Tafsiran Ulangan 14:22: Tze'enah Ure'enah, Rashi, Chizkuni & Da'at Zekenim

“You shall set aside a tenth part” [14:22]. When you have given a tenth to the Levite, go and give yourself a tenth and take it to Jerusalem and eat it there. Rabbi Yohanan said in the Talmud, [tractate] Ta’anit: Give a tenth expecting that you should become rich. Even though one should not test the Holy One when he will give the tenth, but if he will give the tenth so that God should make him rich, then he will be testing God. However, our sages said: the Torah told us to test God with the tenth and with giving charity, as the verse says, “put Me to the test” [Malachi, 3:10]. This means, God said, test me with charity and giving tithes, if I will not give you double and ten times as much. The custom is that when somebody has a field and asks a friend to plow it, sow and cut it, he will give him a third or a quarter. The Holy One brings the rain and makes the grain grow and gives good dew, and desires no more than a tenth. A story occurred to someone who gave a tenth from his field every year; a hundred measures since a thousand measures of grain grew on his field every year. He left a will for his son; dear son, give the tithe properly. The first year the son gave one hundred measures, and he said: what a great amount I must give as a tithe, and the second year he only gave ninety measures. The third year he gave eighty measures and every year the field grew ten measures less every year than it used to grow, until the field grew no more than one hundred measures, just like he used to give as a tithe. His relatives came to him in beautiful clothes. He said to them: you rejoice over my disaster. They said: heaven forbid, we are rejoicing that you have become a priest. Previously, you were the owner of the field and now you are a priest. You take a tithe and the Holy One is the owner of the field. Therefore, Moses said: give a tenth, expecting that you should be worthy to give tithes in the future and you will remain wealthy.¹⁸Bahya, Deuteronomy, 14:23.

“The yield of your sowing that is brought from the field” [14:22]. Our sages said: if you will tithe properly, then you will sow the field and it will grow. However, if you will not properly tithe and give charity, then the evil Esau will come and take away that which grows. Concerning him it is written, “Esau came in from the field” [Genesis, 25:29], and here, concerning the tithe, it is written, “that is brought from the field.” We used to say, the one who will not give to Jacob, will give to Esau.¹⁹Bahya, Deuteronomy, 14:23.

THOU SHALT TRULY TITHE [ALL THE INCREASE OF THY SEED] — What has this matter to do with that? (Why are they placed in juxtaposition)? But the Holy One, blessed be He, says in effect to Israel: “Do not compel Me to blast by heat the tender kernels of the grain, whilst they are yet in their mother’s womb (i.e. in the husks), for if you do not tithe your products as is proper, when they are near ripening I shall bring forth the east wind and it will blast them”, as it is said, (2 Kings 19:26) “[Therefore … they were] as the corn blasted before it be grown up” (Midrash Tanchuma, Re'eh 17). A similar reason may be given for בכורים (for its juxtaposition to לא תבשל גדי (Exodus 34:26).