Dough offering

The dough offering (Hebrew mitzvat terumat hallah Hebrew: מצוות תרומת חלה‎‎) is a positive commandment requiring the owner of a bread dough to give a part of the kneaded dough to a priest. This commandment is one of the twenty-four kohanic gifts.

The common modern practice in Orthodox Judaism is to burn the portion to be given the Kohen, although giving the hallah to a Kohen for consumption is permitted outside of Israel (permitted with restrictions, see article below for detail).

The origin of the offering is found in Book of Numbers 15:18-20:

Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, 'When you enter the land where I bring you, then it shall be, that when you eat of the food of the land, you shall lift up an offering to the LORD. Of the first of your dough you shall lift up a cake as an offering; as the offering of the threshing floor, so you shall lift it up. From the first of your dough you shall give to the LORD an offering throughout your generations

In the above passage "cake" is khallah (Heb. חלה) while "of dough" is ʿarisah (Heb. עריסה). The return of the Jews from the Babylonian exile marked a renewal in adherence to numerous commandments, and the dough offering, "the firstfruits of our dough," is listed as one of them (Nehemiah 10:37).

The Mishnah contains a tractate M. Hallah dealing with the dough offering. Among the rulings are that it was prohibited to set aside dough offering and tithes from dough made from grain harvested after the New Year, in behalf of dough made from "old" grain.

The Talmud Yerushalmi implies that the Mitzvah was given before the sin of the Twelve Spies (Taanit daf 23b)

The halakhic sources for the mitzvah are Shulhan Arukh, Yoreh Deah 322 and Maimonides Bikkurim Chapter 5 Section 1.

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