(Devarim 26:12) "then you shall give to the Levite, the stranger, the orphan, and the widow": Give each one his (specific) share.

"and they shall eat it in your gates and be sated": Give them as much as they need to satiate them — whence it was ruled: The poor man is given no less in the (allocation of the poor-tithe in the) threshing floor than half a kav of wheat or a kav of barley. These are the words of R. Yehudah. R. Meir says: a kav.

"in your gates": We are hereby apprised that it is not to be taken outside of Eretz Yisrael. They said: There was a family of the house of Navtalah in Jerusalem, who were given six hundred talents of gold by the sages, and who would not take them outside of Jerusalem.

(Ibid. 13) "And you shall say": in any language.

"before the L-rd your G-d": This is the ma'aser (tithe) confession.

"I have removed the holy thing": This is second-tithe (viz. Vayikra 27:30) and neta revai (fruit of the fourth year [viz. Vayikra 19:24]).

"I have given it to the Levite": This is first-tithe. "And I have also given it": This is terumah and terumath ma'aser.

"to the stranger, to the orphan, and to the widow": This is second-tithe, leket, shikchah, and peah, even though their omission in the confession does not invalidate it.

"from the house": This is challah.

(Bamidbar 15:20) Variantly: "from the house": Once it has been removed from the house, nothing further is required.

"according to all of your mitzvah": So that if he gave the second-tithe before the first, he cannot make the confession.

"as You commanded me": I have not given it to one unfit for it.

"I did not depart from Your mitzvoth": I did not tithe from one species for another, nor from the detached (from the ground) to the unattached, nor from the unattached for the attached, nor from the new for the old, nor from the old for the new.

"I did not forget": to bless You and to mention Your name upon it.

(Devarim, Ibid. 14) "I did not eat in my mourning of it": If he had eaten it in mourning, he could not make the confession.

"and I did not consume of it in uncleanliness (tumah)": whether it (the tithe) were unclean and I, clean; or it, clean and I, unclean.

"and I did not give of it for the dead": I did not take of it for the making of casket and shrouds for the dead. These are the words of R. Eliezer. R. Akiva said: It is forbidden to a living person, how much more so for a dead one! What, then, is the intent of "for the dead"? That I did not exchange it even for something clean (to be used for the dead).

"I have hearkened to the voice of the L-rd my G-d": I have brought it to the Temple. "I have done according to all that You commanded me": I rejoiced and I rejoiced others therewith. (Ibid. 15) "Look down from Your holy abode":

We have done (with respect to the tithes) what you decreed upon us — You do what you have promised us.

"Look down from Your holy abode, from the heavens and bless your people, Israel" (with sons and with daughters. "and the land which You have given us" (with dew and rain and offspring of beasts". "just as You swore unto our fathers a land flowing with milk and honey": so that it impart a flavor to the fruits. From here it was ruled: Israelites and mamzerim confess (over the tithes) and not freed slaves, for they have no portion in the land. R. Meir says: Neither do Cohanim and Levites confess, for they took no portion in the land. R. Yossi says: They have cities with open spaces.