Mitzvah 284) Not to eat untithed produce

Parshas Emor

“And they may not profane the holy things of Klal Yisrael!” (Vayikra 22:15)

It is a negative commandment that one may not eat untithed produce. This refers to food which has not had the necessary Terumah and Maaser taken from it, as it says “And they may not profane the holy things of Klal Yisrael, that which they will separate for Hashem!”, and Chazal received a transmission that the explanation of this verse is that one may not profane the holy food when it is still mixed with permissible food, which means before the necessary tithes have been separated, and this is what the verse means when it says “that which they will separate for Hashem!”, which is an expression in the future tense, which means that the tithes have not yet been separated.

Amongst the laws of this commandment are that if untithed produce became mixed up with permissible food, the untithed food makes the other food forbidden even in minute proportions.

This prohibition applies to the whole of Klal Yisrael, to men and women, and even priests and levites, even though they themselves are allowed to eat the various tithes after they have been separated, and it applies even to produce belonging to the priests themselves.