Some produce is exempt from terumot and ma’asrot because it already belongs to a different halakhic category. This is the case with neta reva’i, seventh-year produce, and the gifts that must be left for the poor.
The fruit of neta reva’i is exempt from terumot and ma’asrot. During a tree’s first three years, its fruit is forbidden as orla. In the fourth year, the fruit becomes neta reva’i: it is sacred, and there is a mitzva to eat it in purity in Jerusalem (see above, 2:9). Since the fruit is already consecrated for this mitzva, one does not leave leket, shikḥa, or pe’a from it for the poor, and one does not separate terumot and ma’asrot from it (MT, Laws of Ma’aser Sheni and Neta Reva’i 9:4).
If there is doubt whether fruit is neta reva’i or fifth-year fruit, one separates terumot and ma’asrot without a berakha. However, one need not give ma’aser rishon to a levi or ma’aser ani to a poor person. Since these gifts are monetary obligations, they are treated like all doubtful monetary claims: without clear proof that one truly owes the payment, one is not required to pay (MT, Laws of Ma’aser 13:20–21).
Produce that grows during the seventh year is hefker and is therefore exempt from terumot and ma’asrot.[6]
Similarly, produce that must be left for the poor — leket, shikḥa, pe’a, peret, and olelot — is exempt from terumot and ma’asrot[7]
[6]. If a field owner violated the Torah commandment by preventing others from entering his field and picked the seventh-year produce for himself, authorities disagree whether terumot and ma’asrot must be separated. According to Beit Yosef, he must separate, since he treated the produce as his own rather than leaving it hefker. According to Mabit, however, the produce remains exempt, because seventh-year produce is inherently hefker even when the owner acts improperly.
The same dispute applies when produce grown in a non-Jew’s field during the seventh year was sold to a Jew, who then gathered it from the field. According to Mabit, the produce has shevi’it status; it is sacred and exempt from terumot and ma’asrot. According to R. Yosef Karo, produce grown by a non-Jew does not have shevi’it status. Therefore, when the Jew gathers it – the stage at which the obligation of terumot and ma’asrot takes effect – he must separate terumot and ma’asrot.
In practice, one separates terumot and ma’asrot from such produce without a berakha. Since ma’aser rishon and ma’aser ani are monetary obligations, and the obligation to give them is uncertain, one need not give them to a levi or a poor person. According to R. Yosef Karo’s position, the ma’aser to be separated is ma’aser ani. Some were also careful to separate ma’aser sheni out of concern for the other possibility, and Rav Kook writes that this is proper le-khatḥila (Mishpat Kohen 82; Da’at Kohen 239; Peninei Halakha: Shevi’it 3:2; 5:11).
In ordinary years, Tu Bi-Shvat determines the tithing year for tree fruit. In the seventh year, however, the determining date is the first of Tishrei. Any fruit that reaches ḥanata during the seventh year, from the first of Tishrei through the twenty-ninth of Elul, has shevi’it status and is exempt from terumot and ma’asrot (Peninei Halakha: Shevi’it 3, note 6).
[7]. The Torah states: “Then the levi shall come, for he has no portion or inheritance with you” (Devarim 14:29). The Sages infer that terumot and ma’asrot are required only from produce in which the levi has no share. Therefore, since a poor levi has a right to collect the gifts left for the poor like any other poor person, such gifts are exempt from terumot and ma’asrot (Yerushalmi, Terumot 1:3; MT, Laws of Terumot 2:9).
In practice, today, it is generally not worthwhile for poor people to come to the fields and collect these gifts. As a result, they belong to the field owner, and terumot and ma’asrot apply to them. If, however, the owner knows that poor people wish to collect the gifts in his field, they retain their exempt status (Ritva, Gittin 47a; see above, 6:9).
