3,337. A Broken Cask of Terumah Wine

Terumos 12:4

Let’s say that a cask of ritually clean terumah wine breaks in the upper vat when there’s ritually unclean secular wine in the lower vat. If one can salvage a reviis (about 3.3 oz.) of the ritually clean wine, he should do so. If not, he should catch the wine in his hands without stopping to wash them even though this conveys ritual impurity to the terumah wine. This will be explained IY”H in Hilchos Shaar Avos Hatuma.

Terumos 12:5

The previous halacha applies to a cask of wine when the contents of the lower vat are less than 100 times the volume of what falls into it. In such a case, the terumah wine is nullified by the secular wine. However, if the lower vat contains 100 times the volume of the cask, meaning that the terumah wine will be nullified in a mixture 101 times its original volume, or if the cask contains oil, then he should let it fall in and be rendered unclean passively rather than actively rendering it unclean with his hands. This is because the whole volume can be used as fuel, so it’s not a total loss. Similarly, if a cask of oil is spilling and one can salvage a reviis of oil in ritual cleanliness, he should do so; if not, he should save what he can in ritual uncleanliness. Since the cask has broken, he is not commanded not to save the oil in ritual uncleanliness, due to his state of agitation.