Parshas Hashovua-Parshas Eikev

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       לז"נ צארטל בת ר' אליעזר הלוי הי"ד ח"י מנחם

Vort On Parshas Hashavua

                                                                                                                                                             ואכלת ושבעת וברכת

The Yerushalmi in Meseches Challah (Perek 1 Hl.6) says, a person is Mekayam 10 Mitzvohs before he can eat bread. The Yerushalmi enumerates them as follows:

לא תחרוש שור וחמור (1

בל תזרע (כלאים) (2

בל תחסום (שור בדישו) (3

לקט (4

שכחה (5

פיאה (6

תרומה (7

מעשר ראשון (8

מעשר שני (9

חלה (10

The Tur (O.Ch. 167) writes, a person when making Hamotzie

should place his two hands,10 fingers on the bread , for

the 10 Mitzvohs that is done with the bread.

The Tur* enumerates the 10 Mitzvohs of the Yerushalmi

with one exception. Instead of בל תחסום he replaces

it with   ביכורים

There actually is one** more Mitzvah,  תרומת מעשר.

If we add , תרומת מעשרand    ביכוריםwe end up with

12 Mitzvos.

It is possible, this to be the reason why, the Yerushalmi

and the Tur, both, mention placing the two hands and the ten

fingers. (adds up to 12).

We still need to understand why they only count 10

Mitzvos when there are 12 Mitzvos. (I have no answer)

*The Pirush HaTur Al HaTorah enumerates like the

Yerushalmi (בל תחסום and not ביכורים)

**  we don’t count מעשר עני,  because it is either a year

of  מעשר שני or a year of מעשר עני and not both