Torah as Good Merchandise and the Five Whose Terumah Is Void

Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 363:6

Another interpretation of "For I give you a good doctrine" (Proverbs 4:2): A person who borrows from others, buys merchandise, and sets out on the road sometimes loses everything. But the Torah is not like that. Rather, a person studies one chapter here and one chapter there, and he is sustained by them. Thus, "For I give you a good doctrine." The Holy One, blessed be He, said to them: "The Torah was Mine, and you took it. Take Me along with it." This is what is written, "And let them take a portion (terumah) for Me" (Exodus 25:2). Resh Lakish said: Thus did our masters teach. Five may not set apart terumah, and if they did set it apart, their terumah is not valid: the deaf-mute, the imbecile, the minor, one who sets apart from what is not his, and a non-Jew who set apart from what belongs to a Jew. Their terumah is not terumah. And all of these are derived from this very verse. "Speak to the children of Israel" (Exodus 25:2): this excludes the deaf-mute, who neither hears nor speaks. "Whose heart moves him": this excludes the imbecile, whose heart does not move him to generosity. "From every man": this excludes the minor, who is not yet a man. And one who sets apart from what is not his, as it is said "from every man" [meaning] from what is theirs. And a non-Jew who set apart from what belongs to a Jew, even with his permission, as it is said "Speak to the children of Israel": this excludes a non-Jew, who is not of Israel.

Themes