Study Gittin folio 62A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
נותנת לה ואוכלת. השתא מיגנב גנבא, חלופי לא מיחלפא?!
may give her food and she may eat it, and there is concern that she will feed others her produce that was not tithed. Now, if there is concern that the wife of the am ha’aretz might steal from her husband and give the other woman food without his permission, should there not be concern that she might exchange her own food with that of the other woman? Can she be relied upon not to make the exchange? She certainly cannot be trusted, and there is concern about this possibility. Consequently, it is not only in the cases of a man’s mother-in-law and an innkeeper that there is concern that food may be exchanged.
אמר רב יוסף: התם נמי, מוריא ואמרה: תורא מדישיה קאכיל.
Rav Yosef said: There too, the wife of the am ha’aretz rules for herself that she is permitted to do this, and she says: The ox may eat from its threshing. She thinks that while she is engaged in preparing food, it is permitted for her to take from the food and it is not considered stealing. Consequently, it cannot be learned from here that every am ha’aretz is suspected of exchanging his own food with that of another.
העיד רבי יוסי בן המשולם משום רבי יוחנן אחיו, שאמר משום רבי אלעזר בן חסמא: אין עושין חלת עם הארץ בטהרה, אבל עושין עיסת חוליו בטהרה; ונוטל הימנה כדי חלה, ומניחה בכפישא או באנחותא; וכשבא עם הארץ ליטול, נוטל את שתיהן ואינו חושש.
§ The Talmud cites a baraita (Tosefta, Demai 3:1) dealing with produce deposited with an am ha’aretz: R' Yosei ben HaMeshullam testified in the name of R' Yoḥanan, his brother, who said in the name of R' Elazar ben Ḥasma: A dough kneader who is a ḥaver may not prepare a loaf to serve as ḥalla for an am ha’aretz while keeping the ḥalla dough in a state of ritual purity. But he may prepare all of his ordinary dough while keeping the dough in a state of purity, and then take the amount required for ḥalla from it, and place it in a basket [kefisha] or vessel [anḥuta], which do not contract ritual impurity. And when the am ha’aretz comes to take what was prepared for him, he can take both the dough and the ḥalla, and the one who prepared the dough does not need to be concerned that the am ha’aretz will impart impurity to the ḥalla.