Cohn, Jacob. The Royal Table - VWC: Faculty/Staff Web

116 THE ROYAL TABLE
a priest may not eat terumah, though both he and the
grain are in a state of cleanliness, under pain of death at
the hands of Heaven. But while ma'aser must be given to
the Levites, its use is not forbidden to Israelites, and the
former* simply have property rights in it, of which they
may dispose as they see fit, even by selling it back to Israelites.
No one, either priest, Levite, or Israelite, may
partake of grain from which neither terumah nor ma'aser
has been separated. To eat of such grain, called tebel, is
a crime expiated by death at the hands of Heaven. 30
As has been remarked above, most of these laws are
inoperative outside of Palestine, but residents of the Holy
Land are bound by a great portion of these regulations
even at this time. The procedure followed by the observant
in present-day Palestine is roughly as follows. One
takes a little more than one hundredth of the fruit which
one wishes to render edible, and pronounces profane as
much of the separated portion as corresponds to exactly
one percent of the fruit, and is situated in a certain end
of the separated portion; but the rest, that part in excess
of one per-cent, is declared terumah for all of the produce
in the bin. Then he affirms that one tenth of the produce
in the bin, and which is situated in a certain section of it,
be considered ma'aser. Finally, he adds, let the remaining
one per cent which is in the separated portion be terumah
for this ma'aser. The separated portion, which has by now
been wholly designated as terumah and terumah of
ma'aser, must be destroyed. The ma'aser may be given
to a Levite, who, by a prearranged agreement, sells or
gives it back to the Israelite, Finally, one proclaims a
tenth of the remainder second-tithe, which in the first
two or in the fourth and fifth years after the Sabbatical
w Numbers XVm.