The tithe teruma is given to the priest as a holy gift. Everybody is obligated to treat it respectfully and not to destroy it or lose it. The Gemara tries to find the source for Rabbi Meir’s conclusion that one may burn hametz teruma which is ritually ready except for the fact that the rabbis forbade eating it from the sixth hour of the day on with teruma temeiah (טמאה), ritually unready, erev Passover. Two suggestions are provided. Rabbi Yoḥanan suggests the first one. I want to focus on the second one provided by bar Kappara found on today’s daf TB Pesakhim 15.
“With regard to a barrel of teruma wine that broke in the upper area of a winepress, where grapes are pressed, and there is impure, non-sacred wine in the lower area of the press, where the wine flows from the upper area, the following dilemma arises: If the teruma wine flows into the non-sacred wine, the teruma will be rendered ritually impure. The result will be significant financial loss, as the legal status of all the wine in the lower press will be that of impure teruma, which is prohibited even for priests to drink.
“In that case, Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua concede that if one is able to rescue even a quarter-log from the barrel that broke by receiving the teruma wine in a vessel before it becomes impure, and thereby keep the wine in a state of ritual purity, he should rescue it. And if one cannot receive the wine in a pure vessel, as only impure vessels are available, such that if he uses them to receive the wine or to seal the upper press he will render the teruma impure, Rabbi Eliezer says: The teruma wine should be allowed to descend and become impure on its own, but one should not actively render it impure with his hand. Rabbi Yehoshua says: One may even render it impure with his hand. Since it will become impure on its own regardless of his actions, there is no objection to rendering the teruma impure preemptively in order to prevent greater financial loss. Apparently, according to Rabbi Yehoshua, it is permitted to render an item impure if it will be lost in any case.”[1] (Sefaria.org translation)
If the teruma will become ritually unready no matter what you do, is it better to let it happen passively or may you actively allow to happen. The wine in the lower press is already ritually unready. Remember everybody may enjoy ritually unready food and drink, (hullin-חולין), but if ritually ready food or drink is accidentally mixed with hullin it becomes medum’a (מדומע) and must be destroyed.[2]
Rabbi Eliezer says that it is better to passively allow the teruma to become ritually unready then to actively make it ritually unready. In other words, the wine in the lower press will be lost for use. Rabbi Yehoshua says since is going to become ritually unready anyway, you may collect the wine with ritually unready vessels in order to save the hullin wine in the lower press and be spared a great monetary loss.
The halakha follows Rabbi Yehoshua as presented above. If you are able to save at least a quarter log of the teruma tehora (טהורה), ritually ready, in ritually ready vessels, you must do so. If you can’t, then you may save the hullin wine in the bottom press by capturing the teruma wine in ritually unready vessels and not be concerned that the teruma you are actively becoming ritually unready.
It’s good to know that the halakha is concerned about monetary loss when making a decision. But is this the source for Rabbi Meir? Are the two cases analogous? Stay tuned as the discussion continues.
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