“Every year you must take one tenth of everything your seed produces in the field, and eat it in the presence of Adonai your God. In the place where he chooses to have his name live you will eat the tenth of your grain, new wine and olive oil, and the firstborn of your cattle and sheep, so that you will learn to fear Adonai your God always.“-Deuteronomy 14:22-23
We are now introduced to the annual tithe from the fruit of the land that was to be given back to God.
Why was the tithe given?
The answer is simple.
God was, after all, the owner of the land and thus had a right to a portion of the land’s increase.
But more than just being an owner of the land, it was the Lord Himself who was responsible for the land’s fertility and increase.
The tithe which literally means one-tenth was to be brought to the central sanctuary.
However, until King Solomon built the Temple in Jerusalem in the mid-900’s B.C., the central sanctuary was not really “central”.
Instead, it was the Wilderness Tabernacle at this time and it was relocated from one place to another more than a few times, although the majority of the time it was located in Shiloh.
The purpose of the tithe as practiced in ancient Israel was different than the pagan nations at the time.
Generally, among the gentile nations, the tithes were simply the taxes that were paid to the King.
Not so with Israel because Israel didn’t even have a king in its beginning years as a nation.
Since the tithe at this time was the produce from the fields, this proved to be a real challenge to those Israelites who lived far away from the central sanctuary wherever it was located at the time.
Remember the Israelites were going to be spread out over several thousand square miles once they were settled in the Promised Land.
Hence, for those living far away from the Tabernacle, any agricultural produce they would attempt to bring to the Tabernacle would be in danger of spoiling or…
…if they were transporting animals, some of them might get lost, become sick or even be attacked by wild beasts during the long journey.
Not to mention the fact that it was a serious pain in the neck to have to carry a ton of produce and animals to the Tabernacle at the appointed times.
In fact, the more fields one possessed, the bigger the crop yield and thus the bigger the tithe that would have to be given.
This would require a ton of wagons and manpower to transport all that agricultural produce to the central sanctuary.
Was there anything that could be done to make the tithing process easier?
Enter verses 24 and 25.
“But if the distance is too great for you, so that you are unable to transport it, because the place where Adonai chooses to put his name is too far away from you; then, when Adonai your God prospers you, you are to convert it into money, take the money with you, go to the place which Adonai your God will choose,”
At this point, we are introduced to the principle that produce can be converted to money.
In other words, it was perfectly fine to calculate the value of the produce and then give money instead.
Thus was born the Jewish Tradition that money is nothing less and nothing more than frozen labor.
Since it takes time to make money, money represents our labor time.
So when we give money, we are literally giving a portion of the blood, sweat and tears we expended out on the fields to produce the crops.
Finally, notice the phrase “when Adonai your God prospers you”.
What we can glean from this is that it is HASHEM who ultimately controls the money and our financial destinies.
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