Toward the end of the First Temple period, after the exile of Yehoyakhin, a Jewish community began taking shape in Babylonia. At that point, the prophets instituted the separation of terumot and ma’asrot from produce grown in Shinar, that is, Babylonia. Since Babylonia was adjacent to Eretz Yisrael, and many Jews were leaving for Babylonia and settling there, the prophets sought to preserve the values embodied by the mitzva among the exiles and to support the poor. They may also have been concerned that some Jews would leave the Land in order to avoid separating approximately one-fifth of their produce as terumot and ma’asrot. For these reasons, they required terumot and ma’asrot in Babylonia as well. Since shemita does not apply there, the enactment remained in force even during the seventh year; in Babylonia, one would separate ma’aser sheni in that year as well, as will be explained below in section 13.
It seems that Jews in Babylonia continued separating terumot and ma’asrot even after the destruction of the Temple. They also continued counting the shemita years, because that cycle determined which tithe was separated: in years 1, 2, 4, 5, and 7, the tithe was classified as ma’aser sheni; in years 3 and 6, as ma’aser ani (see MT, Laws of Shemita Ve-yovel 10:5). After the destruction, however, ma’aser sheni could no longer be eaten in Jerusalem in its normal manner and therefore had to be redeemed.
In Eretz Yisrael itself, however, one was no longer obligated to separate terumot and ma’asrot. Some presumably continued separating them as a continuation of ancestral practice, but the obligation did not return until the Men of the Great Assembly returned and sanctified the Land a second time.
Even after the Land was sanctified a second time, the enactment established by the prophets concerning Babylonia remained in force. The elders who led the Jewish people after Ezra the Scribe later extended this requirement to Egypt, where a large Jewish community emerged as well. Since shemita does not apply outside the Land, they determined that during the seventh year ma’aser ani should be separated in Egypt, so that the poor of Eretz Yisrael could benefit from it during the year in which they received no gifts from the Land’s fields. Later, they extended this requirement to Ammon and Moav as well: terumot and ma’asrot were to be separated there too, and during the seventh year of the cycle, the second tithe was designated as ma’aser ani, as in Egypt, so that the poor of Eretz Yisrael could benefit from it during shemita (Mishna, Yadayim 4:3).[6]
[6]. Apparently, the Babylonian exile had significant Torah stature and could become a spiritual center in its own right, standing in some tension with Jerusalem. It therefore needed to be bound more closely to Jerusalem. For this reason, the prophets established that in the seventh year Jews in Babylonia would separate ma’aser sheni and bring its redemption money to Jerusalem (MT, Laws of Ma’aser Sheni 1:14). The Egyptian exile, at the time of the enactment, did not have comparable standing in relation to Jerusalem, and neither did the exiles in Ammon and Moav. At the same time, they were closer to Eretz Yisrael. Therefore, the Sages established that in the seventh year they would separate ma’aser ani, so that the poor of the Land could benefit from it during shemita.
After the destruction, the mitzva to use the money of ma’aser sheni for eating in Jerusalem was no longer operative, as it depends on the altar. Perhaps in those years they would destroy the ma’aser sheni produce. More likely, however, they redeemed it onto a peruta, since in that reality this was its actual value.
