Terumos Chapter 6, Mishnah 6 - the final mishnah of the chapter. In the previous mishnah we learned which foods and which halachic categories are not fit to serve as payment for eating Terumah unintentionally. Our mishnah deals with the other side of the matter: with what one may pay, and the dispute between Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Akiva as to whether one is obligated to pay specifically from the same species that was eaten.
Rabbi Eliezer's view - paying from one species for another:
The mishnah opens: "Rabbi Eliezer omer: meshalmin mimin al she'eino mino" - one may pay even with a different species. In his view, the obligation is measured by the monetary value of what was eaten: someone who unintentionally ate Terumah barley worth four shekels returns four shekels plus a fifth, and he may settle this with wheat. Such a payment is acceptable, since it compensates the kohen for his loss and returns the Terumah to him along with the added fifth. The payment is made, of course, with properly tithed chullin - ordinary food from which tithes have been taken, which then becomes Terumah anew in the hands of the kohen.
But Rabbi Eliezer adds a condition: "uvilvad sheyeshalem min hayafeh al hara" - that the payment be made with a superior species, as in the example we brought: wheat in place of barley that was eaten, since wheat is more valuable than barley.
And if the payment is determined according to monetary value, what room is there at all for a distinction between 'superior' and 'inferior'? After all, wheat worth five shekels and barley worth five shekels are equal to one another. The Bartenura explains this in two ways:
From a market standpoint: there are foods that people are quick to buy, and which are easier to sell. People want wheat more than they want barley, and therefore its market value is higher, even though the monetary worth may be identical.
From a standpoint of preference: a person would prefer lower quality wheat over poor quality barley, even if the total value of the two is the same.
Rabbi Akiva's view - from a species for its own species:
Rabbi Akiva disagrees and says: "ein meshalmin ela mimin al mino" - one may pay only from the same type of food that was eaten unintentionally. Someone who ate barley pays specifically with barley; wheat does not suffice and is not accepted, even though it is a superior food.
From here the mishnah continues and brings an unusual consequence of Rabbi Akiva's view: "lefichach, im achal kishu'in shel erev shevi'is - yamtin lekishu'in shel motza'ei shevi'is vishalem mehem".
The explanation: cucumbers are among the gourd family. The case is cucumbers that grew in the sixth year of the Shemittah cycle and were eaten during the Shemittah year itself. It is the way of gourds that if they remain on the vine, they harden and become inedible. Therefore, by the time a person finds out that he ate a cucumber of Terumah and that he must pay the principal and the fifth, the entire stock of the sixth year has already hardened and is not fit for payment.
And why can he not pay from the produce of the seventh year itself? For two reasons:
One does not pay off debts with Shemittah produce - this is a rule in its own right.
Shemittah produce is ownerless by Torah law, and as we learned in the previous mishnah, one does not make Terumah payments from ownerless property.
The result is that the shemittah produce is not at his disposal, and he has no other cucumbers with which to pay. According to Rabbi Akiva, he must wait until the eighth year, when cucumbers return to the market, and with them - and only with them - he pays the principal and the fifth, for he is obligated to pay from the very same species that he ate. Rabbi Eliezer, consistent with his position, would say that there is no need to wait at all: he may pay immediately with any other food he wishes, provided that it is not inferior to the cucumbers.
One verse and two derivations:
The Mishnah sums up the root of the dispute: "Mimakom sheRabbi Eliezer meikel, misham Rabbi Akiva machmir" - "mimakom" means "from the place," that is, from the very same verse. The verse from which Rabbi Eliezer learns to be lenient and permit payment from one species for another is the very verse from which Rabbi Akiva learns to be stringent and to restrict payment to that same species alone.
And this is the verse: "venasan lakohen es hakodesh" - "and he shall give the holy thing to the kohen" (Vayikra 22:14). We have already had occasion to discuss it earlier, and learned from it that one must return the 'holy thing' to the kohen. The word "kodesh" appears superfluous, and the Torah's choice to use it teaches that the payment must be something fit for holiness - something that is Terumah or that can become Terumah, and from here we learn that one does not pay from ownerless produce and the like.
It is worth highlighting the difficulty in the wording of the verse: after all, the one paying does not give the kohen anything holy at all, but rather ordinary produce - for the Terumah has already been eaten. Rather, that ordinary produce becomes holy and becomes Terumah anew at the moment he gives it to the kohen. From this precise reading the Tannaim differed:
Rabbi Eliezer: "anything that is fit to be made holy" - anything that can be made into Terumah is valid for payment, whether wheat or barley, and there is no difference between them.
Rabbi Akiva: "es hakodesh" - the holy thing that he ate. The verse refers back to the holy food that was already eaten, that is, to that very species of Terumah, and specifically from it must a person pay.
In summary: in this Mishnah we learned the dispute between Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Akiva regarding payment for Terumah eaten unintentionally: according to Rabbi Eliezer one may pay from one species for another, provided that he pays from the superior for the inferior; and according to Rabbi Akiva one may pay only from a species for its own species, and therefore one who ate cucumbers from the eve of the seventh year waits for the cucumbers of the year following the seventh and pays from them. Both positions are derived from a single verse - "venasan lakohen es hakodesh": Rabbi Eliezer expounds "anything fit to be made holy," and Rabbi Akiva expounds "the holy thing that he ate." With this, chapter six of Maseches Terumos comes to a close.