Taamei Hamitzvos - Maaser Sheini - The Second Tithe
by Rabbi Shmuel Kraines
“Study improves the quality of the act and completes it, and a mitzvah is more beautiful when it emerges from someone who understands its significance.” (Meiri, Bava Kama 17a)
Mitzvah #483; Devarim 14:22
We are commanded to separate several tithes from the produce of Eretz Yisrael, which amount to approximately a fifth of the total produce. Ten percent is given to the Levites, who are dedicated to the service of Hashem in the Beis HaMikdash. The owner of the produce must take another ten percent, called maaser sheini (the second tithe), and eat it in Yerushalayim, “so that you will learn to fear Hashem” (Devarim 14:23).
The Mitzvah to tithe maaser sheini applies in the first, second, fourth, and fifth years of the shemittah cycle, and it can only be eaten in Yerushalayim by someone in a state of purity. These days, when we cannot purify ourselves by means of the ashes of the Parah Adumah (red cow), we instead follow the alternative of redeeming the maser sheini upon a coin, which assumes its sacred status and must be treated accordingly.
How does eating in Yerushalayim teach a person to fear Hashem? The commentaries explain that coming to the Beis HaMikdash, watching the Kohanim offer sacrifices, hearing the Levites sing and witnessing all the Jewish People participating in the service of Hashem was a profoundly inspiring experience. Moreover, the Beis HaMikdash was the seat of the Sanhedrin, the supreme Beis Din comprised of the seventy greatest Torah scholars of the generation. Just being in their presence was enough to awaken within a person a desire to study the Torah himself. When Hashem is the focus of a person’s surroundings, it becomes his focus as well. For this reason, when the Sages enacted that all children should study in Torah schools instead of relying solely on father-to-son education, they selected Yerushalayim as the ideal place for those schools (Bava Basra 21a with Tosafos).
Sefer HaChinuch adds that it could take a long time to eat all of one’s maaser sheini, and the distance to Yerushalayim sometimes made it even more difficult for people to accomplish this.Therefore, people would commonly send one of their older sons with all of their maaser sheini to Yerushalayim, and he would stay there until it was finished, having nothing else to do but absorb the atmosphere and engage in Torah study. When he would return home, he would be a wellspring of Torah knowledge for the rest of his family. The result was Torah in every Jewish home.
There is no Beis HaMikdash in Yerushalayim today, yet the lesson about the importance of living and working in an environment that is conducive to the service of Hashem is no less relevant.
Rambam (Moreh Nevuchim 3:39) observes that since people had to spend the tithe entirely on food, which was more than they could eat, they would often invite others to eat with them, and this would strengthen brotherhood and unity among the Jewish people (cited in Mitzvos HaMevuaros). The poor would gather in Yerushalayim knowing that they would be invited to share in these meals (Bechor Shor).
According to Chiddushei HaRim,the very act of eating in Yerushalayim causes a person to fear Hashem. Eating has a great effect upon us, for good or bad. While eating for pleasure pulls a person toward earthliness, eating in a holy environment as a mitzvah lifts a person toward holiness. We are fortunate to still have a parallel to the Beis HaMikdash, which is the holy days of Shabbos and Yom Tov, sanctuaries of time. Saving delicacies for these days can be compared to bringing maaser sheini to Yerushalayim (see Yevamos 93a), and this has a similar effect of teaching us to fear Hashem and drawing us nearer to Him. There are approximately seventy-three days of Shabbos and Yom Tov in the year, a fifth of 365 days, just like the tithes are approximately a fifth of the produce. These sacred days are like the year’s tithes, and whatever holiness we invest in them permeates the rest of the year (Sefas Emes, Re’eh 5654).
