3,552. Buying from a Non-Merchant

Hilchos Maaser Sheini and Neta Revai 8:1

If someone uses second tithe money to buy a domesticated animal for a peace offering or a kosher wild animal for secular meat from someone who isn’t a merchant and is not meticulous, the hide is rendered secular. (The presumption is that the seller was thinking he was selling the meat; it didn’t occur to him that he was selling the hide.) This is the case even if the hide is worth more than the meat. However, if someone buys an animal from a merchant, the hide isn’t rendered secular.

Hilchos Maaser Sheini and Neta Revai 8:2

Similar rules apply when someone buys sealed casks of wine. In a place where these casks are commonly sold sealed from non-merchants, the casks are rendered secular. The seller must open the casks to keep them from being rendered secular (i.e., he wishes to sell them to the buyer rather than including them with the purchase of the wine). If the seller wants to act stringently and sell the wine in exactingly measured volumes, then the cask is rendered secular.