Aterumah(Hebrew:תְּרוּמָה), thepriestly duesorheave offering,is a type of offering inJudaism.The word is generally used for offerings to God, but can also refer to gifts to a human.[1]
The wordterumahrefers to various types of offerings, but most commonly toterumah gedolah(תרומה גדולה, "great offering" ), which must be separated from agriculturalproduceand given to akohen(a priest ofAaron's lineage), who must eat it in a state ofritual purity.Those separating theterumahunto the priests during the time when the Temple stood were required, as a rule, to do so also in a state ofritual purity,as being unclean could render theterumahunfit for consumption.[2]Today, theterumahis separated and either burnt or discarded.
Etymology
editThe wordterumah( "lifting up" ) comes from the verb stem,rum(רוּם, "high" or "to lift up" ).[3]The formation ofterumahis parallel to the formation oftenufah('תְּנוּפָה,wave offering) from the verb stemnuf,"to wave," and both are found in theHebrew Bible.[3]In a few verses, English Bible translations (such as theKing James Version) have translated "heave offering," by analogy with "wave offering":
And thou shalt sanctify the breast of the wave offering, and the shoulder of the heave offering, which is waved, and which is heaved up, of the ram of the consecration, even of that which is for Aaron, and of that which is for his sons:[4].
Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: 'When you come into the land to which I bring you, 'then it will be, when you eat of the bread of the land, that you shall offer up a heave offering to the Lord.[5].
Hebrew Bible
editThe term occurs seventy-six times in theBiblical HebrewMasoretic Textof theHebrew Bible;[6]in theGreekSeptuagintit was renderedafieroma(ἀφιέρωμα), in the1917 JPS Tanakhit is generally translated "offering";[7][unreliable source?]while in the King James Version (1611) it is also generally translated "offering" but also sometimes "oblation"and four times" heave offering ".[8]
The word is used in various contexts throughout the Hebrew Bible, including one use in Proverbs which may denote haughtiness or graft.[9]In most contexts it refers to designating something for a higher purpose, orlifting apartof a quantity from a larger quantity).
The Bible refers to the following offerings, among others, using the termterumahor the verbleharim:
- The gifts offered by the Israelites for the inauguration of theTabernacle(Mishkan)[10]
- Portion ofgift offerings,ofslaughter offerings,which were allocated to the priests.[11]
- The half-shekelTemple tax[12]
- Thedough offering(challah)[13]
- The meat of Israelites' sin- and guilt-offerings[14]
- Various priestly gifts:terumah gedolah,Bikkurim (First-fruits),herem,bechor,pidyon haben[15]
- Thefirst tithe[16]
- Terumat maaser[17]
- Spoils given toEleazarafter the war withMidian[18]
- InEzekiel's prophecy, gifts that were to be given to thenasi(prince or king)[19]
- InEzekiel's prophecy, land which was to be set aside for use of the Temple, priests, and Levites[20]
Terumah gedolah
editInhalakah(Jewish law), the wordterumahby itself refers to the "great offering" (terumah gedolah).[21]According toHizkuni,thisterumahis called "great" because it is the first of all tithes given on produce, and thus is given from the "greatest quantity of produce" before any other gift is given.[22]TheMishnah,Tosefta,andGemarainclude a tract entitledTerumotwhich deals with the laws regulatingterumah.[23]
Terumah gedolahmust be given to the Jewish priest, and is considered one of theTwenty-four priestly gifts.The consumption ofterumah(bothterumah gedolahandterumat hamaaser) is restricted by numerousTorah-based commandments, and could be eaten by priests, their families, and their servants. Israelites would separate thisterumahfrom their finished grain, wine and oil, prior to separatingmaaser rishonforLevites.Unlike themaaser rishon,theTorahdid not specify any minimum measure forterumah gedolah;hence, even one grain of barley could satisfy the requirement to separateterumah.However, based onEzekiel 45:13,the rabbis conclude that an "average" offering would be 1/50 of the produce, a generous one 1/40, and a stingy one 1/60.[24]
Terumah gedolahcould only be separated from the non-tithed produce (tevel), andterumat maaseronly be separated frommaaser rishonby its owner (or an authorized, legally permissible agent). Minors,deaf-mutes,the mentally ill and non-Jews were not obligated to perform such separation.[25]However, while non-Jews could not act as agents for Jews to separateterumah,theterumahowned by and separated by non-Jews was considered valid and had the status and sanctity ofterumah[26][27]
Produce designated for the poor (peah, leket, shichecha) and unowned crops were not subjected to (and could not be used as)terumah.[28]Each type of produce had to be individually tithed.[29]A small whole fruit was preferably given, rather than part of a larger fruit.[30]Terumahhad to include the best produce if akohen(priest) lived nearby.[31]
Purity
editTerumahthat is designated for the priests must be separated in a state ofritual purity.[32][33]The phenomenon of priests purifying themselves to eatterumahwas so well-known that nightfall (when their pure status would take effect after immersion in amikveh) was described as "the hour when priests enter to eat theirterumah".[34]
In addition, it is forbidden to intentionally causeterumahto become impure.[33]Israelites who separate theterumahfor the priests may still do so in a state of ritual impurity, so long as the fruits touched by them have not come in contact with water after being picked from the tree or uprooted from the ground, or such as with one of the seven liquids that make the fruits susceptible to uncleanness (wine, blood, oil, milk, dew, bees' honey, and water[a]).[35][36]If, however, the fruits were made wet by one of these liquids and a person who was ritually unclean had then touched them, the fruits become defiled.
All people nowadays are presumed to be impure due tocorpse uncleanness,soterumahcannot currently be eaten by priests. Impureterumahgenerally must be burnt,[37]but can also be eaten by the priest's livestock. Thus, in modern Israel it is common for priests to be made partial owners ofzoosand similar institutions, so thatterumahseparated from commercial produce can be donated to them and not wasted.[38]Similarly,terumahfrom olive oil may be used by priests to lightlamps,and is known asshemen s'reifah(Hebrew:שמן שריפה).[39]
See also
edit- Terumah (parashah)– the nineteenth weekly portion of the Torah. It primarily contains the instructions on how to create the Tabernacle.
References
edit- ^As inish terumot,a "[judge] who loves gifts" (Proverbs 29:4;seeConcordance).
- ^MishnahTohorot2:4 (commentaries).
- ^abJewish antiquities: or, A course of lectures on the three first books,p. 198. David Jennings, Philip Furneaux, Thomas Godwin – 1825 "This waving was of two kinds; one calledterumah,fromrum, elevatus est,which, they say, was performed by waving it perpendicularly upward and downward; the other,tenuphah,fromnuph, agitare, movere".
- ^Exodus 29:27
- ^Numbers 15:18–19
- ^"MikraotGedolot – AlHaTorah.org".mg.alhatorah.org(in Hebrew).Retrieved2024-02-27.
- ^"JPS Bible 1917".Archived fromthe originalon 2012-03-14.Retrieved2011-05-30.
- ^"H8641 – tᵊrûmâ – Strong's Hebrew Lexicon (kjv)".Blue Letter Bible.Retrieved2024-02-27.
- ^Proverbs 29:4.
- ^Exodus 25:2–3,35:5, 21, 24, 36:3, 6.
- ^Exodus 29:27–28;Leviticus 7:14, 32, 34,10:14–15;Numbers 6:20.
- ^Exodus 30:13–15.
- ^Numbers 15:19–21.
- ^Numbers 18:8.
- ^Numbers 18:11–19.
- ^Numbers 18:24.
- ^Numbers 18:26–30.
- ^Numbers 31:20, 41, 52.
- ^Ezekiel 45:13–16.
- ^Ezekiel 45:1, 6, 7,Ezekiel 48:8–10, 12, 18, 20–21.
- ^Kehati,introduction to tractateTerumot.
- ^Chizkuni, Devarim 18.
- ^Joel Gereboff,Rabbi Tarfon, the tradition, the man, and early Rabbinic Judaism,1979, "K. This [the opinion that an Israelite betrothed to akohenmay eat heave-offering prior to her nissu'in, is the] first mishnah. "
- ^Mishnah Terumot 4:3;Jerusalem TalmudTerumot 4:3.
- ^Terumot 1:1.
- ^Terumot 3:9.
- ^Simcha Fishbane,Deviancy in early rabbinic literature,p. 153 – 2007 "above laws that are intrinsic to the Land of Israel.34 Yet we find a Mishnah in Tractate Terumot (3:9) that states:" A gentile and a Samaritan, that which they separate is [valid] raised offering and that which they take as tithes is ".
- ^Mishnah Challah 1:3; Talmud Shabbat 68a.
- ^Mishnah Terumot 2:4, 6.
- ^Mishnah Terumot 2:5.
- ^Mishnah Terumot 2:4.
- ^Leviticus 22:2–3;Mishneh Torah,Terumot 7:1.
- ^abMeiri(2016).Sefer Chidushei ha-Meiri(in Hebrew). Vol. 5. Zikhron Yaʻaḳov: ha-Makhon le-hotsaʼat sefarim ṿe-khitve yad shele-yad ha-Merkaz le-ḥinukh Torani. p. 546 (Makkot 14b).OCLC49017353.
A priest (Cohen) who is ritually unclean is prohibited from eating the 'terumah'... A defiled person who touches the hallowed thing has committed an offense, since it is forbidden for him to defile the hallowed things or to bring upon them impurity, seeing that that would invalidate them... and even the 'terumah' it is forbidden to defile.
- ^MishnahBrachot1:1.
- ^MishnahMakhshirin1:1, Commentary ofMaimonides
- ^Danby, H.,ed. (1977),The Mishnah,Oxford:Oxford University Press,pp.758 (note 1),765–766,ISBN0-19-815402-X,s.v.Makshirin1:1 (note 1);ibid.6:4
- ^Mishnah(Taharot4:5);Nathan ben Abraham's Mishnah commentary (ibid.).
- ^"כילוי יבול תרומה במגזר הציבורי | מכון התורה והארץ-'למעשה' אקטואליה הלכתית".www.toraland.org.il.Retrieved2024-02-27.
- ^Mishnah(Hallah4:9;Terumah11:10);Babylonian Talmud(Shabbat23b), commentaries.