Bererah is an
option to designate after the fact a specific item between two equally possible
items. For example:
If a man buys wine from among the Cutheans (who did
not tithe their wine) he may say: ‘Two log which I am about to set aside
are terumah, ten are first tithe and nine are second tithe’, and this he
redeems and may drink [the wine] forthwith
The specific two log
of wine are set aside later. Normally this would have to be done before the
purchase was complete – but here, the wine is being purchased at dusk before
Shabbat begins. The wine is necessary for Shabbat, but there is no time for
separation.
Now this was not popular
and many of the rabbis disagreed with its viability:
They said to R. Meir, ‘Do you not agree that the wineskin
might burst and the man would thus have been drinking liquids of [forbidden]tebel?’
You may hope to
designate it later – but what if the wine is spilt and ruined?
And he replied: ‘When it will have burst [there would
be time for the question to be considered]’
And when is the time for
that consideration? Ex post facto!
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