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Meilat Bedek HaBayit and Korbanot

Meilah (4:1) | Yisrael Bankier | 9 hours ago

The Mishnah (5:1) teaches that if one derives a perutah's worth of benefit from hekdesh, they violate the prohibition of meilah.

The Grach (Meilah 8:1) explains that the issue with meilah is that it is considered as if one stole from hekdesh. He uses this understanding to explain why the Torah needed a pasuk to teach that a worker may not eat from a field of hekdesh whilst he is working. Recall that normally a worker is allowed to eat from the food that he is working with. However, that is only in his "friend's" field and not in a field of hekdesh. If the issue with meilah related to being a slight on hekdesh (a pegam), the Torah would not need to teach that a worker is not able to eat in a field of hekdesh. That would be obvious. If however, the issue with meilah is stealing from hekdesh -- a monetary issue -- then since a worker is allowed to eat in the field in which he is working, it is not considered stealing from hekdesh when doing so. That is why the Torah needed to teach that a worker may nonetheless not eat in a field of hekdesh.

The Netivot HaMishpat (28:103) however explains that there is a difference between hekdesh that is the property of the temple treasury and a korban. While for hekdesh it can be as we explained, a korban is different. He cites the Gemara in Keritut (13b) that rules that the prohibition of Meilah is violated if one consumed part of a korban that was also notar (left beyond the required time it was meant to be consumed). Notar must be burnt and has no monetary value and therefore would not be considered stealing. He therefore explains that the korban meilah that is brought in that context is to atone for benefiting from something that is kadosh.

The Shaarei Yosher (3:23) however cites Rashi who explains that for a korban it does need to have any value, rather only some kodesh use to violate the prohibition, such that it can still be considered stealing.

A further proof may be brought from the earlier Mishnah (4:1) that taught that this minimum amount needed to violate the prohibition can be satisfied from multiple different kodesh items. The Mishnah also explains that this is even if one of the items was the property of the temple treasury and the other was a korban. The Bartenura explains that the benefit derived from both these objects can combine to make the perutah's amount such that one would violate the prohibition of meilah.

The Shaarei Yosher explains that this Mishnah proves that the reason for meilah for both hekdesh and korbanot must be the same. If the reasons were different then they would not be able to combine.

One could however present a different understanding of this Mishnah. The Tosfot (15a, s.v. echad) explains that hekdesh and korbanot can combine to the volume of a kezayit. The explanation at first is puzzling. For meilah the amount is a perutah in value and not a kezayit volume. The Rashash explains that that the Tosfot is referring to where one ate from both hekdesh and korbanot. He directs our attention to the Gemara in Pesachim (33a) where the Gemara derives the volume of kezayit for meilah from terumah.

The Chazon Ish (Meilah p340) notes that, according to Rashi and Tosfot, what is learnt from the connection to terumah is the prohibition of [consuming]{.underline} hekdesh (as opposed to the prohibition of benefiting from hekdesh). These are two different things. Accordingly, if one benefited from hekdesh inadvertently, a pertuah's worth and even less than a kezayit, they would be liable to bring the korban. Conversely, if one were to deliberately eat a kezayit worth of Kodesh, even if it was not a perutah's worth, one would be liable to lashes. It however must be a kezayit in size. Less than that, even if it were a pertuah's worth, one would not be liable to lashes despite violating the prohibition of benefiting from hekdesh.

With that said, one can suggest that no proof can be brought from our Mishnah, since, according to the Tosfot, our Mishnah is not referring to benefit from hekdesh. For that they would not combine. Instead, the Mishnah is referring to the other prohibition of consuming hekdesh that applies equally to be both hekdesh and korbanot and can combine to the volume of a kezayit.

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