Demai 6:10 - 6:11

טול אתה עבודת כוכבים ואני מעות – even though that they exchange idolatry and wine known to have been manipulated by an idolater they are forbidden to derive benefit from them, here it is permitted until they don’t come in to his (i.e., the convert’s) hand because the inheritance by a convert of his [non-Jewish] father is not from the Torah, but rather from the Scribes/Soferim (i.e., scholars of the ante-Tannaitic period beginning with Ezra). And this is not similar to a person who is a member of the order for the observance of the Levitical laws in daily intercourse/חבר and an עם הארץ /a person who does not observe certain religious customs regarding tithes and Levitical cleanness who inherited their father who was an עם הארץ – for even prior to it coming to his hand, it is prohibited to tell him: “you take the wheat and I will take the barley,” for there, the inheritance is from the Torah, and it is as if it had come into his hand.

סוריא – these are the lands that [King] David conquered that were not from the Land of Israel as for example, Aram Naharyim and Aram Zoba, and because all of the Land of Israel was not yet conquered . therefore, they were not sanctified with the sanctity of the Land [of Israel] even though it was the conquest of the majority [of the people] but in some of the laws it is like the Land of Israel and in some of the laws it is like outside the Land of Israel (see also Tractate Gittin 8a). And a person who purchases produce in Syria is not liable to separate from them doubtfully tithed produce because most of the produce that is sold in Syria comes from outside the Land of Israel, therefore if he said that they are tithed, he is believed because if he had desired, he could have said that they are from outside the Land of Israel and he would be believed, as it is taught in the Mishnah in Chapter 1 [Mishnah 3 of Tractate Demai] and elsewhere he is believed, here also, when he said: “they were from the Land of Israel and that I tithed them,” he is believed.

שהפה שאסר – when he said that they are from the Land of Israel and they are liable for tithing, this is the [same] mouth that permitted when he said: “I have tithed them,” for just as we believe him in what he forbids when he stated that they are from the Land of Israel, he is believed also in what he permits when he said, “I tithed them.”

משלי הן – from the field that I have here in Syria, he is obligated to tithe as the produce of Syria they (i.e., the Rabbis) decreed concerning the doubtfully tithed produce that was known to have grown there.

ואם ידוע שיש לו שדה – and there isn’t here: “the mouth that prohibited is the mouth that permitted,” for since it is known that he has a field, it is not explicitly stated, that he brought the produce from his field but he was not trustworthy to state that they come from outside the Land of Israel, therefore, when he said, “I tithed them,” he is not believed, for there is the lack of a מיגו – he could have made an argument more advantageous for himself.