[1] The word terumah refers to various types of offerings, but most commonly to terumah gedolah (תרומה גדולה, "great offering"), which must be separated from agricultural produce and given to a kohen (a priest of Aaron's lineage), who must eat it in a state of ritual purity.
[8] The word is used in various contexts throughout the Hebrew Bible, including one use in Proverbs which may denote haughtiness or graft.
[22] The Mishnah, Tosefta, and Gemara include a tract entitled Terumot which deals with the laws regulating terumah.
[33] Israelites who separate the terumah for the priests may still do so in a state of ritual impurity, so long as the fruits touched by them have not come in contact with water after being picked from the tree or uprooted from the ground, or such as with one of the seven liquids that make the fruits susceptible to uncleanness (wine, blood, oil, milk, dew, bees' honey, and water[a]).
All people nowadays are presumed to be impure due to corpse uncleanness, so terumah cannot currently be eaten by priests.
Thus, in modern Israel it is common for priests to be made partial owners of zoos and similar institutions, so that terumah separated from commercial produce can be donated to them and not wasted.
[38] Similarly, terumah from olive oil may be used by priests to light lamps, and is known as shemen s'reifah (Hebrew: שמן שריפה).