Maaser Kesafim - Where Does It Come From?

If, however, there is a needy person among you, one of your kin in any of your settlements in the land that your God ה׳ is giving you, do not harden your heart and shut your hand against your needy kin. Rather, you must open your hand and lend whatever is sufficient to meet the need.

When you have set aside in full the tenth part of your yield—in the third year, the year of the tithe —and have given it to the [family of the] Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that they may eat their fill in your settlements,

(22) You shall set aside every year a tenth part of all the yield of your sowing that is brought from the field. (23) You shall consume the tithes of your new grain and wine and oil, and the firstlings of your herds and flocks, in the presence of your God ה׳, in the place where [God] will choose to establish the divine name, so that you may learn to revere your God ה׳ forever. (24) Should the distance be too great for you, should you be unable to transport them, because the place where your God ה׳ has chosen to establish the divine name is far from you and because your God ה׳ has blessed you, (25) you may convert them into money. Wrap up the money and take it with you to the place that your God ה׳ has chosen, (26) and spend the money on anything you want—cattle, sheep, wine, or other intoxicant, or anything you may desire. And you shall feast there, in the presence of your God ה׳, and rejoice with your household. (27) But do not neglect the [family of the] Levite in your community, for he has no hereditary portion as you have. (28) Every third year you shall bring out the full tithe of your yield of that year, but leave it within your settlements. (29) Then the [family of the] Levite, who has no hereditary portion as you have, and the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow in your settlements shall come and eat their fill, so that your God ה׳ may bless you in all the enterprises you undertake.

And Rabbi Yoḥanan said: What is [the meaning of that] which is written: “A tithe shall you tithe [te’aser]”? Take a tithe [asser] so that you will become wealthy [titasher].

Multiple Authors (c. 12th-13th C)

You shall set aside a tenth part - This is what is written in the Sifri: "You shall set aside a tenth part of all the yield of your sowing that is brought from the field every year" (Deut. 14:22) [from a superficial reading] I can only find that one is obligated to tithe the yield of sowing, from where do I know that he is obligated on tithing also on interest and merchandise and all other types of gain? The text says "all" - it could have said simply "the yield of your sowing", why [does it have the word] "all"? To include interest and merchandise and all other types of ways of gain. And this too is in Hagadah: "that is brought from the field every year" - that is to say if you don't tithe your field properly, you will be left only with "what comes from the field", meaning, your field only produces according to the tithes that were taken previously, therefore, "what comes from the field" - that is to say what you were used to take to tithing from the field. A story: a certain rich man who had a field that produced a thousand kor, and that same rich man gave 100 kor for tithes, and he separated this every year, and did so all his days. When he got sick to the point of dying he called his son and said to him: 'my son, know that this field that I am giving you for inheritance gives a thousand kor every year, make sure that you will separate 100 kor as I did'. Then he died. His son stood on his place and the field produced a thousand kor as it did when the father was alive, and [the son] separated 100 kor. In the second year the son looked and understood that tithing was a great thing. He said: 'We will not separate for the next year' And the field diminished [its production] and produced only 100 kor. He was disappointed, and his relatives heard that the field diminished and that he did not separate the tithes. They all came together near him, wearing white and happy. He said to them: 'I am under the impression that you are happy with my disgrace.' They said to him: 'We are disappointed in you since you brought upon yourself all this disgrace, and why did you not separate the tithe as it would have been right to do? Come and see that in the beginning, when the field first came to your hands,you were the owner of the house and the Holy One of Blessing was your kohen, whose part [in your field] was the tithe to be given to the poor and now that you didn't separate the part of the Holy One of Blessing, the Holy One is the master of the house and you are His kohen, in that your field will not do the thousand kor it did in the beginning, when you did separate the 100 kor. And this is why it's written "to each man his holy things will be his [and whatever he gives to the kohen will be his]" (Numbers 5:10) - that is to say, when he does not separate as appropriate the only thing that will be his is his holy portion, that is, the tithe. And on this our sages said: 'the one who delays his tithes will in the end have only one tithe, as it is written '[For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bat] the seed of a homer will yield an ephah' (Isaiah 5:10). The tithe of an ephah is is three se'ahs and in a homer there are thirty se'ahs and it is written 'For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bat' and Rav Natan Haophaniel (?) explains 'what comes out of the field' that is - if not, if you do not separate the tenth will be for the one that comes out to the field, which is, the wicked Esav, which is: the idolaters will get it.

'Et kol'. R' Abba bar Kahana said this is a hint to those in commerce and seafarers that they should take one tenth [of their profit] for those who toil in Torah...

In the first chapter of Taanit, R' Yochanan says, "What is [the meaning of that] which is written: “A tithe shall you tithe”? Take a tithe so that you will become wealthy."...we have learned [from the above talmudic passage] that man is commanded to tithe his money. And the more one increases his tithe the more one’s wealth increases. And he who increases his charity, over and above what he gave for tithing, is to be praised, provided one does not dispose of more than a fifth...

Rabbi Ile’a said: In Usha [the Sages] instituted that one who dispenses [his money to charity] should not dispense more than one-fifth. That opinion is also taught in a baraita: One who dispenses should not dispense more than one-fifth, lest he need [the help] of [other] people...Rav Naḥman said, and some say it was Rav Aḥa bar Ya’akov who said: What is the verse [that alludes to this maximum amount of charity]? “And of all that You shall give me, I will surely give a tenth of it [aser a’asrenu] to You” (Genesis 28:22).

(22) And this stone, which I have set up as a pillar, shall be God’s abode; and of all that You give me, I will set aside a tithe for You.”

“Works of kindness.” That means with his person. But with his money it has a measure. This parallels what Rebbi Simeon bar Laqish said in the name of Rebbi Jehudah ben Ḥanina: They voted at Usha that a person give a fifth of his property for good deeds. How far down? Rebbi Gamliel bar Ininia and Rebbi Abba bar Cahana; one said corresponding to terumah and the terumah of the tithe, the other said (Prov. 3:9): “Honor the Eternal with your property and with the first of all your yield;” corresponding to the first of all your yield.

My brother R' Yechezkel, know that you must forward to Avraham ben Yosi the monetary-tithe [of the money] that you had lent out for him for a fee because he is obligated by an oath to bring the tithe to the treasury in his city since the profit is his. But you are not obligated by oath to give a tithe since you do not have any part of the profit. Because with regard to the agricultural tithe it states that the tithe of your cereal, the increase of thy seed. And in the Yerushalmi the monetary-tithe is derived [from the verse] ‘honour the Lord with thy resources, and with the first fruits of all thine produce (Prov. 3:9)’.

R' Betzalel Ashkenazi (1520-1592)

...R' Hameili quotes the Yerushalmi which says: In Usha they established that a person should dispose of a fifth of his property for a mitzvah and they explain there that at first it is on the principal and subsequently on the profit. And here is support for this matter, since every year Israelites were obliged to separate two tithes, in the first and second year maaser rishon and maaser sheni, and in the third year maaser rishon and maaser ani. It seems, therefore, that one tithe may be used for any mitzvah, even for his own needs, or his children, or his household, for example to produce books from which he and his children can study, or to lend them to others; for maaser sheni was eaten by himself and his children and family in Jerusalem. However, the other tithe should be used for charity for poor people, just as maaser rishon was given to Kohanim and Levi'im so that they could strengthen the Torah of the Lord, and maaser ani was given to the poor...

Rabbi Yoḥanan found the young son of Reish Lakish. He said to [the boy]: Recite to me your verse. [The boy] said to him: “A tithe shall you tithe.” [The boy further] said to Rabbi Yoḥanan: But [what is the meaning of this phrase]: “A tithe shall you tithe”? [Rabbi Yoḥanan] said to him: [The verse means:] Take a tithe so that you will become wealthy. [The boy] said to [Rabbi Yoḥanan:] From where do you [derive that this is so? Rabbi Yoḥanan] said to him: Go and test it. [The boy] said to him: And is it permitted to test the Holy One, Blessed be He? But isn’t it written: “You shall not test the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 6:16)? [Rabbi Yoḥanan] said to [the boy that] Rabbi Hoshaya said as follows: [It is prohibited to test God in any way,] except in this [case of tithes], as it is stated: “Bring the whole tithe into the storeroom, that there may be food in My house, and test Me now by this, said the Lord of hosts, if I will not open for you the windows of heaven, and pour out for you a blessing that there shall be more than sufficiency” (Malachi 3:10).

“Bring ye the whole tithe into the storehouse etc.… And try Me now herewith” (Mal. 3:10). So important is tithing, that here the Holy One, blessed be He, said, “Try Me,” unlike all other instances where it is forbidden to test Him, for it is written “Ye shall not try the Lord your God” (Deut. 6:16). That tithe alluded to is the poor man’s tithe, to give to the poor a tithe from everything wherein a person profits, whether from interest or his own hire or from anything which comes to a person profitably. If he found or they returned to him goods stolen from him, he must tithe, as it is written in Scripture. For Israel had not yet been among the nations of the world lending at interest. Woe unto them that withhold their tithes, for ultimately nothing will remain in their hands but the poor man’s tithe, as it is written, “And everyman’s hallowed things shall be his” (Num. 5:10).

Six precepts were commanded to Adam...
These matters remained the same throughout the world until Abraham. When Abraham arose, in addition to these, he was commanded regarding circumcision. He also ordained the morning prayers.
Isaac separated tithes and ordained an additional prayer service before sunset. Jacob added the prohibition against eating the sciatic nerve. He also ordained the evening prayers. In Egypt, Amram was commanded regarding other mitzvot. Ultimately, Moses came and the Torah was completed by him.

And blessed be God Most High,
Who has delivered your foes into your hand.” And [Avram] gave him a tenth of everything.

The Ravad writes "It is impossible to be so. [Rather] it should say..." etc.. The Ravad's rationale is that the verse says regarding Avraham "And he gave him a tenth of everything". But it is possible to say that in the opinion of our Rabbi [Rambam] with Avraham we do not find that he tithed from his property, [rather] there he specifically tithed the booty that came to his hand and this is not in the scope of the law of tithing. Rather, [this was done] because Malki Tzedek honoured him by bringing out bread and wine and blessed him and [Avraham] wanted to give him a tenth of the booty. But Yitzchak was the first to tithe his money in the name of tithing as the Sages derived from [the verse saying] "Then Yitzchak sowed in that land, and received in the same year a hundredfold".

“Yitzchak sowed in that land” – Rabbi Chelbo said: “In that land…in that year” – the land was harsh and the year was difficult; had it been favorable, all the more so.
“And found in that year one hundredfold” – one hundred kor; “one hundredfold” – one hundred times. “One hundredfold” – it teaches that it produced one hundred times more than they had estimated for it. Is it not so that blessing does not rest upon an item that is weighed, measured, or counted? Why, then, did he measure it? It was due to the tithes.

'וכל אשר תתן לי וגו, “and all that You will give to me, etc.;” The Midrash [says] Yaakov ordained to tithe from his monetary goods. And it says in Bereshit Rabbah, 70,7 that a heretic once asked Rabbi Yoshua son of Levi, where the Torah reported that Yaakov kept this promise. He was answered that Yaakov declared this tithe “sacred,” i.e. he gave it to the treasury of religious institutions. Thereupon the heretic wanted to know what this tithe consisted as precisely seeing that Yaakov was not a wealthy man. He was told that Yaakov made all his newly born animals pass under a gate, and every tenth animal he declared as holy, i.e. not to be used for secular needs. In the Talmud this procedure is called: מעשר בהמה, “tithe from livestock.”

“Works of kindness.” That means with his person. But with his money it has a measure. This parallels what Rabbi Shimon bar Lakish said in the name of Rabbi Yehudah ben Chanina: They voted at Usha that a person give a fifth of his property for good deeds. To what extent? Rabbi Gamliel bar Ininia and Rabbi Abba bar Kahana; one said corresponding to terumah and the terumah of the tithe, the other said (Prov. 3:9): “Honor the Eternal with your property and with the first of all your yield;” corresponding to the first of all your yield...It happened that Rebbi Yeshebab went and let his entire property be distributed to the poor. Rabban Gamliel sent to him: Did they not say one fifth of one’s property for good deeds? And was not Rabban Gamliel before Usha? Rebbi Yose ben Rebbi Abun said in the name of Rebbi Levi: That was the current practice, they forgot it, but the later ones got up and agreed to the opinion of the earlier ones, to teach you that everything the Court insists on will come to be in the end, just as Moses was told on Sinai; as Rebbi Mana said (Deut. 32:47): “For it is not an empty word, from you,” if it is empty it is from you because you do not exert yourself about it. “Because it is your life,” when is it your life? At the time that you exert yourself!

...and for this reason maaser kesafim, which is Rabbinic, has a significant leniency from our teacher R' Y' Oppenheim in his responsa that one can feed it to their father or mother, whereas with Torah-level [tithes we say] that a curse comes upon him...

And with regard to the monies of the tithe it would seem that since it became routine practice to give them to the poor, one is not allowed to use them for other religious purposes because it would appear to be tantamount to stealing from the poor. For even though it [i.e. the monetary-tithe] is not a Biblically mandated law but only a custom (minhag), still it has been taught

regarding permitted things that once the practice is to treat them as prohibited one his not permitted to allow them before them, as it says "He shall not profane his word"...

but the monies of the monetary-tithe became property of the poor through the custom practised by all the Diaspora, one is, therefore, not allowed to change the purpose of the monies from the poor to some other religious obligation of which the poor have no need.

There is no custom in ‘Austria’ to tithe from interest received or from other income. Only unique individuals who are pious give a tenth immediately upon receiving any kind of profit.

And from here [i.e. the Mishnah in Peah relating to the agricultural poor man’s tithe], I the author have derived that an individual who set aside a tithe from his monetary earnings or gave a certain amount of his money to charity, that he may distribute to his own relatives up to a half of the charity or of the tithe as we have found regarding the poor man’s tithe … And the way I see it this is an fortiori argument just as the Torah [legally] awarded the poor man’s tithe to the poor and obligated the owner of the field to tithe, still permitted [partial] distribution to his relatives, so too charity that a person gives of his own accord surely he may give to his relatives up to half of it.

In a community where no rule exists to the effect that all tithe-money must go to the community charity-chest, one is permitted to feed his grown-up, independent children with his tithe-money.

When a poor person comes and asks for his needs to be met and the giver does not have the financial capacity, he should give him according to his financial capacity.
How much? The most desirable way of performing the mitzvah is to give one fifth of one's financial resources. Giving one tenth is an ordinary measure. Giving less [than that] reflects parsimony. A person should never refrain from giving less than a third of a shekel a year. A person who gives less than this has not fulfilled the mitzvah. Even a poor person who derives his livelihood from charity is obligated to give charity to another person.

(1) The amount of charity one should give is as follows: if one can but afford, let him give as much as is needed. Under ordinary circumstances, a fifth of one's property is most laudable. To give one-tenth is the average disposition. But to give less than one-tenth is ayin ra'ah. When the Rabbis said a "fifth" they meant a fifth of the property the first year only and a fifth of the profits in succeeding years.

...but regarding a person tithing from his commercial profit in monies and other profits, that is not in this category [of Torah-level tithes], and one can give from it to tzedakah or redemption of captives for one is not obligated in it from the Torah or Rabbis...

...rather it is certain that the monetary tithe is not at all from the Torah. Rather it is in the category of tzedakah. And the measure of one tenth being middling is from the Rabbis...

It seems some compare the tithe that one separates from their monetary profit to the law of the tithe for the poor from the grain and fruits. And the Bach writes that our monetary tithe is not obligatory on a Torah or rabbinic level. And I am puzzled by this for see Section 249 where it is explained that it is an absolute obligation as all the decisors write. And the Beit Yosef writes there in the name of the Yerushalmi...

And some [seek to] understand the words of the Tur and Shulchan Aruch, why do they write 'If one can afford it give according to the needs of the poor"? For since one is obligated to give a fifth or tenth, and one cannot give more than a fifth, then it is automatically [decided]? For if he is very rich, and there is in his tenth or fifth enough for all the needs of the poor, provide for all their needs. And if it will not suffice, what should he do? And one can say that everyone is obligated to give a fifth or tenth, and the poor are sustained from this. And it seems in my humble opinion that the explanation is as follows: That in truth these measures of a tenth and fifth are not from the Torah, but are from the Rabbis, who relied on the verse 'And of all that You shall give me, I will surely give a tenth of it [aser a’asrenu] to You'. Two tithes, as explained in Ketubot there. For the tithe from the Torah is only on grain, and not for the poor...

...and some bring a proof from here that the monetary tithe is from the Torah (Taz there). And I am puzzled [by this]: For according to what we explained, on the contrary this is a proof of the reverse. And the crux of the obligation of tzedakah is from the Torah to give what one can, and the tenth and fifth are a rabbinic enactment...

(6) Rabbi Joshua said: Abraham was the first to begin to give a tithe. He took all the tithe of the kings and all the tithe of the wealth of Lot, the son of his brother, and gave (it) to Shem, the son of Noah, as it is said, "And he gave him a tenth of all" (Gen. 14:20).