Challah 4:7-8

Challah 4:7

If Jews were sharecroppers to non-Jews in Syria (referring to land annexed to Israel), Rabbi Eliezer says their produce is obligated in tithes and the laws of the sabbatical year, but Rabban Gamliel says they are exempt. (The debate hinges on whether or not Syria is considered like Israel proper when the real estate belongs to a non-Jew.) Rabban Gamliel says that challah is separated twice in Syria (one to burn and one to give to a kohein), while Rabbi Eliezer says it is separated once (and given to a kohein). The Sages originally accepted the former lenient opinion of Rabban Gamliel and the latter lenient opinion of Rabbi Eliezer but they later changed their minds and accepted both positions of Rabban Gamliel.

Challah 4:8

Rabban Gamliel said that there are three territories with respect to the laws of challah. From Israel until K’ziv (all the land held by the Babylonian exiles), one challah is separated. From K’ziv north until the river Kasmiah and Mount Amana (land held after the original conquest of the land but not by the Babylonian exiles), two challos are separated – one to be burned and one to be given to a kohein. The one that is burned has a prescribed measure (1/48 of the dough), while the one given to a kohein does not. From the river Kasmiah and Mount Amana south and west (land not held in the original conquest of the land), there are again two challos but in this instance the one that is burned has no prescribed measure and the one given to a kohein does (again 1/48 of the dough). Additionally, a kohein who is a tevul yom (who immersed from ritual impurity but must wait for sunset to be rendered clean) may eat this challah (which is only challah at a rabbinic, rather than a Biblical, level). It still may not be eaten by a zav or a zavah (a man or a woman who experienced particular bodily emissions), a niddah (a menstruant) or a woman after childbirth, but it may be eaten at the same table with a non-kohein, and it may be given to any kohein (even an unlearned kohein who cannot be relied upon to observe the laws of ritual purity).