One is obligated to separate ḥalla in Eretz Yisrael by Torah law only when the majority of the Jewish people are in the Land. As the Torah states: “When you come to the land to which I bring you, then it shall be, when you eat of the bread of the land, you shall set aside a gift to the Lord” (Bamidbar 15:18–19). The Sages derive from the phrase “when you come” that the Torah obligation applies only when the Jewish people enter the Land as a whole, not when only part of the nation enters (Ketubot 25a). Therefore, in the days of Ezra, when only part of the nation returned to the Land, the obligation to separate ḥalla did not apply by Torah law. Nevertheless, the Men of the Great Assembly, led by Ezra the Scribe, enacted that ḥalla be separated even when the majority of the Jewish people are not in the Land (MT, Laws of First Fruits 5:5).
The Sages went further and required ḥalla to be separated throughout the world, so that the laws of ḥalla would not be forgotten from the Jewish people (Bekhorot 27a; MT, Laws of First Fruits 5:7). They enacted this specifically for ḥalla, and not for terumot and ma’asrot, because ḥalla resembles personal obligations more than mitzvot tied to the soil: the obligation begins when one kneads dough (Tosafot, Kiddushin 36b). In addition, ḥalla is relevant to everyone, whereas terumot and ma’asrot are relevant only to farmers (Mahari Kurkus to MT, Laws of First Fruits 5:7).
Once the Sages decreed impurity upon eretz ha-amim – that is, upon all areas outside the settlement boundary of olei Bavel – ḥalla could no longer be eaten in those impure places, since ḥalla is sacred and may be eaten only by someone who is ritually pure. Therefore, in Eretz Yisrael within gevul olei Mitzrayim, the Sages required two portions of ḥalla to be separated. The first portion was the rabbinic amount – one forty-eighth of the dough – and was burned because it was impure. This preserved the awareness that ḥalla is sacred and may not be eaten by someone who is ritually impure. The second portion could be any amount the owner chose, even the smallest amount, and was given to a kohen. This preserved the awareness that ḥalla is not only sacred, but also a priestly gift meant to be eaten by kohanim.
Kohanim were permitted to eat this second portion even while ritually impure, provided they were impure only through contact with an external source of impurity. If, however, the impurity originated in the body, such as impurity from a seminal emission or nidda, the kohen could eat this ḥalla only after immersing for purification.
In Syria and other lands outside Eretz Yisrael, where the basis of the obligation of ḥalla is lower, the law is different. If a kohen is available who is not impure with body-derived impurity – such as a minor who has never become impure in that way, or an adult who has immersed – one separates a single portion of ḥalla and gives it to him to eat. If no such kohen is available, two portions of ḥalla are separated. The first, even the smallest amount, is burned, preserving the awareness that ḥalla may not be eaten in impurity. The second, in the rabbinic amount of one forty-eighth of the dough, is given to a kohen to eat, even if he is impure with body-derived impurity (Mishna, Ḥalla 4:8; Bekhorot 27a; MT, Laws of First Fruits 5:7–11).[12]
Since we no longer have the ashes of the red heifer and cannot become purified from corpse impurity, kohanim today cannot eat ḥalla in Eretz Yisrael. Therefore, in Eretz Yisrael, one separates a single portion of ḥalla, of any size, and burns it. Some maintain that the same practice applies outside the Land as well. The original reason for separating two portions of ḥalla outside the Land was to preserve the memory of ḥalla being eaten by kohanim in the Land. Once ḥalla is no longer eaten by kohanim in the Land, there is no reason to separate an additional portion outside the Land for a kohen to eat. Instead, one separates only one portion and burns it, as is done in Eretz Yisrael. This is the widespread practice (above, 11:4, note 2).
[12]. In places to which the Sages decreed impurity, they required two portions of ḥalla to be separated, each preserving a different aspect of the mitzva. The first portion was burned, to preserve the awareness that ḥalla is sacred and may not be eaten by someone who is ritually impure. The second portion was eaten by a kohen, to preserve the awareness that ḥalla is a priestly gift meant to be eaten by kohanim.
In gevul olei Mitzrayim, where the obligation of ḥalla had applied by Torah law in the days of Yehoshua bin Nun, the sanctity of ḥalla was the primary concern. Therefore, the portion that was burned was the main portion, and it had to be separated in the rabbinic amount of one forty-eighth of the dough – the lower amount established by the Sages, as explained above in 11:2. The edible portion, by contrast, was secondary and therefore had no fixed amount.
In Syria and outside the Land, where the obligation of ḥalla is entirely rabbinic, the main enactment was the additional portion given for the kohen to eat. Therefore, the burned portion had no fixed amount, while the edible portion had to be one forty-eighth of the dough (Mishna, Ḥalla 4:8 and its commentators).
Regarding teruma, however, the Sages did not institute the separation of two portions of teruma, because doing so would create halakhic complications: the additional teruma would itself become tevel, since ma’asrot had not been separated from it. Therefore, once the Sages decreed impurity upon the earth of eretz ha-amim, teruma outside the Land could be eaten only by a kohen who was impure through contact with an external source of impurity, but not by one whose impurity issued from the body (Bekhorot 27a; Yerushalmi, Ḥalla 4:4).
What I wrote above regarding Syria and outside the Land follows Rambam, who distinguishes three levels of place with respect to ḥalla. According to Tosafot (Bekhorot 27a, s.v. hilkhakh) and Rosh, however, the law described above applies only in Babylonia and in other lands far from Eretz Yisrael: if a kohen is available whose impurity does not issue from the body, one separates only a single portion of ḥalla and gives it to him to eat. In Syria and in lands adjacent to Eretz Yisrael, such as Ammon and Moav, the law is stricter. Even when such a kohen is available, two portions of ḥalla are separated: the first, of any amount, is burned; the second, in the required amount, is eaten by any kohen, even one whose impurity issues from the body.
Unlike terumot and ma’asrot, which many Rishonim maintain apply by Torah law even when only a minority of the Jewish people are in the Land, ḥalla is different. Regarding ḥalla, nearly all Rishonim maintain that when the majority of the Jewish people are not in the Land, one is obligated only by rabbinic enactment. This is the view of Rambam (MT, Laws of First Fruits 5:5) and SA, YD 322:2. There is, however, a minority view that even ḥalla became a Torah obligation when the Land was sanctified a second time in the days of Ezra, despite the fact that only a minority of the Jewish people were then in the Land, and that this Torah obligation remains in force forever. This view is cited in Tashbetz 2:291 and Levush 322:2.
