Study Meilah folio 22A with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
Text Excerpt
רב פפא אמר: כיסין אלוגין רמא ליה, דתנן: הלוקח יין מבין הכותים
Rav Pappa said yet another version of Reish Lakish’s question. He raised a contradiction between the Mishnah here involving purses and another Mishnah referring to a log measure. As we learned in a Mishnah (Demai 7:4): In the case of one who purchases wine from among the Samaritans [Kutim] and there is reason to suspect that teruma and tithes were not separated, and he cannot separate them before the start of Shabbat, what should he do?
אומר: ״שני לוגין שאני עתיד להפריש – הרי הן תרומה, עשרה – מעשר ראשון, תשעה – מעשר שני״, ומיחל ושותה מיד, דברי רבי מאיר.
The Mishnah explains that he proceeds as follows. If, For example: there are 100 log of wine in the jugs, he says: Two log that I will separate in the future are teruma, as the established average measure of teruma is 1/50th; 10 log are first tithe; and 1/10th of the remainder, which is 9 log, are second tithe. And he desacralizes the second tithe that he will separate in the future, transferring its sanctity to money, and he may drink the wine in the jug immediately, relying on the separation that he will perform later. This is the statement of R' Meir.
רבי יהודה ורבי יוסי ורבי שמעון אוסרים! אמר ליה: סיפא דמתניתין באומר ״לא יפטר כיס זה מן ההקדש״.
R' Yehuda and R' Yosei and R' Shimon prohibit one from doing so. These 3 rabbis reject the principle of retroactive designation, upon which this method relies, as at the time of the declaration the identity of the particular portions of wine that will be teruma and tithes is unknown. Even according to R' Meir, one can rely on retroactive designation only in a case where he says: That I will separate in the future. In the case of the Mishnah here, each peruta might be the consecrated one, and one cannot rely on the last one. R' Yoḥanan said to him: The latter clause of the Mishnah is referring to a situation where one said: This purse will not be exempt from consecration, in which case he is understood as referring to the last peruta left in the purse.