Home -- Content: Series 7 (Laws) -- Translation: English -- Book: 1 (Tora) -- Part: 1 (Positive) -- Command: 127 -- Text
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The Sharia of Moses in the TORA
Part 1 - The 248 Positive Commandments of the Tora
127 - THE FIRST TITHE
The tithe referred to in this commandment, i.e. the first tithe, once the Levite had set aside its heave-offering, which he gave to the priests as prescribed, it possessed no sanctity whatever. It could be eaten by non-priests, and in a state of uncleanness.* As a punitive measure against the Levites of his generation – for having refused to be of those that went up to Jerusalem from Babylon (Ezra 8: 15) – Ezra at that time decreed that the first tithe be given to the priests rather than to the Levites.**
** Mishneh Torah, Zeraim, Hilchoth Maaser I, 4