Gittin 31a (לא.) — the Talmud in English

The verse is speaking of two terumot: one is teruma gedola ["

as grain from the threshing floor and as the full yield from the winepress"],

and one is terumat ma'aser ["

And your teruma shall be reckoned"]; and the verse juxtaposed them with one another in order to teach:

Just as teruma gedola:

a.

is taken by estimation

[without precise calculation], that is: although the Sages said to separate one-fiftieth as teruma, it is taken by estimation, since if he made an error in his calculation, there is no Torah prohibition here, for even a single grain exempts the produce from teruma by Torah law.

b.

and

is taken

by thought,

for if he wishes, he sets his eye on this side and designates it as teruma, and eats on the other side, as it is stated: “And it shall be reckoned.”

So too, terumat ma'aser is taken by estimation and by thought.

c.

And just as the owner of the house has permission to separate teruma gedola, so too the owner of the house has permission to separate terumat ma'aser.

MISHNA:

One who places produce

that is untithed in his house in order

to separate on its basis

[on the basis of this produce]

teruma and tithes,

that is: he relies on the produce that he has in his house in order to eat other untithed produce that he has, and says: “Behold, their teruma or their tithes are in the produce that I have set aside in my house for this purpose,” and he does this continually.

And likewise, one who places

money in order to separate on its basis the second tithe

and redeem it with that money.

This person

separates on its basis, presuming that it remains extant,

and has not been lost.

And

if

he went to examine them and found that they had

been lost:

He must be concerned

retroactively

from one twenty-four-hour period

that perhaps they had already been lost. And if he has not yet eaten the untithed produce or the second tithe, he must separate from them or redeem them; and in the Gemara they dispute the interpretation of “from one twenty-four-hour period.”

These are the words of Rabbi Elazar ben Shammua.

Rabbi Yehuda says:

At three periods

[times]

they examine the wine—

that he placed in order to separate on its basis—to see whether it has turned sour, in which case it is no longer fit to separate from it for wine, since one may not separate vinegar for wine; and these are periods when wine generally spoils. a.

When the east wind blows

at the close of the Festival,

when an east wind blows at the conclusion of Sukkot.

b.

And when the

samadar emerges,

when the vine produces samadar, after the flower has fallen and the grapes appear in orderly rows on the cluster.

c.

And when water begins to enter the unripe grapes,

when the grapes on the vine begin to receive moisture.

GEMARA:

We learned in the Mishna: If they were lost, he must be concerned from one twenty-four-hour period:

And we explain:

What is “from one twenty-four-hour period”?

Rabbi Yohanan said:

He must be concerned retroactively

from one twenty-four-hour period

[twenty-four hours]

of

the

examination

during which he found that they had been lost. That is: he need be concerned only with what he did on the basis of the produce and money during the preceding twenty-four hours; but he need not be concerned with what he did before that, because the Sages did not impose a stricter concern beyond this. Rather, we maintain their original presumptive status, that they were extant.

Rabbi Elazar ben Antigonos said in the name of Rabbi Elazar bar Rabbi Yannai:

Rabbi Elazar ben Antigonos says in the name of Rabbi Elazar son of Rabbi Yannai: