Demai (tractate)

Demai (, meaning "agricultural produce about which there is a doubt whether it has been properly tithed" is the third tractate of "Seder Zeraim" ("Order of Seeds") of the Mishnah and of the Talmud. It deals with the Jewish legal concept of "demai", doubtfully tithed produce, and concerns the laws related to agricultural produce about which it is suspected that certain obligatory tithes have not been properly separated in accordance with requirements specified in the Torah. The tithes in question are "ma'aser rishon" (the first tithe, for the Levite), "terumath ma'aser" (the Levite's tithe to the kohen), and "ma'aser sheni" (the second tithe, for the owner to consume in Jerusalem) or "ma'aser ani" (the tithe for the poor), depending on the year of the Sabbatical year cycle.
The tractate consists of seven chapters and has a Gemara only in the Jerusalem Talmud. There is a Tosefta of eight chapters for this tractate.
Etymology.
The etymology of the word "demai" is uncertain, and it seems that the rabbis of the Talmud were unclear about it. The Amoraim of the second generation (250–290 C.E.) seem to derive it from an Aramaic question meaning "whether?" signifying "is this tithed or not?" The Jerusalem Talmud connects it to the root "d-m-y", in the sense of "perhaps" as in "perhaps he prepared it [the tithe], perhaps he did not prepare it." It is possibly a linguistic parallel to the opposite term, "vadai", "certain."
Other explanations, cited by Nathan ben Jehiel, the author of the Talmudic lexicon, the Arukh (11th century C.E.) also derive the meaning from Aramaic expressions, such as "din ma'i" or "da ma'i", meaning "what is this the law" or "what is this?" in reference to the produce that is subject to tithing.
Benjamin Musaphia, the annotator of the Arukh (17th century C.E.) understands that the word originates from the Greek word "demos", people, meaning produce of the "am ha-aretz", the ordinary "people of the land" about whom there was doubt whether all were sufficiently knowledgeable or careful about observing the laws concerning tithes.
Subject matter.
This tractate concerns the laws regarding agricultural produce about which there is a doubt as to whether the rules relating to the tithes were strictly observed. This doubtfully tithed produce is known as "demai".
The background to the discussions of this tractate is that according to the Torah, Israelite farmers were obligated to separate three types of tithes: 
The Levites also had to contribute from the tithe that they received from the Israelites to the kohanim, consisting of a tenth part of the tithe they had received; it was called "terumath ma'aser" (offering from the tithe) or "ma'aser min ha-ma'aser" (tithe from the tithe) ().
During the period of the Second Temple, doubt began to arise among scrupulous observers of the law (known as "haverim") as to whether produce had been properly tithed when they bought from farmers who were likely to be uneducated, or unscrupulous about separating the tithes. This type of individual was known as an "am ha'aretz" (person of the land), someone whose trustworthiness was questionable.
The "am ha'aretz" was not suspected of not giving "terumah" (gifts to the priests), because it required only a small payment comprising one-hundredth of the produce, and because "terumah" had a degree of sanctity that made it a severe transgression for a non-priest to eat.
However, because it was doubtful whether the produce of the "am ha'aretz" had been tithed, the "haverim" who bought grain from them had to designate part of the produce as "ma'aser" (a tithe for the Levites or the poor) and "ma'aser min ha-ma'aser" (a tenth part of that tithe), albeit in a way that reduced financial loss.
Of general note in this tractate are disputes between the Houses of Shammai and Hillel, the sages from Yavne, as well as material from the generation of Usha contained in this tractate.
One of the earliest uses of the concept of "monopoly" in a commercial sense appears in this tractate, regarding the purchasing of agricultural goods from a dealer who has a monopoly on the produce (chapter 5; 4).
The Gemara contains a few passages of Aggadah. For example, the conscientiousness of Rabbi Phinehas ben Jair regarding the laws of tithes is described along with other acts of piety for which he was well-known.
Structure.
The tractate consists of seven chapters and 53 paragraphs ("mishnayot"). It has a Gemara – rabbinical analysis of and commentary on the Mishnah – only in the Jerusalem Talmud; it also has Tosefta.
There is no Gemara in the Babylonian Talmud for this tractate or indeed for any of the tractates of this order of the Mishna, other than tractate Berakhot, as the laws related to agriculture that they discuss generally have no practical application outside of the Land of Israel.
Demai, with its seven chapters, is an exception to the usual pattern of arranging the tractates in order according to the numbers of their chapters; it appears third in the Mishnah and Jerusalem Talmud, and in most manuscripts of the Tosefta, before tractates with more chapters.
The Tosefta has a few modifications and additions. It divides Chapter 2 of the Mishna into two parts, and thus has eight chapters instead of the seven of the Mishnah. The eighth paragraph of the sixth chapter of the Mishnah corresponds to the beginning of the eighth chapter of the Tosefta.
An overview of the topics of the chapters is as follows:
Commentaries.
Commentaries on this tractate include the following:
In modern times, two comprehensive works have been published:
In addition to the commentaries listed to the above, commentaries specific to tractate Demai, or to the laws of demai are the following:
Works that are of assistance interpreting the many botanical references in tractate Demai include the following:
Historical context.
A rabbinic tradition (cited in Mishnah Sotah, Tosefta Sotah, and the Jerusalem Talmud in Sotah and Ma'aser Sheni) indicates that the institution of "demai" was in force at the time of the Hasmonean High Priest Yohanan Hyrcanus (135–104 B.C.E.). On the other hand, a "Baraita" in the Babylonian Talmud (Sotah 48a), describes Yohanan as the person who instituted "demai" upon discovering that most people only separated the priestly "terumah" offering and neglected the tithes.
The contents of this tractate mostly reflect conditions in Judea and the Galilee during the second century C.E. and particularly the conditions in the Galilee after the Bar Kokhba revolt (132–136 C.E.). Most of the Tannaim whose opinions are recorded in this tractate are from this period.
The tractate contains data about the social life and institutions of the time and the social and commercial relations between the various segments of the population, such as the "chaver", the "am haaretz", employers and workers, and innkeepers and their guests. The Gemara in the Jerusalem Talmud indicates that there were inspectors who distinguished between produce that was properly tithed ("metukan") and the "demai", and that there were also officers appointed to watch the sale of articles of food and keep the prices low.
The Gemara also has considerable information about the produce of the Land of Israel. Many names of fruits and vegetables, in addition to those mentioned in the Mishnah, are cited in the Gemara, along with information about the markets and names of places inside and outside the Land of Israel.