The owner of the produce has the right to decide which kohen will receive his terumot and which levi will receive his ma’asrot. As it says: “Each man’s sacred things shall be his; whatever a man gives to the kohen shall be his” (Bamidbar 5:10). This right is meant to create a personal bond between the produce owners and the kohanim and levi’im, encouraging the kohanim and levi’im to devote themselves to sacred service within their communities, so that community members will want to give them their gifts. A kohen or levi who is diligent in teaching Torah to children and adults, and whose wisdom and counsel benefit others, will naturally be preferred when people distribute their gifts. By contrast, one who keeps his distance from the community, acts arrogantly, or is lazy and fails to teach Torah will naturally find that the community responds in kind when the gifts are distributed.
Once a kohen receives produce separated as teruma, it becomes his property. He may sell it to other kohanim, who will eat it in purity, and use the money to buy whatever he wishes (Ḥullin 131a). However, since a kohen may not engage in commerce with teruma (Mishna, Shevi’it 7:3), the system was not meant to create a situation in which beloved and respected kohanim and levi’im receive far more than they need, while others receive nothing. These gifts, after all, consisted of food. Once the most admired kohanim and levi’im receive enough to provide for their families generously, it made little sense to give them more than their households could eat. It is better for the owner to form a relationship with other kohanim and levi’im, who are more available to build a spiritual and Torah-learning bond with those who choose to give them their gifts.
In this way, the mitzva creates an ongoing bond between Jewish landowners as a whole and the full body of kohanim and levi’im. The most devoted kohanim and levi’im are given preference and receive everything they need in abundance. Those who are less welcoming, or who do not make the effort to teach their students well, receive fewer gifts. When difficult years come and the harvest is small, so that the gifts are not enough to support all the kohanim and levi’im, those who have not served their communities properly suffer shortage.
The usual practice was for the kohanim and levi’im who had a relationship with the owner of the produce to come to the place where the produce was gathered in the fields and receive their gifts there. The owner’s obligation was to separate terumot and ma’asrot, not to deliver them to the homes of the kohen and levi. If the kohen or levi did not come to the field, the Sages enacted that the owner should bring the gifts to the kohen or levi at home, or hire someone to do so, while the kohen or levi would pay the standard cost of transport (Ḥullin 134b; MT, Laws of Terumot 12:17). Presumably, when a landowner wished to give his gifts to a kohen or levi who was great in Torah, he would volunteer to bring them to his home, so as not to interrupt his Torah study.
Kohanim and levi’im may not take the gifts without permission. Similarly, they may not help the owner with his work in order to receive the gifts, because doing so deprives their fellow kohanim and levi’im and desecrates the name of Heaven. Those who behave this way disgrace their sacred role, and it may be assumed that they do not teach Torah properly either. About them the prophet said: “You have turned aside from the way; you have caused many to stumble in the Torah; you have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of Hosts. Therefore I too have made you despised and lowly before all the people, because you do not keep My ways and show partiality in Torah” (Malakhi 2:8–9).
Kohanim and levi’im may not ask for terumot or ma’aser in an undignified way either. These gifts are God’s, and He commanded that they be given to them with honor. As it says: “Behold, I have given you charge of My terumot, from all the sacred things of the Children of Israel; I have given them to you le-mashḥa” (Bamidbar 18:8). Le-mashḥa means “for greatness and honor,” so that they can teach Torah with dignity. As it says: “For the lips of a kohen shall guard knowledge, and they shall seek Torah from his mouth, for he is an angel of the Lord of Hosts” (Malakhi 2:7; Bekhorot 26b; Tosafot, Bekhorot 51b, s.v. hilkhakh; MT, Laws of Terumot 12:18–19).[2]
[2]. Just as kohanim and levi’im may not assist at the threshing floors in order to receive the gifts, they also may not pay in order to receive them, nor may they pay to have the gifts directed to another kohen or levi, because doing so demeans the dignity of their position. However, a Yisrael may pay a modest amount to the produce owner to give his gifts to a particular kohen or levi. Likewise, if a Yisrael has a grandson who is a kohen or levi, he may pay a modest amount to the produce owner so that the gifts are given to his grandson (Bekhorot 26b–27a). This is permitted only if the produce owner had already considered giving the gifts to that recipient because of his relationship with him. If that possibility had not occurred to him beforehand, he may not do so (MT, Laws of Terumot 12:20–21).
Although the produce owner has tovat hana’a – the personal benefit of choosing which kohen will receive his teruma – Rambam maintains that if a kohen seizes the teruma, it is not taken back from him, because tovat hana’a is not considered money (MT, Laws of Terumot 12:15). Tosafot, however, maintain that since the right to choose the kohen remains with the produce owner, the teruma is taken back from the kohen who seized it (Ḥullin 131a, s.v. yesh). The same law applies to a levi who seizes the ma’aser.
A kohen may eat teruma whose obligation applies by Torah law only if his lineage has been verified by testimony. For example, witnesses might testify that his father or grandfather had offered sacrifices, since a kohen could not offer sacrifices without proper testimony that he was descended from Aharon the kohen. By contrast, teruma whose obligation is rabbinic, such as teruma separated from demai, may be given even to kohanei ḥazaka – kohanim who are accepted by the community as such, even though their lineage has not been formally established by testimony (Ketubot 25a; MT, Laws of Terumot 6:2; Laws of Forbidden Relations 20:1).
