3,559. Beginning the Laws of Neta Revai

Hilchos Maaser Sheini and Neta Revai 8:15

Let’s say that some people who are ritually clean and others who are ritually unclean are eating together in Jerusalem. The ritually clean people want to use some of their second tithe money for food (which must then be eaten in ritual purity). In such a case, they should put aside a sela of second tithe money and declare that the sanctity of the sela is transferred to whatever the ritually clean people eat. The sela is rendered secular because they eat and drink its value while ritually clean. This only works so long as the ritually unclean people don’t touch the food, which would render it likewise unclean.

Hilchos Maaser Sheini and Neta Revai 9:1

Fourth-year produce (neta revai) is holy, as per Leviticus 19:24: “In its fourth year, all of its produce will be holy, consecrated to God.” It must be eaten in Jerusalem by its owners the same as second tithe. Just as second tithe doesn’t apply in Syria (meaning lands annexed by Israel), neither does neta revai. Referring to neta revai, Numbers 5:10 teaches that a person’s consecrated property belongs to him. Neta revai is the only consecrated property about which the Torah doesn’t tell us who should receive it.