בנים אתם לה' אלוקיך”You are children to the Lord your G’d.” The reason this paragraph follows immediately after the paragraph dealing with the עיר הנדחת is that it is forbidden to observe rites of mourning on behalf of any of the people of that city that have been executed, just as it is forbidden to observe mourning for anyone executed judicially by the court. The Torah continues to describe mourning rites which are forbidden to observe even for people for whom it is incumbent upon us to observe mourning under normal circumstances. The Torah forbids incisions in one’s flesh, לא תתגודדו, as a pagan rite of mourning practiced by the Emorites. They did this because they considered life on earth as the principal life of a person; therefore, they had no reason to consider his departure from earth as a promotion to a higher form of life in the celestial regions. Emorites were therefore correct to mourn their family members as losses never to be restored. The Torah tells us here that our whole outlook on life is so radically different that we have nothing in common with them seeing that “you are children of the Lord your G’d.” It is customary for a father to leave his son as a bequest something which was very dear to him. Seeing that we are G’d’s children and He is our father, He leaves us the bequest of the world to come as His portion for us. Seeing Jews who die have such a bright future to look forward to in the hereafter it would be most inappropriate to overreact to our loss and ignore their promotion by making painful incisions on our flesh. Pulling out one’s hair and other such symbols of our grief are equally out of the question. The Torah adds: “for you are a holy nation;” the meaning of קדוש is “separate, apart,” i.e. of all the nations of the world you have been set apart in that we receive the reward for good deeds performed in this life in another life, a life which commences with the death of our bodies.

לא תאכל כל תועבה, “Do not eat anything which is an abomination.” The reason the prohibition to eat certain creatures follows here is that this is part of the definition of maintaining a level of holiness. When the Torah spoke about the Jewish people being a holy nation (verse 2) this meant that this holiness has to be manifest both in deed and in the way one uses one’s mouth (Ibn Ezra). Our sages in Chulin 114 explain the above words to mean that G’d is saying: “anything which I described as abominable you must not eat.” This includes even matters which though permitted for consumption individually, separately, are forbidden as a mixture such as meat and milk. [This is an expansion of the meaning “abomination,” i.e. anything forbidden automatically comes under the heading “abominable.” Ed.]

שור שה כשבים ושה עזים, “an ox, sheep, and goat.” The three mentioned so far are צאן, domesticated animals kept in flocks or herds. By adding איל, צבי, יחמור,אקו דישון, תאו and זמר we get an additional 7 species making a total of ten categories of animals fit for consumption by Jews. The last-named seven, while permitted for private consumption, are not permitted as offerings on the altar. (Zevachim 34) Any free-roaming animal, חיה, is by definition not permitted as a sacrifice. [How could it serve in lieu of man who has not tamed it and exercised his authority over it? Ed.] The names of the seven last named animals reveal that they are “pure” i.e. possess the physical features described by the Torah as making them fit to eat. In Song of Songs 2,7 the first word השבעתי if read with the dot on the left side of the letter ש means that G’d provided as food ample supplies of איל and צבי, proving these animals chew the cud and have split hooves. The יחמור is alluded to in Chabakuk 3,15 where it is compared to many waters, something which is ritually pure. [I confess I do not follow this since in that same verse horses are compared to the ocean which is equally pure, whereas horses do not have split hooves. I will leave untranslated the balance of this paragraph as I do not understand it. Ed.]

השסועה, “which is split.” Our sages in Chulin 60 understand this word to refer to a species of animal having two spines and two backs. [I suppose the clue to this is the tone sign tipcha under the word הפרסה which precedes it and which separates it from the word השסועה. Ed.] This species chews the cud. Seeing that the list of animals permitted to eat, etc., has already been provided by the Torah in Leviticus chapter 11, why is it repeated here once more? The sages in Chulin 60 suggest it is because of the addition of the השסועה amongst the mammals and the ראה amongst the birds (Bechorot 6). On the other hand, the list of birds mentioned in Leviticus has a bird called דאה which is absent here. (Leviticus 11,14) The reason this bird is called ראה is supposedly because it has exceptionally good eyesight. According to Chulin 63 this bird can locate a carcass in the land of Israel while flying in the skies of Babylon. The Talmud also considers the names איה and דיה as two names for he same species of bird. Seeing this species is known by two names, the Torah repeated the entire list of birds here once more. Had it not done so, some people might consider the species not listed in Leviticus as permitted to eat, whereas others would reason that the species not mentioned in Deuteronomy is permitted to eat. The reason that the list of birds are the ones forbidden to eat, whereas the Torah listed the mammals which are permitted to eat is that there are far more species of “pure” birds, i.e. the ones we may eat than forbidden ones, whereas with mammals the situation is the reverse. Our sages base themselves on the model of the Torah when they say that when teaching people one should always endeavor to be concise, brief (Chulin 63). The species of bird known as שלך is called thus as it catches fish in the water with its beak while they are swimming (שלה, “to extricate, to draw out”). The דוכיפת is a form of wild turkey, apparently it has sort of a double “chin” (from the Hebrew כפות, “twin, double,” like כפות תמרים, the palm leaves which fold over).

לא תבשל גדי בחלב אמו, “Do not boil a kid in the milk of its mother.” I have explained the meaning of this verse in detail in Exodus 23,19. The reason it is written three times is that once it refers to the prohibition to eat such a mixture, once to the prohibition to merely boil it together, and once to the prohibition to derive indirect benefit from the result of boiling milk and meat together (Chulin 115). On folio 113 of Chulin the Talmud sees in the word גדי a restrictive clause, i.e. the prohibition does not apply to free-roaming beasts or to birds or to mammals of the kind which are forbidden for consumption by Jews. None of these are subject to this prohibition as a Biblical law though the Rabbis included the prohibition to cover all these cases (Maimonides Hilchot Maachalot assurot 9,4).

עשר תעשר, “pay both tithes.” According to the plain meaning of the text: “after you set aside and gave to the Levite the first tithe, set aside the second tithe for yourself and take it to Jerusalem to consume it there.

למען תלמד ליראה, “so that you will learn to revere, etc.” When you will meet priests and Levites in Jerusalem, scholars who teach you Torah you will learn to revere the Lord. The Talmud Taanit 9 quotes Rabbi Yochanan as saying about the words עשר תעשר that the Torah implies you should give your tithe עשר, in order that as an eventual result תתעשר, you will become wealthy (i.e. read as if the dot is on the right side of the letter ש.) Actually the wording does not contain an allusion to עושר, wealth, seeing both the letters ש have their dot on the left side, imply passivity. What Rabbi Yochanan had in mind was not עשר בשביל שתתעשר, but עשר בשביל שתעשר, “give your (first time) tithe so that you will enjoy many years when you have what to tithe.” [When understanding it thus the dots on the letter ש remain on the left side. Ed.]. This then is the “wealth” Rabbi Yochanan was speaking about. (Based on Raav’ad, but never printed separately in this form.) This is certainly something in the category of an experiment, i.e. appears to violate the commandment not to “test the Lord” (Deut. 6,16). Our sages in Taanit 9 were quite aware of this and this is why they quoted Malachi 3,10 where the prophet apparently allows this one exception to the rule not to test the Lord.

A Midrashic approach: The repetition of the words עשר תעשר are a veiled warning; if you do not give your tithes you will become impoverished rather than remain more wealthy by withholding the amount in question. The wording also contains a hint that people who travel overseas should donate 10% of their profits to the people who toil studying Torah (Tanchuma Re'ey 18). Another meaning of these words (Yalkut Shimoni 892): it is customary that when a person rents a field he has to give the owner at least a third or even half of the harvest. Seeing that we are “renting” the land from G’d and He provides rain clouds, dew, manure, etc., and demands only 10% of the harvest as His due we really have nothing to complain about. Considering all these facts Moses warned the people to be careful to observe this commandment meticulously. There was a farmer once who fulfilled his duty and tithed his harvest properly. As a result he was left with a net amount of 1000 measures of grain. When he was about to die he told his son to be careful to observe this commandment meticulously. He told him how much a particular field yielded annually and to be sure to give 10% of that amount to a Levite. He also told him that he himself had been able to subsist comfortably on the harvest of that field after he had set aside the tithe. The son, a miser by nature, sowed the field and in the first year it yielded the amount his father had told him about. After the first year’s harvest came in the son dutifully set aside the 10%. In the second year, he was too miserly to do this and set aside only 9% instead of 10%. He found that in the third year this field yielded only 90% of the regular harvest. Becoming upset about this he again decrease the amount he set aside for the tithe until after a number of years of such miserly conduct the field yielded only the amount which his father had given away to the Levite as a tithe. When his relatives and neighbors became aware of this they all dressed in white garments and approached this farmer. When he saw them, the son of that original owner was upset that these people apparently celebrated his misfortune [wearing white is a symbol for celebrating. Ed.] The neighbors said that they certainly did not come to gloat but seeing that in the past he had been the owner and G’d the priest (the recipient of the tithe), now the tables had been turned and this farmer had become the priest (requiring the handout) and G’d had become the owner. This is what Moses meant when he warned: עשר תעשר את כל תבואת שדך, “if you do not give the tithe you will eventually have to be the recipient of a tithe (handout).”

היוצא השדה, “which the field produces.” Tanchuma Re'ey 18 comments that “if you merit it you will go out and sow your field. If not היוצא השדה, the one known as “going out into the field,” (the Torah’s description of Esau) will harass you (compare Genesis 25,29).

תבואת זרעך, “the produce of your sowing.” if you merit it the reason you go out to your field will be to examine if it needs rain and if so you will pray and G’d will respond. If you do not merit it the reason you will go out to the field will be to bury your dead. [The whole line is based on the words היוצא השדה really meaning “he who goes out to the field,” not “what comes out of the field.” Ed.].

מעשר דגנך תירושך, “the tithe of your grain harvest, your grape harvest, etc.” It is only “your” grain harvest, if you tithe it; if not it is “My” grain harvest. The same applies to the grape harvest and the “oil” harvest. This interpretation is based on Hoseah 2,11: “Assuredly I will take back My new grain in its time and My new wine in its season, etc.” שנה שנה, “year after year.” This means that one may not tithe from one year’s harvest for the following or the previous year’s harvest. Each harvest has to be tithed separately.

ובכורות בקרך, “and the firstborn males of your cattle.” This does not mean that the (ordinary) Israelite is allowed to consume its flesh, seeing that first born male animals may be consumed only by the priests. It means that the people designated to eat these animals are encouraged to do so.

We have to remember that such firstborn animals are perpetually sacred, i.e. even nowadays when there is no Temple and even in the Diaspora. Such animals may not be shorn, used as working beasts, and may be eaten only if they developed the kind of blemish which disqualifies them as a potential offering for the altar. This view does not correspond to that of Maimonides who wrote in Hilchot Bechorot 1,5 that the law of the sanctity of a firstborn male animal is not applicable nowadays except in the land of Israel. Raav’ad already attacked this comment of Maimonides stating that even according to the view of Rabbi Akiva who did hold this way he meant only that the firstborn male animal nowadays cannot be offered as a sacrifice. This does not mean, however, that the firstborn male animal does not have a sacred body even nowadays and even in the Diaspora and it is out of the question to permit it to be eaten unless it developed the blemish we mentioned. The proof for this view is cited from Sanhedrin 5,1 where Rabbi Chiyah said to Rav, the son of his sister that seeing his nephew decided to emigrate to Babylon whether Rav would ordain him to make rulings there? He was told that whereas he was authorized to make rulings in matters of foods which are forbidden or permitted and in judicial matters, his authority would not extend to make rulings concerning the status of such firstborn male animals. Clearly, Babylon is considered part of the Diaspora. The reason Rabbi Chiya’s nephew was denied such authority was that these laws of sanctity did apply there. If not, why did the question arise? There is yet another proof that this sanctity applies even in the Diaspora from Bechorot 31.

מקצה שלש שנים, “at the end of three years, etc.” If a farmer had not allocated the tithes of the first and second year of the Shemittah cycle but had let them accumulate in his house, he has to remove them from there to Jerusalem in the third year, the year when the tithes for the poor are due (Rashi). Concerning the tithe of the first year he must recite the confession found in Deut. 26,28: “I have removed all sacred matters from my house.” The Levite may then help himself to the tithe from the first year, whereas the poor, etc., help themselves to the tithes which accumulated during the year of מעשר עני, the tithe for the poor was due (the third year). The owner is not permitted to eat the second tithe in Jerusalem as he had been allowed to do had he brought it there during the first or second year of the cycle. [The wording of our author in this paragraph is inaccurate, but I do not take it upon myself to correct it. Ed.]