Menachot 67

Today we find ourselves in a talmudic discussion of items exempted from Jewish obligations because they are owned or used by non-Jews. For example: Produce becomes obligated in terumah (a tithe for priests) only once it’s been harvested, stacked and smoothed — meaning the stacked piles are evened out. The rabbis wonder: If a non-Jew smooths over a pile of produce and ownership is subsequently transferred to a Jew, is the produce liable for terumah?

A similar question is posed with regard to challah — not the braided bread popularly eaten on Shabbat, but the portion separated from dough to give to the priests. Challah is separated from kneaded dough. The question is: If the dough was owned by a non-Jew at the time it was mixed and kneaded and then the dough was transferred to a Jew, is the Jew required to separate challah?

For Rava, these questions are essentially the same — and so is the answer:

Rava then said: The one who says that the smoothing of a grain pile by its gentile owner exempts also maintains that the kneading of dough by its gentile owner exempts. The one who says that the smoothing of a grain pile by a gentile owner does not exempt also maintains that the kneading of dough by a gentile owner does not exempt.

Other rabbis raise a series of challenges on Rava’s statement, pointing to multiple earlier rabbis who appear to hold that grain is still liable for terumah even if smoothed by a non-Jew, but that dough is exempt from challah when kneaded by a non-Jew. Apparently, the rulings for these two cases don’t necessarily align.

The Gemara resolves things for Rava:

(This ruling that the smoothing of a grain pile by its non-Jewish owner does not exempt it from the obligations of tithes is only) by rabbinic law. The sages enacted a decree due to the schemes of people of means.

Apparently, on a Torah level, when a non-Jewish owner smooths a grain pile, it’s forever exempt from tithes. However, the sages instituted a rabbinic decree that one is nonetheless required to separate tithes from that grain, because of “the schemes of people of means.” Rashi explains that this refers to exceptionally wealthy people who own many lands and begrudge the need to separate tithes from vast quantities of produce. To avoid this, they would transfer ownership of their produce to a non-Jew, have the non-Jew smooth the grain piles, and then acquire it back, thus sneakily avoiding their obligation. Early tax evasion. To foil this scheme, the rabbis decreed that even grain smoothed by a non-Jew is obligated in tithes.

The Gemara follows up by asking: Why don’t we apply the same decree to challah, to deter such evasion there as well? The answer:

It is possible for him to bake using less than five-fourths of a kav of flour and a bit more.

Only dough made with one and a quarter kavs of flour is obligated in challah. Depending on whose opinion you go by, that equates to somewhere between 2.5 and 4.9 pounds, which is a pretty significant amount. The Gemara says that even if the rabbis issued a decree here like with terumah, people could still evade the obligation by baking small loaves, so it wouldn’t be worthwhile. Therefore, while terumah smoothed by a non-Jew is obligated in terumah, dough kneaded by a non-Jew is not obligated in challah.

The Gemara proceeds to note that there are in fact other ways of evading the obligation in terumah, even with the rabbis’ decree — such as bringing it into his courtyard in its chaff and having his animals eat it, or bringing it into his home by means of rooftops rather than the usual entranceway. Which leads to the question: If it’s possible to avoid separating terumah even with the rabbis’ decree, then why bother? The Gemara answers:

There, it is in public, and it is degrading for one to be seen. Here, it is in private, and it is not degrading for him.

These other methods of avoiding the obligation of terumah are public: People will see what the tax dodgers are doing, and it will damage their reputation. Therefore, the rabbis are less worried that this will be a widespread phenomenon, because even people trying to avoid their taxes have some sense of shame. By contrast, dough is made in one’s home, so the act of simply making smaller batches at a time to avoid separating challah is a private act, and a person won’t be ashamed to undertake it. Since they can easily get away with this form of evasion, a decree about the status of dough kneaded by a non-Jew won’t ultimately prevent people from skipping their challah obligation.

Read all of Menachot 67 on Sefaria.

This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on March 19, 2026. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.