The Obligation to Separate Terumot and Ma'aserot in Jerusalem Part 1
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YOM YERUSHALAYIM SPECIAL TORAH VEHA'ARETZ BY RABBI MOSHE BLOOM INSTITUTE www.toraland.org.il/en of the Sabbatical year and tithes on the The Land stemmed from the fact that it was conquered by the community. Therefore, Obligation when the land was taken from their hands their conquest was nullified. Thus, To Separate according to Torah law, the land was freed from the obligations of the Sabbatical year Terumot and and of tithes because it was no longer Eretz Ma’aserot Yisrael.” The halachic ramification Rambam cites in Jerusalem is that it is permitted to offer sacrifices despite the fact that the Temple is not Part 1 standing, since sanctity is always present. Minchat Chinuch (Rabbi Yosef Ba’abad, n honor of Jerusalem Day, we will 1800-1874) writes (Mitzvah 284) that discuss Jerusalem’s special sanctity. according to Rambam’s ruling, crops IThe obligation to separate terumot and growing in the ancient Jerusalem would be ma’aseort in the Land of Israel today is biblically obligated in terumot, ma’aserot, rabbinic according to most authorities. Is and challah; if sanctity is still present to this different in Jerusalem? allow sacrifices, this surely applies to terumot and ma’aserot. Yet he adds that While Rambam writes that the initial this isn’t relevant since no crops are grown consecration of Yehoshua bin Nun is void, in ancient Jerusalem, as the Gemara states he distinguishes between different areas (Bava Batra 82b): “Gardens and orchards in the Land of Israel (Beit Habechirah 6:16): are not erected in Jerusalem.” “Why do I say that the original One generation later, the Minchat consecration sanctified the Temple and Chinuch’s ruling sparked a great halachic Jerusalem is for eternity … Because the controversy among the rabbis of Jerusalem sanctity of the Temple and Jerusalem stems regarding the obligation of terumot and from the Shechinah, and the Shechinah can ma’aserot from Jerusalem-grown crops. never be nullified. … In contrast, the [original] obligation to keep the laws More next week. 72 TORAH TIDBITS / BEHAR BECHUKOTAI 5780.