become Terumah. One who ate four pure grapes takes four new unconsecrated grapes and gives them to the kohen, and they become new Terumah by Torah law, and likewise the fifth grape given as payment of the fifth also becomes Terumah by Torah law. This is the meaning of what was said about preserving the world of Terumah, and in fact even increasing it: it is not merely preservation, but certainly there is no reduction in the quantity here.
But if he ate tamei grapes, he is not obligated to pay in actual grapes and may pay in money, since the kohen would not have eaten them anyway and cannot eat them. In such a case this is a monetary reimbursement for consuming something that was not his, like any other reimbursement. Even so, the obligation of the fifth applies equally to pure Terumah and to tamei Terumah that were eaten by mistake.
"Meshalem chomesh v'chomesh chumsha" - he pays the fifth, and even a fifth upon the fifth. How does this work? One who eats a hundred grapes of pure Terumah gives the kohen a hundred new grapes, which become Terumah, and adds a fifth to them - another twenty five grapes, one hundred and twenty five in all, and all of them become Terumah. If he afterwards eats four of the twenty five grapes of the fifth, they too carry the obligation of payment plus an added fifth. There is no difference between eating from the grapes of the fifth, from the grapes of the principal, or from the original Terumah grapes - in every case he must add a fifth to whatever he consumed, even to the fifth he paid to begin with. This is "chomesh chumsha": paying a fifth upon the fifth that was already given.
"Eino meshalem terumah" - he may not pay the kohen with Terumah, and there is no difference between tamei Terumah and pure Terumah. According to the Bartenura, Terumah already belongs to the kohanim from the outset, and a person does not pay a kohen with the kohen's own property for what he took from him. Therefore, even if the Terumah has not yet been given to any particular kohen, Terumah produce is not fit to serve for these payments, neither for the principal nor for the fifth.
"Ela chullin metukanim" - he must pay with ordinary chullin from which all the tithes have been separated: Terumah gedolah, first tithe, and second tithe or the tithe for the poor, depending on the year. "Metukanim" means that everything has been separated and the produce is ready to be eaten. He gives the kohen the four grapes of the principal and the fifth grape as the added fifth, "v'hem na'asin terumah" - the five grapes become new Terumah in every respect, by Torah law. "V'tashlumin terumah" - not only the four grapes of the principal, but even the fifth grape, the additional compensation grape, becomes full Terumah.
"Im ratzah kohen limchol - eino mochel" - even if the kohen says that he waives the obligation of payment, his waiver is ineffective. The reason is that payment of the principal and the fifth is the instruction of the verse. Were this merely a monetary payment for taking something belonging to another, the injured party could waive it, just as a person may say to his friend who ate from his pantry: leave it, keep your money, I do not want your payment. But here the Torah obligated the payment, and in this we again see that same preservation of holiness - the quantity of Terumah may not be diminished, and one is obligated to give new chullin that becomes Terumah, and the kohen has no right whatsoever to waive this payment.
Many Rishonim focus specifically on the payment of the fifth, since in the view of many it is what is needed to achieve atonement for eating Terumah unlawfully. This does not depend on the kohen's waiver, for alongside the obligation to give the principal and the fifth, the payment grants the one who ate the benefit of atonement from death at the hands of Heaven, that punishment of untimely death that comes for eating Terumah. And since the one who ate needs his atonement, the kohen has no right to waive receiving the principal, as the verse states, and certainly not receiving the fifth, upon which the atonement depends.
In summary: in this Mishnah we learned that a non-kohen who eats Terumah by mistake pays the principal and a fifth, calculated "mil'bar" as twenty five percent; that there is no difference between eating, drinking and anointing in the normal manner, nor between pure and tamei Terumah regarding the obligation of the fifth; that the payment is made from chullin metukanim, which becomes new Terumah, and not from Terumah; that even one who eats from the fifth adds a fifth to it; and that the kohen may not waive the payment, since it is a decree of Scripture and it is what brings the one who ate his atonement.