A. The question whether the Torah recognizes several modes of fulfillment as acceptable for certain commandments is a general question.
B. The Jewish law that obligates us to heed the Sages (even if they are not correct) does not necessarily apply everywhere, and one could argue that if the reason for their interpretation is a mistaken factual assumption, there is no reason to heed them, despite accepting the assumption that in general there is a law to heed them. (A somewhat distant example is that the Sages have no authority over facts that affect Jewish law, such as the question of what heats the hot springs of Tiberias, which determines the Jewish law regarding them.)

That is obvious, and I’ve written it several times. But here we are not dealing with a factual question, but an interpretive one.
You could also say that the interpretation of the prohibition of meat and milk is a factual mistake, because perhaps they erred and the Holy One meant something else.

“There’s also no reason to keep the Sabbath if you don’t think one needs to keep the Sabbath.”
A new invention?

There can be other reasons to do something even if you don’t think you have to do it.

There can be, but there aren’t.

In the case of a contradiction between the sources, one should be stringent according to both views: first tithe to the Levite, and second tithe to be brought up and eaten in Jerusalem (or redeemed, and if the owner redeems it—with the addition of a fifth) 🙂

Best regards, Dr. Schatzius von Löwenhausen

But if the Torah is uniform, then there is no contradiction at all, only complementary information. After all, this is a “course in installments,” whose later parts continue the earlier parts. Otherwise we would be forced to assume that divorce is impossible, since only Deuteronomy mentions this option, and on the other hand we would have to worry and forbid circumcision, since Deuteronomy does not mention this commandment 🙂

Best regards, A.D. Absurdum

This depends on the dispute between Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Ishmael regarding two verses that contradict one another. In my article on Be-Middah Tovah I showed that Rabbi Ishmael understood that the resolution is achieved by reconciliation, whereas according to Rabbi Akiva it is done by means of a third verse, without reconciliation.
See also my elegy article about the Merkaz HaRav students who were murdered: https://mikyab.net/%D7%9B%D7%AA%D7%91%D7%99%D7%9D/%D7%9E%D7%90%D7%9E%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%9D/%D7%90%D7%97%D7%A8%D7%99-%D7%9E%D7%99%D7%98%D7%AA%D7%9D-%D7%A9%D7%9C-%D7%94%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%92%D7%99-%D7%90%D7%A8%D7%A5-%D7%99%D7%A9%D7%A8%D7%90%D7%9C-%D7%91%D7%9E%D7%A7%D7%95%D7%9D-%D7%A7%D7%99

To be stringent according to both views:
A. Note that if you are stringent according to both views, you have to give second tithe as ten out of a hundred and not out of ninety (and it may be that even tithing a second time would not help and you would need to separate it from somewhere else).
B. I recommend that you read the verses in Re’eh before claiming there is no contradiction (“and the Levite who is within your gates, you shall not abandon him … at the end of three years you shall bring out all the tithe”—quoted from memory).
C. Presumably, according to this too every person must separate two firstborns, one for the priest and one to be eaten in Jerusalem.
D. According to your logic, it would not have been possible to sell land if the Torah had not mentioned it.
E. What do the words “Now the time that the children of Israel dwelt in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years” mean in your course?

With God’s help, 16 Adar I 5782

The one who is “stringent according to both views” is the “redactor,” who combined all the separate “sources” into “one Torah,” according to the biblical critics.

This redactor possessed wondrous power. In the middle of the Persian period, when the burden of taxation was unbearable (as described by Nehemiah in chapter 9), this “redactor” managed to double the burden of tithing imposed on the Hebrew farmer and squeeze out of him both first tithe (as the “Numbers-ists” hold) and second tithe (which must be eaten in Jerusalem, except “at the end of three years,” when it is given to the poor, as the Deuteronomists hold).

Pharaoh at least succeeded in squeezing his people, in a time of famine, to give a fifth of the produce to the king. But how did a redactor without any political power succeed in coercing a scattered and divided people, hard-pressed and oppressed by the authorities, and bring that scattered and divided people to separate about a fifth of its produce contrary to all the tribal traditions that had sufficed with a tithe?

And how did the redactor succeed in merging groups that were poles apart? The devotees of the calves of Dan and Beth El together with the devotees of the Temple in Jerusalem; the zealots for circumcision according to the Deuteronomists with the priestly circles whose sources do not say a word about circumcision? What brought these opposing population groups—who had almost never been politically united, and on the contrary had fought each other with interest for hundreds of years?

There is no historical probability or plausibility for such a powerful union of opposites דווקא in a period of dispersion and political humiliation, unless there was one unified Torah that the people received when they left Egypt. And after all, the Samaritans and the people of Judah have the same Torah, aside from minor textual differences. That is to say: both the tribes of the Kingdom of Israel and the tribes of the Kingdom of Judah knew the same Torah.

They could depart from it under the influence of the surrounding peoples, but they could return to it after the warnings of the prophets were fulfilled, the prophets who foretold the destruction but also the future return from exile.

And as I said: the Torah was given to Israel in the wilderness as a “course in installments.” When Moses stands and explains the Torah in the plains of Moab, everyone understands that his words add to and clarify what was said earlier. Therefore it is clear to everyone that the tithe that is brought up to Jerusalem (and “at the end of three years” is given to the poor) is in addition to the tithe for the Levite that they had previously been commanded about in the portion of Korach. And just to be safe, Moses clarifies to them: “Take care lest you abandon the Levite,” and Heaven forbid refrain from giving him the tithe that is his.

Likewise, when Moses says to all the people standing before him—the Levitical priests and the Israelites—“And there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, and your tithes and the contribution of your hand, and the firstborn of your herd and your flock, and there you shall eat”—everyone already knows the laws of eating the heave-offerings, tithes, and sacrifices that were stated in Exodus and Leviticus, and knows what is offered on the altar and what is eaten by the priests, what belongs to the Levites, and what to the rest of the people.

Best regards, Eliam Fish”l Workheimer

The land of Canaan became, from the rebellion of the four kings and Abram’s victory over them, a vassal of the Egyptian empire. Egypt was the political center to which the land of Canaan was attached. With the Exodus from Egypt, a period of 430 years came to an end during which the children of Israel stood under Egyptian hegemony, direct or indirect. כך explained by the archaeologist Dr. Yitzhak Meitlis in his book Crossroads on the Torah portions in light of history and archaeology

A. On second thought, one can be stringent according to both views by means of one tithe plus a condition.
B. It seems to me that Your Honor lacks basic knowledge of the Torah:
“At the end of three years you shall bring out all the tithe
of your produce… and the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you”
(Deuteronomy 14:28–29)
“Every firstborn male that is born of your herd and your flock… before the Lord
your God you shall eat it… in the place that the Lord will choose, you
and your household” (Deuteronomy 15:19–20)

Continuation of the basic biblical knowledge course:
“You shall surely know that your seed shall be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and they shall enslave them and afflict them four hundred years … and you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age”
(Genesis 15:13–15)
That is:
A. It is speaking about four hundred years of affliction.
B. It is speaking about Abraham’s descendants after his death.

To Yeshiva Student — greetings,

In chapter 14:28 the Torah explains that the additional tithe, which a person brings up and eats in Jerusalem every year, changes “at the end of three years” and is given to the poor: “the Levite, the stranger, the orphan, and the widow who are within your gates.”

“The Levite, the stranger, the orphan, and the widow” are the poor who could exist among a people settled on its land, where each person has an inheritance except for the Levite and the stranger, and every farmer can make a living from working his land except for “the orphan and the widow,” whose provider has died.

This quartet—the Levite, the stranger, the orphan, and the widow—is mentioned together several times in the portion of Re’eh, where the farmer is commanded to rejoice together with “you and your household” also with “the Levite, the stranger, the orphan, and the widow.”

And they are conspicuously absent from the commandment “Every firstborn male that is born of your herd and your flock—you shall consecrate to the Lord your God… before the Lord you shall eat it year by year in the place that the Lord will choose, you and your household,” and it is not said here “you and your household and the Levite and the stranger and the orphan and the widow.”

The reason is that this passage comes to teach that even a priest, who is exempt from the obligation to give the firstborn born in his flock to a priest, is still obligated to consecrate it and offer it “in the place that the Lord will choose.” The holiness of the firstborn does not allow the priest to give of the firstborn to non-priests, and therefore only “you and your household” will eat from it (see Ibn Ezra there. Apparently in your yeshiva it is forbidden to peek at Ibn Ezra 🙂 )

Best regards, A.P.R.

The “four hundred years” in the Covenant Between the Parts are not specifically in the land of Egypt but rather “in a land not theirs.” Throughout this entire period, Abraham’s descendants are strangers in a land not theirs. And slavery and affliction are not foreign to them either. Isaac is afflicted by quarrels and expulsion from place to place; Jacob is pursued by his brother and lives in servitude in Haran for twenty years. Even upon his return to the land, his daughter is violated by Shechem and his son is sold into slavery for a period of time.
\
The peak of the slavery and affliction was in the final decades in Egypt, but slavery and affliction were present in their lives, and every generation experienced them to a greater or lesser extent. Note that the major pause mark comes right after “four hundred years,” for these words refer not only to “and they shall enslave them and afflict them” but also to “your seed shall be strangers in a land not theirs.”

A. I argued that the tithe in Re’eh cannot exist alongside the tithe to the Levite, because what is explained there is the giving of poor tithe to the Levite once every three years so as not to abandon him. In response to that, you argue that the Levite is mentioned there as a poor person. Apparently you thought I was claiming that the verse in Re’eh commands that every tithe go to the Levites. You are invited to reformulate your response.
B. Note that the four hundred years are counted only after Abraham’s death, as is written: “and you shall go to your fathers in peace.”
C. The fact that you did not understand which verse about the firstborn I was referring to—was that a mistake, or what?….

With God’s help, 16 Adar I 5782

The verse “and the Levite who is within your gates, you shall not abandon him, for he has no portion or inheritance with you” does not refer to the “poor tithe” that is given “at the end of three years,” since that is given not only to the Levite but to all the poor.

The specific instruction not to abandon the Levite is the conclusion of the section about the second tithe, which the owner eats in the place that the Lord will choose, and it clarifies that the tithe separated for eating in Jerusalem does not replace the tithe given to the Levite in place of an inheritance, as stated in the portion of Korach: “For the tithe of the children of Israel, which they set apart to the Lord as a gift, I have given to the Levites as an inheritance; therefore I have said to them, among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance.” Therefore one must continue to care for the Levite and not stop giving him the tithe that the children of Israel were commanded to give him in the portion of Korach.

Best regards, A.P.R.

It is clear that the four hundred years of sojourning “in a land not theirs,” decreed in the Covenant Between the Parts, did not take place in Abram’s own lifetime, when his surroundings honored him as “You are a prince of God among us.”

Abraham’s descendants only came to the status of strangers, who sometimes also experience affliction and servitude, after his death. The Philistines dare to expel Isaac from Gerar; Jacob is forced to flee to Aram and live there de facto as a slave; and even upon his return to the land, his daughter Dinah is violated by Shechem and his son Joseph is sold as a slave in Egypt and “drags” the whole family there after him.

With God’s help, 15 Adar II 5782

The double tithe—given to the Levite and eaten in Jerusalem—meets the double need. On the one hand, one must strengthen “the Levite who is within your gates,” who fulfills the purpose of “They shall teach Your ordinances to Jacob and Your Torah to Israel.” For this purpose there is the tithe to the Levite, which enables him to delve into Torah so that he can teach his neighbors who are busy with the labor of making a living.

On the other hand, the Israelite farmer is required to separate an additional tithe that he himself may eat, but only in the chosen place—a tithe whose stated purpose is “so that you may learn to fear the Lord your God all your days.” The farmer gets “stuck” with about a tenth of his produce that he may eat only at the place of the Temple.

This is in effect a kind of “deposit into an advanced training fund,” obligating the farmer to spend several weeks each year at the place of the Temple in order to “recharge the spiritual batteries” of himself and his family. There, “in the place that the Lord will choose,” his eyes will see the great Torah teachers, and from there he will return to his routine life laden with wisdom and feelings of holiness.

That same elevation will continue to be “maintained” by the Levites “within your gates” through their daily individual guidance. Hence the double tithe: the “second” tithe, which draws the farmer to the center of Torah, where his personality is strengthened, and the “first” tithe, which strengthens those who spread Torah in the “periphery.”

And to complete the farmer’s personal development, every third year he is required to convert his elevation in Torah and fear of Heaven at the Torah center into personal elevation in kindness and helping the needy who are “within your gates.” Thus the Israelite farmer becomes both a man of Torah and a man of kindness.

Best regards, Hasdai Bezalel Duvdevani Kirshen-Kwas

Laws of the tithe
A.
30 “And every tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord’s; it is holy to the Lord. 31 And if a man will at all redeem any of his tithe, he shall add a fifth to it. 32 And all the tithe of the herd or the flock, whatever passes under the rod, the tenth shall be holy to the Lord. 33 He shall not inquire whether it is good or bad, nor shall he exchange it; and if he does exchange it, then both it and that for which it is exchanged shall be holy; it shall not be redeemed.”
Leviticus 27:30–33
B.
21 “And to the children of Levi, behold, I have given all the tithe in Israel for an inheritance, in return for their service which they perform, the service of the Tent of Meeting. 22 And the children of Israel shall no longer come near the Tent of Meeting, lest they bear sin and die. 23 But the Levite, he shall perform the service of the Tent of Meeting, and they shall bear their iniquity; it is a statute forever throughout your generations, and among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance. 24 For the tithe of the children of Israel, which they set apart to the Lord as a gift, I have given to the Levites as an inheritance; therefore I have said concerning them, among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance.” {P}
25 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 26 “And to the Levites you shall speak and say to them: When you take from the children of Israel the tithe that I have given you from them for your inheritance, then you shall set apart from it the Lord’s gift, a tithe from the tithe. 27 And your gift shall be reckoned to you as though it were grain from the threshing floor and fullness from the winepress. 28 So shall you also set apart the Lord’s gift from all your tithes, which you receive from the children of Israel; and from it you shall give the Lord’s gift to Aaron the priest. 29 Out of all your gifts you shall set apart every gift of the Lord; from all its best, the sacred part thereof.” 30 And you shall say to them: “When you set apart its best from it, then it shall be reckoned to the Levites as the produce of the threshing floor and as the produce of the winepress. 31 And you shall eat it in every place, you and your households, for it is your wages in return for your service in the Tent of Meeting. 32 And you shall bear no sin by reason of it when you have set apart the best from it; and you shall not profane the holy things of the children of Israel, lest you die.” {P}
Numbers 18:21–32
C.
22 “You shall surely tithe all the produce of your seed, what comes forth from the field year by year. 23 And you shall eat before the Lord your God, in the place that He will choose to cause His name to dwell there, the tithe of your grain, your wine, and your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and your flock, so that you may learn to fear the Lord your God all the days. 24 And if the way be too long for you, so that you are not able to carry it, because the place is too far from you, which the Lord your God shall choose to set His name there, when the Lord your God blesses you, 25 then you shall turn it into money, bind up the money in your hand, and go to the place that the Lord your God will choose. 26 And you shall spend the money for whatever your soul desires—for cattle, or sheep, or wine, or strong drink, or whatever your soul asks of you—and you shall eat there before the Lord your God, and rejoice, you and your household. 27 And the Levite who is within your gates—you shall not abandon him, for he has no portion or inheritance with you.” {S} 28 “At the end of three years you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in that year, and lay it up within your gates. 29 And the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you, and the stranger, and the orphan, and the widow, who are within your gates, shall come and eat and be satisfied, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hand that you do.” {S}
Deuteronomy 14:22–29
D.
5 “But to the place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put His name there, to His dwelling you shall seek, and there you shall come. 6 And there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and the contribution of your hand, and your vows, and your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and your flock. 7 And there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and rejoice in all that you undertake, you and your households, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.

10 And you shall cross the Jordan and dwell in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and He will give you rest from all your enemies around, and you shall dwell securely. 11 Then it shall be that the place which the Lord your God shall choose in which to cause His name to dwell—there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution of your hand, and all your choicest vows which you vow to the Lord. 12 And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God—you and your sons and your daughters and your male and female slaves, and the Levite who is within your gates, for he has no portion or inheritance with you.

17 You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain, your wine, and your oil, or the firstborn of your herd or your flock, or any of your vows which you vow, or your freewill offerings, or the contribution of your hand. 18 But before the Lord your God you shall eat them, in the place which the Lord your God shall choose—you and your son and your daughter and your male and female slave and the Levite who is within your gates; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God in all that you undertake. 19 Take heed to yourself lest you abandon the Levite all your days upon your land.” {S}
Collection of verses, Deuteronomy 12
With God’s help, soon similar collections for the other contradictions raised here

Laws of the firstborn
A.
11 “And it shall be when the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanite, as He swore to you and to your fathers, and gives it to you, 12 that you shall set apart to the Lord all that opens the womb; and every firstling that comes from an animal which you have, the males shall be the Lord’s. 13 And every firstling of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb; and if you will not redeem it, then you shall break its neck. And every firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem. 14 And it shall be when your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is this?’ that you shall say to him, ‘By strength of hand the Lord brought us out from Egypt, from the house of bondage. 15 And it came to pass, when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, that the Lord slew all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of beast; therefore I sacrifice to the Lord all that opens the womb, being males, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem.’ 16 And it shall be for a sign upon your hand and for frontlets between your eyes, for by strength of hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt.” {S}
Exodus 13:11–16
B.
26 “Only the firstborn among animals, which as a firstborn is the Lord’s, no man shall sanctify it; whether ox or sheep, it is the Lord’s. 27 And if it is of an unclean animal, then he shall redeem it according to your valuation, and shall add a fifth to it; and if it is not redeemed, then it shall be sold according to your valuation.”
Leviticus 27:26–27
C.
15 “Everything that opens the womb of all flesh, which they bring near to the Lord, whether of man or beast, shall be yours; nevertheless the firstborn of man you shall surely redeem, and the firstborn of unclean beasts you shall redeem. 16 And those redeemed from a month old you shall redeem, according to your valuation, for five shekels of silver, by the holy shekel, which is twenty gerahs. 17 But the firstborn of an ox, or the firstborn of a sheep, or the firstborn of a goat, you shall not redeem; they are holy. Their blood you shall sprinkle on the altar, and their fat you shall burn as a fire-offering of pleasing aroma to the Lord. 18 And their flesh shall be yours, as the breast of waving and as the right thigh, it shall be yours.”
Numbers 18
D.
19 “Every firstborn male that is born of your herd and your flock you shall consecrate to the Lord your God; you shall not work with the firstborn of your ox, nor shear the firstborn of your flock. 20 Before the Lord your God you shall eat it year by year, in the place that the Lord will choose, you and your household. 21 But if it has a blemish, if it is lame or blind, any bad blemish whatever, you shall not sacrifice it to the Lord your God. 22 Within your gates you shall eat it; the unclean and the clean alike may eat it, as the gazelle and as the deer. 23 Only you shall not eat its blood; you shall pour it out upon the ground like water.” {P}

See also section D in the tithe collection

Text courtesy of Machon Mamre

צַו לָצָו קַו לָקָו – על קבצי החוקים שבתורה