Resources for Yevamos daf 86

1.      The גמרא says that we make a דרשה that just as תרומה is טובלת so too מעשר is טובלת. רש"י explains that the גמרא understood that eating  טבל carries with it an עונש of מיתה בידי שמים because of the תרומה that is within it. תוספות in ד"ה מה תרומה asks two questions: First, מעשר contains תרומת מעשר which carries with it an עונש of מיתה בידי שמים, wo why is תרומה more obvious that it is טובלת than מעשר? Second, according to רש"י’s פּשט it should be מותר for כהנים to eat טבל since they are allowed to eat תרומה! Therefore, תוספות disagrees and says תרומה being טובלת is learned from a separate דרשה. While תוספות’s questions seem quite strong, רש"י is not alone. The ר"ן in נדרים דף פּ"͏ד ד"ה קסבר also says that טבל is אסור because of the תרומה inside it. In answer of תוספות’s first question, the אפיקי ים in סימן י"א says a יסוד: there is a מחלוקת ראשונים as to what happens if you are מפריש תרומת מעשר before you are מפריש the מעשר itself (which is of course going out of order). The ר"ש seems to hold it is not חל and the רמב"ם  seems to hold it is. The אפיקי ים suggests that רש"י would agree with the ר"ש  that it does not work. According to that, he suggests that תרומת מעשר doesn’t even exist before you are מפריש מעשר. If so, there is no מיתה by טבל from the תרומת מעשר since the whole notion of תרומת מעשר doesn’t come in to being before מעשר is removed. As to the second question of why a כהן can’t eat טבל, the אתוון דאורייתא in כלל ב ד"ה עד כה says the following: the גמרא in חולין דף ק"כ says that נבלה is never allowed for כהנים. The fact that כהנים eat מליקה which is a bird that was not schechted is not considered that the כהן ate his own food—rather it is משלחן גבוה קזכי. In other words, when a כהן eats קדשים, we aren’t saying the כהן owns the food and is eating normally. Rather it is Hashem’s food that a כהן is allowed to eat. Similarly, when a כהן eats תרומה after it is הופרש it isn’t really the כהן’s food either but rather משלחן גבוה קזכי. According to that, if you eat תרומה while it is still טבל before it is הופרש, it is like eating a קרבן before you bring the necessary parts on the מזבח—it is אסור for all to eat, including כהנים. While it may seem to be a חידוש to apply the concept of משלחן גבוה קזכי to תרומה, the רמב"ם  actually says that almost explicitly in  הלכות תרומות פּרק י"ב הל׳ י"ט. He says there that כהנים are not allowed to go around begging ישראלים for תרומה. Rather they must get it בכבוד since they are eating "על שלחן המקום".

2.      The גמרא says that עזרא made a קנס on the לווים to not give them מעשר since they didn’t come back with him to ארץ ישראל. תוספות in ד"ה מר asks that we find many places in ש"ס where it says that מעשר goes to the לוי even after the time of עזרא. תוספות answers that according to ר"ע who holds the מצוה is to only give מעשר to the לווים then the קנס may have been to give both  לוויםand כהנים and those סוגיות would go like ר"ע. The רדב"ז on theרמב"ם  in הלכות מעשר פּרק א הל׳ ד asks how could עזרא had made a קנס on לווים for all time? Furthermore, what happened when לווים did come to לווים ארץ ישראל to work in the בית המקדש? How did they support themselves if they worked in the בית המקדש and had no land? He answers that he believes the קנס was that if a לוי and כהן came together they would only give the כהן but if a לוי came himself they would give the לוי. Theרמב"ם  himself says (there) that עזרא’s קנס was only for his time and not for future generations. The question on that is that our גמרא of ר"ע and ראב"ע was after עזרא and the גמרא was clear that the קנס applied in their time! The דרך אמונה on theרמב"ם  answers that עזרא’s “time” was all of בית שני and this story was at the end of בית שני. 

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