Commentary for Numbers 18:29

מכל מתנתיכם תרימו את כל תרומת ה׳ OUT OF ALL YOUR GIFTS YOU SHALL HEAVE EVERY HEAVE OFFERING UNTO THE LORD — Scripture is speaking here of the “Terumah Gedolah” (not of תרומת מעשר, for this is dealt with in verse 28); the meaning is, that if the Levite came to the field before the priest, when the grain has been made into a heap (i.e., after it has been threshed, when it becomes subject to the law of Terumah), and received his tithes before the priest took the Terumah Gedolah from the heap, the Levite must first set apart the fiftieth part (the usual proportion of the crop which the Israelite gives to the priest) of the tithe as “Terumah Gedolah” and then again set apart the תרומת מעשר (i.e. the tithe of his tithe) (Shabbat 127b).

The major terumah… Since “from all of your tithes” (v. 28) implies the terumah of the tithe, then “you must set aside all of the terumah-gifts of Hashem” must refer to the major terumah. But how could this be, for surely an Israelite would have already given the major terumah-gift? Therefore Rashi explains that this is a case where the Levite pre-empted the kohein. This means after threshing, not while the grain was in on the stalks, because if the Levite pre-empted him at that stage he would only be obliged to give the kohein the terumah of the tithe.

V. 29. מכל מתנותיכם וגו׳ (siehe zu V. 25) מכל חלבו: es ist Pflicht, die תרומה von dem Guten und nicht von dem Schlechten zu geben, אין תורמין מן הרעה על היפה (Temura 5a).

מכל מתנותיכם תרימו, “out of all that has been given to you, you must set aside, etc.; this is to teach you that even what grows on the fields which have been allocated to the Levites as a kind of enlarged garden adjoining their houses, the Levites are obligated to give tithes to the priests. The Levite is not allowed to claim that he need not tithe what he has himself grown on these plots, using logic to support their argument. His logic would run as follows: “seeing that I receive from others part of what they have grown, surely I am entitled to keep what I have grown myself with the sweat of my brow.” This is why the Torah emphasises that everything that the Levite has been allocated by the Torah is in the nature of a “gift,” מתנותיכם, “a gift for you,“ you did not have to labour hard in order to obtain it. Compare the text of the Torah in Numbers 35, 2: ומגרש לערים סביבותיכם תתנו ללוים, “and open land round about of the cities inhabited by the Levites you shall give to the Levites. “

את מקדשו ממנו an diesem Ausdruck wird die דרבנן-Bestimmung festgehalten, dass תרומה עולה באחד ומאה, dass eine Mischung von תרומה in gleichartige מין במינו ,חולין eins in hundert בטל wird. תרומת מעשר ist nämlich aus hundert eins, und dieses eine aus hundert wird hier מקדשו, dasjenige genannt, durch welches die übrigen neunundneunzig, wenn mit ihm gemischt, den קדש-Charakter hätten und אסורים לזרים wären. In hundert חולין ginge aber ein תרומה auf. Eine nicht aufgehende תרומה-Mischung in חולין heißt דמוע (siehe Wajikra 7, 19) und die Wirkung מְדַמֵעַ (Orla 2, 1).

מכל חלבו את מקדשי ממנו, “of all the best thereof, even the hallowed part thereof out of it.” This is a reference to the t’rumah, the 2% (average) given to the priest from the gross amount of the harvest, before the tithe is set aside for the Levite.