After the destruction of the Second Temple, as Jewish settlement in the Land diminished, the process of purification through the ashes of the red heifer was no longer available. As a result, kohanim are considered tamei met and may not eat teruma or ḥalla (above, 7:1). Even so, the obligation to separate ḥalla remains. Until ḥalla has been separated, the bread or cakes may not be eaten; once it is separated, it is burned or respectfully buried so that no one mistakenly eats it. The law outside the Land will be explained below, section 13. Since the separated portion can no longer be eaten by the kohen, one need not separate one twenty-fourth of the dough, as was required when ḥalla was given as an edible priestly gift. It is enough to separate any amount.
Although the mitzva in the present era is rabbinic, and although kohanim may not eat the ḥalla, separating it still keeps the mitzva’s vision alive. It reminds us that our bread – and the human labor that produces it – must remain connected to holiness, and through that connection blessing is drawn into the home. For this reason, some women enhance the mitzva by baking an amount of dough that requires ḥalla on Erev Shabbat (Rema OḤ 242:1).
The same development took place outside the Land. At the beginning of the Second Temple period, the Sages required Jews outside Eretz Yisrael to separate ḥalla, and at that stage kohanim would eat it in a state of tahara. Several generations later, however, the Sages decreed that the lands outside Eretz Yisrael have the status of tum’a (below, 12:9). From then on, ḥalla separated outside the Land became tamei, and kohanim could no longer eat it.
To ensure that people would still remember that ḥalla is meant to be eaten by kohanim, the Sages instituted the separation of two portions outside the Land. The first was burned, like all tamei ḥalla that may not be eaten. The second was given to kohanim to eat, even though they were tamei. Over time, however, most Diaspora communities adopted the practice of separating only one portion of ḥalla, which is burned or buried. Since the whole purpose of the second portion was to preserve the memory of edible ḥalla as it existed in Eretz Yisrael, once kohanim in Eretz Yisrael could no longer eat ḥalla because of tum’a, it was no longer fitting for kohanim outside the Land to eat it either. Therefore, outside the Land as well, the accepted practice is to separate one portion of ḥalla and burn it (Rema OḤ 322:5; below, 12:10).[2]
In summary: In the present era, even though kohanim may not eat ḥalla, whenever a Jew prepares dough from which ḥalla must be separated – whether in Eretz Yisrael or outside the Land – he must separate at least some amount by rabbinic law. When the majority of the Jewish people lives in Eretz Yisrael, the obligation of ḥalla there will again become biblical, and blessing will increase. Even then, however, kohanim will not be able to eat the ḥalla until the laws of tahara can once again be observed in practice. When that day comes, kohanim will again reveal holiness through eating ḥalla, and blessing will grow within Israel until it spreads openly to the entire world, so that “all the families of the earth” are blessed through us. The Sages’ enactment to separate ḥalla even outside the Land hints at this future expansion of blessing from Israel to the whole world.
When tahara was practiced, even teruma or ḥalla that had become tamei was still given to a kohen, who could use it as fuel for his oven. In the present era, however, because kohanim may not eat teruma or ḥalla while tamei, the custom is not to give them tamei teruma or ḥalla, lest they mistakenly eat it. Rather, one who separates ḥalla either burns it, or wraps it and places it in the garbage (Radvaz 1:731; see above, 7:7; 9:6).
