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Tithe as Gift: The Biblical Institution in Light of Mauss's Prestation Theory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 October 2009

Menahem Herman
Affiliation:
Rockville, Md
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Extract

This study presents a new interpretation of tithe references in Scripture. It departs from the conventional view that the tithe is merely a tax levied on the people. Rather it sees the tithe as a partnership or compact with God in which tangible goods are exchanged for intangible ones. Taking the Pentateuch in its entirety as our contextreveals the tithe to bepart of a pattern of reciprocities in which goods are exchanged for divine acceptance, protection, and blessing.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Jewish Studies 1993

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References

1. Biblical ordinances dealing with the tithe include Priestly (Lev. 27:30–33, Num. 18:21–32) and Deuteronomic sources (Deut. 12:6–7, 11–12, 17–18; 14:22–29; 26:12–15).

2. For a more complete discusssion of the various scholarly views on the tithe, see the author's doctoral dissertation, Tithe as Gift: The Institution in the Pentateuch and in Light of Mauss's Prestation Theory (San Francisco: Mellon Research University Press, 1991), pp. 737.Google Scholar

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5. Ibid, p. 70.

6. Ibid, pp. 70–71.

7. Ibid, p. 27.

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10. Beginning with the period of the Restoration, emphasis was placed upon living a life consonant with the mitzvot, i.e., the ritual and ethical precepts of the Torah as defined by Judaism. The observance of the tithe became a singular expression of Jewish piety throughout the period of the Second Temple. See Herr, M. D., “Yerushalayim, ha–Mikdash ve-ha-Avodah ba-Meziyut u-be-Toda'ah bi-Yemei Bayit Sheni: Perakim be-Toldot Yerushalayim be-Yemei Bayit Sheni,” in Abraham Schalit Memorial Volume, ed. A, Oppenheimer, U., Rappaport, and , Stern (Jerusalem: Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi and Ministry of Defense, 1980), pp. 168173Google Scholar; Wintermute, O. S., “Jubilees. A New Translation and Introduction,” in The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, ed. Charlesworth, James H. (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1985), 2:38, 40, 48. Other Jewish writings from the second century B.C.E. maintained that tithing was to be taken as an indication of personal piety. See Solomon Zeitlin's introduction to The Book of Judith, trans., commentary, and critical notes by Morton S. Enslin (Leiden: E. J. Brill, for Dropsie University, 1972), pp. 33–34. Urbach cites R. Joshua, who refers to tithing activity in the period precedingthe restoration of the Temple (m. 'Ed.8:6). See E. E. Urbach, Ḥazal: Pirkei Emunot ve-De'ot(Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1971), p. 600, n. 57. Talmudic sources make plain the fact that tithing was long regarded as the mark of Jewish pietyGoogle Scholar. See Min-Hahar, S., Ha-Areẓ u-Miẓvotehah (Brooklyn: Haskel Publications, 1969), p. 30. Finally, the tithe laws of the Mishnah “probably reflect the practices observed for the most part in the Persian and Greek periods.”Google ScholarMarcus, Ralph, Law in the Apocrypha (New York: AMS Press, 1966), p. 107.Google Scholar

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22. Ibid, p. ix.

23. Lukes, “Mauss.”

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25. Ibid, pp. 37–40.

26. Ibid, p. 22.

27. Ibid, p. 37.

28. Ibid, pp. 3910.

29. Ibid, p. 9.

30. Ibid, pp. 12, 15–16.

31. Ibid, p. 58.

32. Ibid

33. Ibid, p. 22.

34. Ibid, p. 45.

35. Ibid, p. 81.

36. Ibid, p. 80.

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42. Ibid, pp. 219–220.

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46. Ibid, pp. 15–17.

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56. McConville, Law and Theology,pp. 3–4. According to Weinfeld, Num. 18 describes the tithe as a levitical wage in a manner akin to the ancient Near Eastern covenant of grant. Weinfeld, Moshe, “The Covenant of Grant in the Old Testament and in the Ancient Near East,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 90 (1970): 201202CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For the association of nᾱtanwith covenant formulas, see Weinfeld, Moshe, Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic School (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), p. 72, n. 2.Google Scholar

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59. Ibid, p. 54.

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64. Ibid, p. 76.

65. Ibid.

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67. Ibid, pp. 192–193.

68. Weiner, Women of Value,p. 213.

69. Sahlins, Stone Age Economics,pp. 192–193.

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