3,555. When the Price of Produce Changes

Hilchos Maaser Sheini and Neta Revai 8:7

Let’s say that someone buys produce with a sela of second tithe money and brings it into his domain. However, he didn’t pay for the produce before its price went up to two sela. In such a case, he need only pay a sela for the produce as per Lev. 27:19, 23, which teach that one acquires the produce through payment. The surplus (since he now has what is two sela worth of produce) is also second tithe.

Hilchos Maaser Sheini and Neta Revai 8:8

Let’s say that someone brings produce into his domain when it was worth two sela, but he didn’t pay for it before its price dropped to one sela. In this case, he only pays one sela of second tithe money for it, paying the second sela from secular money. If the seller is an unlearned person, one may give him the second sela from second tithe money of doubtfully tithed produce (demai). If he gave the seller a sela of second tithe money but did not yet bring the produce into his domain until it was worth two sela, what he redeemed is effectively redeemed and the buyer and seller must litigate for the difference (and the outcome depends on how they wish to proceed).