Today, kohanim may not eat teruma, even if the teruma has not become tamei. Since everyone is presumed to have contracted tum’a from the dead, and we cannot purify ourselves from this impurity without the ashes of the red heifer, kohanim are unable to eat teruma in a state of tahara.
At the same time, teruma retains its sanctity. This creates a practical tension: it must be kept from consumption, but it may not be treated disrespectfully or destroyed unnecessarily. Teruma that has not become tamei may not be burned or actively destroyed; it must be left until it decays on its own, or else buried. Teruma that has become tamei, by contrast, should ideally be burned, so that no one will mistakenly eat it.
For ordinary household amounts, the accepted practice is to wrap the teruma respectfully and place it in the trash, whether or not it has become tamei. Burning teruma is often difficult, and a person may not always know whether the teruma has become tamei; if it has not, burning it would be forbidden. Wrapping it solves both problems: it prevents people from eating it, while ensuring that it is not discarded disgracefully.
Large quantities of teruma require greater care. If the teruma has not become tamei, it may not be actively destroyed. It should be placed at the side of the field until it decays on its own. If there is concern that people may eat it, it is proper to bury it or cover it lightly with soil. If it has become tamei, it should ideally be burned; alternatively, it may be buried or crushed in a way that destroys it and prevents people from eating it.[8]
If teruma becomes mixed with non-sacred produce (ḥullin) of the same species (min be-mino)– the teruma is nullified if the ḥullin is at least one hundred times the amount of teruma. If it becomes mixed with ḥullin of a different species – min be-she’eino mino – and the teruma cannot be separated from the mixture, as when everything has been crushed together, it is nullified if the ḥullin is at least sixty times the amount of teruma. In other words, once the non-sacred produce so overwhelms the teruma that its presence is halakhically insignificant, the mixture may be eaten. If there is not enough ḥullin to nullify the teruma, the entire mixture must be treated as teruma (MT, Laws of Terumot 13:1–2). In pressing circumstances, one may ask a Torah scholar to annul the original designation of terumot and ma’asrot, following the rules of vow annulment, as explained in the previous section.
[8]. Teruma that has not become tamei may not be destroyed (MT, Laws of Terumot 12:1). Sefer ha-Teruma writes that it should therefore be buried, so that no one mistakenly comes to eat it. This is also the view of Smag, Tur YD 331:19, Yam Shel Shlomo, and Taz 331:9.
However, when dealing with teruma that has become tamei, a different issue arises. The Mishna states that such teruma is burned (Temura 33b), but the authorities disagree about what this requirement entails. According to Rashi, Rid, and R. Ovadia of Bartenura, the essential requirement is to remove it from use so that no one mistakenly eats it. Burning is one way to do that, but it is not required specifically. According to Tosafot, Ramban, Rashba, and Ritva, however, it must be burned, like sacrificial meat that became disqualified (Shabbat 25a). We saw a similar dispute above, 2, note 3, regarding orla and vineyard kilayim: some authorities require burning specifically, while others understand that the main requirement is to prevent improper benefit. Ḥatam Sofer (OḤ 180) writes that one who burns teruma that became tamei fulfills a mitzva, but is not obligated to do so. In all cases, one must ensure that no one comes to eat it.
This background explains the accepted practice today. People generally do not follow the stricter practice of burning teruma, both because burning is burdensome and because delay in finding a way to burn it could itself lead to mistakes. In addition, since the obligation of teruma today is rabbinic, we may rely in a case of doubt on Rashi’s view, which does not require burning specifically. Even where the obligation to separate teruma applies by Torah law, Tosafot (Shabbat 25a) write that it is uncertain whether the requirement to burn teruma that became tamei is itself a Torah obligation. Therefore, the custom is to wrap the teruma and place it in the trash, whether or not it has become tamei. The wrapping prevents disgrace, since it is forbidden to treat teruma disrespectfully even after it has become tamei (Yerushalmi, Shevi’it 8:2; Ha-Ma’aser Ve-ha-Teruma 1, note 39).
Some object to this practice when the teruma has not become tamei. They argue that produce may rot more quickly when sealed inside a bag and placed in the trash. Furthermore, when the bag is later transferred to a larger communal trash bin, the bag may tear, leaving the teruma exposed, filthy, and degraded.
In practice, however, these concerns are not enough to prohibit the accepted custom. It is not certain that teruma rots more quickly in a bag (see Peninei Halakha: Shevi’it 4, note 2), and there is also a reasonable chance that the bag will remain intact when placed in the communal bin. Thus, any possible destruction would be only a doubtful case of indirect causation – safek grama – and any degradation would be an unintended result – davar she-eino mitkaven. Therefore, there is no prohibition.
When there are large quantities of teruma that has not become tamei, and there is concern that people may eat it, one possible solution is to spray it with a foul-smelling substance. Since the substance can be washed off, this does not destroy the produce. One may not, however, turn the produce into compost, because that actively speeds up its decay; see R. Azriel Ariel’s article in Ha-Torah Ve-ha-Aretz 4.
