{"id":12157,"date":"2026-07-11T00:02:51","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T21:02:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ph.yhb.org.il\/en\/?p=12157"},"modified":"2026-08-05T12:37:06","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T09:37:06","slug":"17-11-02","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ph.yhb.org.il\/en\/17-11-02\/","title":{"rendered":"02. The Distinctive Character of \u1e24alla"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"direction: ltr\"><em>\u1e24alla<\/em> is one of the twenty-four gifts that Israel is obligated to give to the kohanim. These gifts are meant to free the kohanim from the burden of earning a livelihood, enabling them to fulfill their sacred mission of teaching Torah to Israel and guiding them in mitzvot and proper conduct. Among these gifts, <em>\u1e25alla<\/em> has a distinctive place. It comes from bread, humanity\u2019s staple food, and it creates a continuous bond between the holiness of the priesthood and the ordinary work of preparing food in the Jewish home.<\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr\">Unlike <em>terumot<\/em> and <em>ma\u2019asrot<\/em>, which landowners distributed in the fields in large quantities several times a year, <em>\u1e25alla<\/em> was woven into the rhythm of daily life. Each day, as bread was prepared in the home, a Jewish woman would give <em>\u1e25alla<\/em> to her <em>kohenet<\/em> neighbor. In this way, the making of bread \u2013 the most ordinary and necessary act of household life \u2013 became connected to the values of holiness.<\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr\">Once <em>\u1e25alla<\/em> is separated, it becomes sanctified like <em>teruma<\/em>: non-kohanim may not eat it, and kohanim may eat it only in a state of <em>tahara<\/em>, as the Torah states: \u201cLike the gift of the threshing floor, so shall you set it aside\u201d (Bamidbar 15:20). For this reason, great care had to be taken that the <em>\u1e25alla<\/em> not become <em>tamei<\/em>, because once it did, it could no longer be eaten.<\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr\">This made the mitzva unusually delicate. Produce becomes susceptible to <em>tum\u2019a<\/em> only after it has come into contact with water for washing, food preparation, or some other use. Until then, it cannot contract <em>tum\u2019a<\/em>. <em>Teruma<\/em> from fruit could usually be separated before the fruit had been exposed to water, thereby avoiding the problem of <em>tum\u2019a<\/em> at the outset. The obligation of <em>\u1e25alla<\/em>, however, begins only after flour is mixed with water and turned into dough. If the person preparing the dough was <em>tamei<\/em>, her hands would make the dough <em>tamei<\/em>, and the <em>\u1e25alla<\/em> separated from it would also become <em>tamei<\/em>. This would dishonor the mitzva and cause the <em>\u1e25alla<\/em> to be lost, since it would no longer be fit for the kohen to eat.<\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr\">Therefore, when a woman was kneading dough while in a state of <em>nidda<\/em> or another form of <em>tum\u2019a<\/em>, she would call her <em>kohenet<\/em> neighbor to knead the dough for her. The woman who owned the dough would recite the berakha over separating <em>\u1e25alla<\/em>, and the <em>kohenet<\/em> would take her portion (<em>Yerushalmi<\/em>, <em>\u1e24alla<\/em> 3:1). In this way, the mitzva of <em>\u1e25alla<\/em> greatly strengthened the bond between Jewish households and the families of kohanim.<sup><a id=\"_te01ftnref11_1\" class=\"aup1\" href=\"#_te01ftn11_1\">[1]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr\">By Torah law, the mitzva of <em>\u1e25alla<\/em> is fulfilled by separating even a small amount. The Sages, however, required a meaningful gift: at least one twenty-fourth of the dough, about four percent. For a commercial baker, whose livelihood depends on the bread he sells, they set a smaller minimum of one forty-eighth, about two percent; since he generally works with large batches, even this smaller fraction is still a respectable gift. If the dough became <em>tamei<\/em> unintentionally, even someone baking at home separates only one forty-eighth, since the kohen cannot eat the <em>\u1e25alla<\/em> in any case (<em>Mishna<\/em>, <em>\u1e24alla<\/em> 1:9; 2:7; <em>Yerushalmi<\/em>, <em>\u1e24alla<\/em> 2:3; SA YD 328:1).<\/p>\n<div>\n<hr style=\"direction: ltr\" size=\"1\" \/>\n<div>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr\"><a id=\"_te01ftn11_1\" href=\"#_te01ftnref11_1\">[1]<\/a>. Since <em>\u1e25alla<\/em> and <em>teruma<\/em> are meant to be eaten in a state of <em>tahara<\/em>, one may not render them <em>tamei<\/em> or otherwise make them unfit for use (MT, Laws of Terumot 12:1). Nevertheless, kohanim would inevitably have periods when they were <em>tamei<\/em> and unable to eat gifts that require <em>tahara<\/em>. The Torah therefore provided them with other gifts that may be eaten even in a state of <em>tum\u2019a<\/em>, such as the foreleg, cheeks, and stomach of an animal (above, 7:4; below, 19:1).<\/p>\n<p style=\"direction: ltr\">This requirement to preserve <em>\u1e25alla<\/em> in a state of <em>tahara<\/em> also affected the way dough was prepared. If a Yisrael is <em>tamei<\/em> and therefore cannot prepare the dough without rendering it <em>tamei<\/em>, Rambam maintains that, when there is a <em>tahor<\/em> kohen within four <em>mil<\/em> who can knead the dough, the Yisrael must bring him the dough so that it can be prepared in <em>tahara<\/em> (MT, Laws of Bikkurim 8:11). Tosafot formulate this obligation in the case of someone traveling on the road (Tosafot, <em>Pesa\u1e25im<\/em> 46a, s.v. <em>legabei<\/em>), while most poskim apply it even to someone at home: whenever a <em>tahor<\/em> kohen is within four <em>mil<\/em>, the Yisrael must make the effort to have the dough prepared in <em>tahara<\/em> (<em>Mahari Kurkus; Kesef Mishneh<\/em>; and others). If no <em>tahor<\/em> kohen is available within that distance, or if the Yisrael cannot reach him, the poskim disagree: Ramban and Rashba maintain that he should knead the dough in small batches, each below the <em>\u1e25alla<\/em> threshold; Rambam maintains that he may knead the full amount in a state of <em>tum\u2019a<\/em>, even though the <em>\u1e25alla<\/em> will then be <em>tamei<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u1e24alla is one of the twenty-four gifts that Israel is obligated to give to the kohanim. These gifts are meant to free the kohanim from the burden of earning a livelihood, enabling them to fulfill their sacred mission of teaching Torah to Israel and guiding them in mitzvot and proper conduct. Among these gifts, \u1e25alla [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[232],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-17-11"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>02. 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