As we learned above in section 5, the prophets and later Sages required terumot and ma’asrot to be separated in four lands adjacent to Eretz Yisrael: Babylonia, Egypt, Ammon, and Moav. Even after the Sages decreed impurity upon eretz ha-amim, they allowed kohanim to eat the teruma separated in those lands, provided the kohen was not impure with body-derived impurity, as explained above in section 10. Ma’aser sheni, however, could not be brought to Jerusalem to be eaten there. Instead, it was redeemed onto money, and that money was brought to Jerusalem and used to purchase food there (MT, Laws of Ma’aser Sheni 1:14). Since shemita does not apply outside the Land, they required terumot and ma’asrot to be separated there even during the seventh year.
In practice, already in the Geonic period, the accepted custom was not to separate terumot and ma’asrot in the four lands adjacent to the Land. The Geonim explained that once people no longer maintained ritual purity, the enactment requiring terumot and ma’asrot outside the Land no longer applied. Although Rambam and SA rule that one must separate terumot and ma’asrot in those four lands, and some maintain that this remains the preferred practice, the accepted custom is not to separate terumot and ma’asrot outside the Land at all. [16]
[16]. Rambam (MT, Laws of Terumot 1:1, 4) and SA, YD 331:1, state without qualification that one must separate terumot and ma’asrot in Babylonia, Egypt, Ammon, and Moav. In practice, however, already in the Geonic period, the custom was not to separate terumot and ma’asrot there. Rav Tzemaḥ Gaon explains that the enactment applied only as long as people maintained the laws of tum’a and tahara and kohanim would eat the teruma. Although the kohanim were impure with the impurity of eretz ha-amim, they were careful regarding other forms of impurity. Once that care was no longer maintained, they stopped separating terumot and ma’asrot as well (Teshuvot Ha-geonim, Beitza 12b). His explanation is cited by Meiri, Nidda 32a; Kaftor Va-feraḥ, ch. 15; and Mahari Kurkus to MT, Laws of First Fruits 5:7; Itur and Mikhtam write similarly.
Radvaz likewise testifies in his responsa that the custom in Egypt was not to separate terumot and ma’asrot (Teshuvot Radvaz 2:659), and this is also cited in Kisei Eliyahu 331:1 and Nahar Mitzrayim, Laws of Ḥalla 6. Nevertheless, since Rambam and SA state the law without qualification, Ḥazon Ovadia: Terumot 1 writes that separating terumot and ma’asrot in these lands remains the proper practice. Gevulot Ha-sadeh 3, note 9, even writes that one may separate with a berakha. Even so, the established custom is not to separate terumot and ma’asrot there at all, as R. Tikochinsky writes in Sefer Eretz Yisrael 2:8:7, and as stated by Mishpetei Eretz 3:10 and Kedushat ha-Aretz 1:28.
