3/12/11
Leviticus 26-27
Leviticus 26:1 You shall make for yourselves no idols and erect no carved images or pillars, and you shall not place figured stones in your land, to worship at them; for I am the Lord your God. Much has been written about the idols of today. The subject falls on deaf ears, generating head nodding at best, so I won't say much. Being honest, how many of us take the Bible seriously enough to question our own idols? Where do you spend your time? What is as ironic as well as iconic as the television program American Idol? How many of us are obsessed with Nintendo, WII, television, Facebook, My Space? Every morning I start the coffee, get the paper and turn first to the Sports section to read everything I can about the Blazers. Do not all of us over indulge in things that have little real impact on our lives? I confess sometimes I won't answer the phone if someone calls during a Blazer game. Most of us have a stock pile of reasons why we can't do things we know we should. We have fooled ourselves into thinking we don't have time for things that are important. I am guilty. We are always looking for something or someone to fix us. Email has replaced conversation. Enough said. God help us all for we are all without excuse. 2 You shall keep my sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.
3 If you follow my statutes and keep my commandments and observe them faithfully, 4 I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. 5 Your threshing shall overtake the vintage, and the vintage shall overtake the sowing; you shall eat your bread to the full, and live securely in your land. 6 And I will grant peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and no one shall make you afraid; I will remove dangerous animals from the land, and no sword shall go through your land. 7 You shall give chase to your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. 8 Five of you shall give chase to a hundred, and a hundred of you shall give chase to ten thousand; your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. 9 I will look with favor upon you and make you fruitful and multiply you; and I will maintain my covenant with you. 10 You shall eat old grain long stored, and you shall have to clear out the old to make way for the new. 11 I will place my dwelling in your midst, and I shall not abhor you. 12 And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be my people. 13 I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be their slaves no more; I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.
Penalties for Disobedience (Deut 28.15—68)
14 But if you will not obey me, and do not observe all these commandments, 15 if you spurn my statutes, and abhor my ordinances, so that you will not observe all my commandments, and you break my covenant, 16 I in turn will do this to you: I will bring terror on you; consumption and fever that waste the eyes and cause life to pine away. You shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. 17 I will set my face against you, and you shall be struck down by your enemies; your foes shall rule over you, and you shall flee though no one pursues you. 18 And if in spite of this you will not obey me, I will continue to punish you sevenfold for your sins. 19 I will break your proud glory, and I will make your sky like iron and your earth like copper. 20 Your strength shall be spent to no purpose: your land shall not yield its produce, and the trees of the land shall not yield their fruit.
21 If you continue hostile to me, and will not obey me, I will continue to plague you sevenfold for your sins. 22 I will let loose wild animals against you, and they shall bereave you of your children and destroy your livestock; they shall make you few in number, and your roads shall be deserted.
23:1 If in spite of these punishments you have not turned back to me, but continue hostile to me, 24 then I too will continue hostile to you: I myself will strike you sevenfold for your sins. 25 I will bring the sword against you, executing vengeance for the covenant; and if you withdraw within your cities, I will send pestilence among you, and you shall be delivered into enemy hands.
26 When I break your staff of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in a single oven, and they shall dole out your bread by weight; and though you eat, you shall not be satisfied.
27 But if, despite this, you disobey me, and continue hostile to me, 28 I will continue hostile to you in fury; I in turn will punish you myself sevenfold for your sins. 29 You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters. 30 I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars; I will heap your carcasses on the carcasses of your idols. I will abhor you. 31 I will lay your cities waste, will make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell your pleasing odors. 32 I will devastate the land, so that your enemies who come to settle in it shall be appalled at it. 33 And you I will scatter among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword against you; your land shall be a desolation, and your cities a waste.
34 Then the land shall enjoy its sabbath years as long as it lies desolate, while you are in the land of your enemies; then the land shall rest, and enjoy its sabbath years. 35 As long as it lies desolate, it shall have the rest it did not have on your sabbaths when you were living on it. 36 And as for those of you who survive, I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; the sound of a driven leaf shall put them to flight, and they shall flee as one flees from the sword, and they shall fall though no one pursues. 37 They shall stumble over one another, as if to escape a sword, though no one pursues; and you shall have no power to stand against your enemies. 38 You shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall devour you. 39 And those of you who survive shall languish in the land of your enemies because of their iniquities; also they shall languish because of the iniquities of their ancestors.
40 But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their ancestors, in that they committed treachery against me and, moreover, that they continued hostile to me— 41 so that I, in turn, continued hostile to them and brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity, 42 then will I remember my covenant with Jacob; I will remember also my covenant with Isaac and also my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land. 43 For the land shall be deserted by them, and enjoy its sabbath years by lying desolate without them, while they shall make amends for their iniquity, because they dared to spurn my ordinances, and they abhorred my statutes. 44 Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not spurn them, or abhor them so as to destroy them utterly and break my covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God; 45 but I will remember in their favor the covenant with their ancestors whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, to be their God: I am the Lord.
46 These are the statutes and ordinances and laws that the Lord established between himself and the people of Israel on Mount Sinai through Moses.
Votive Offerings
Leviticus 27:1 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2 Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: When a person makes an explicit vow to the Lord concerning the equivalent for a human being, 3 the equivalent for a male shall be: from twenty to sixty years of age the equivalent shall be fifty shekels of silver by the sanctuary shekel. 4 If the person is a female, the equivalent is thirty shekels. 5 If the age is from five to twenty years of age, the equivalent is twenty shekels for a male and ten shekels for a female. 6 If the age is from one month to five years, the equivalent for a male is five shekels of silver, and for a female the equivalent is three shekels of silver. 7 And if the person is sixty years old or over, then the equivalent for a male is fifteen shekels, and for a female ten shekels. 8 If any cannot afford the equivalent, they shall be brought before the priest and the priest shall assess them; the priest shall assess them according to what each one making a vow can afford.
9 If it concerns an animal that may be brought as an offering to the Lord, any such that may be given to the Lord shall be holy. 10 Another shall not be exchanged or substituted for it, either good for bad or bad for good; and if one animal is substituted for another, both that one and its substitute shall be holy. 11 If it concerns any unclean animal that may not be brought as an offering to the Lord, the animal shall be presented before the priest. 12 The priest shall assess it: whether good or bad, according to the assessment of the priest, so it shall be. 13 But if it is to be redeemed, one-fifth must be added to the assessment.
14 If a person consecrates a house to the Lord, the priest shall assess it: whether good or bad, as the priest assesses it, so it shall stand. 15 And if the one who consecrates the house wishes to redeem it, one-fifth shall be added to its assessed value, and it shall revert to the original owner.
16 If a person consecrates to the Lord any inherited landholding, its assessment shall be in accordance with its seed requirements: fifty shekels of silver to a homer of barley seed. 17 If the person consecrates the field as of the year of jubilee, that assessment shall stand; 18 but if the field is consecrated after the jubilee, the priest shall compute the price for it according to the years that remain until the year of jubilee, and the assessment shall be reduced. 19 And if the one who consecrates the field wishes to redeem it, then one-fifth shall be added to its assessed value, and it shall revert to the original owner; 20 but if the field is not redeemed, or if it has been sold to someone else, it shall no longer be redeemable. 21 But when the field is released in the jubilee, it shall be holy to the Lord as a devoted field; it becomes the priest’s holding. 22 If someone consecrates to the Lord a field that has been purchased, which is not a part of the inherited landholding, 23 the priest shall compute for it the proportionate assessment up to the year of jubilee, and the assessment shall be paid as of that day, a sacred donation to the Lord. 24 In the year of jubilee the field shall return to the one from whom it was bought, whose holding the land is. 25 All assessments shall be by the sanctuary shekel: twenty gerahs shall make a shekel.
26 A firstling of animals, however, which as a firstling belongs to the Lord, cannot be consecrated by anyone; whether ox or sheep, it is the Lord’s. 27 If it is an unclean animal, it shall be ransomed at its assessment, with one-fifth added; if it is not redeemed, it shall be sold at its assessment.
28 Nothing that a person owns that has been devoted to destruction for the Lord, be it human or animal, or inherited landholding, may be sold or redeemed; every devoted thing is most holy to the Lord. 29 No human beings who have been devoted to destruction can be ransomed; they shall be put to death.
30 All tithes from the land, whether the seed from the ground or the fruit from the tree, are the Lord’s; they are holy to the Lord.
31 If persons wish to redeem any of their tithes, they must add one-fifth to them. 32 All tithes of herd and flock, every tenth one that passes under the shepherd’s staff, shall be holy to the Lord. 33 Let no one inquire whether it is good or bad, or make substitution for it; if one makes substitution for it, then both it and the substitute shall be holy and cannot be redeemed.
34 These are the commandments that the Lord gave to Moses for the people of Israel on Mount Sinai
Devotionals, Videos and more ...
by Bill Federer
The Girls Scouts of America was started on this date, March 12, 1912, in Savannah, Georgia, by Mrs. Juliette Low. After meeting Sir Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts, Juliette formed the Girl Scouts to be a nonsectarian, nonpolitical and interracial organization, for the purpose of building good character and citizenship. By the 1920’s the movement had spread across America and to its membership of millions world-wide. The original Girl Scout promise, made upon joining, was: “On my honor, I will try: to do my duty to God and my country, to help other people at all times, to obey the Girl Scout laws.”
Federer, B. (2003). American minute. St. Louis, MO.: Amerisearch, Inc.
by D.H. Stern
It is a snare to dedicate a gift to God rashly
and reflect on the vows only afterwards.
A wise king winnows the wicked
[from the righteous]
and threshes them under the cartwheel.
Stern, D. H. (1998). Complete Jewish Bible-OE
: An English version of the Tanakh (OT) and
B'rit Hadashah (NT) (1st ed.). Clarksville, Md.: Jewish
New Testament Publications.
by Oswald Chambers
Abandonment
Then Peter began to say unto Him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed Thee. --- Mark 10:28.
Our Lord replies, in effect, that abandonment is for Himself, and not for what the disciples themselves will get from it. Beware of an abandonment which has the commercial spirit in it—‘I am going to give myself to God because I want to be delivered from sin, because I want to be made holy.’ All that is the result of being right with God, but that spirit is not of the essential nature of Christianity. Abandonment is not for anything at all. We have got so commercialized that we only go to God for something from Him, and not for Himself. It is like saying—‘No, Lord, I don’t want Thee, I want myself; but I want myself clean and filled with the Holy Ghost; I want to be put in Thy showroom and be able to say—“This is what God has done for me.” ‘If we only give up something to God because we want more back, there is nothing of the Holy Spirit in our abandonment; it is miserable commercial self-interest. That we gain heaven, that we are delivered from sin, that we are made useful to God—these things never enter as considerations into real abandonment, which is a personal sovereign preference for Jesus Christ Himself.
When we come up against the barriers of natural relationship, where is Jesus Christ? Most of us desert Him—‘Yes, Lord, I did hear Thy call; but my mother is in the road, my wife, my self-interest, and I can go no further.’ ‘Then,’ Jesus says, ‘you cannot be My disciple.’
The test of abandonment is always over the neck of natural devotion. Go over it, and God’s own abandonment will embrace all those you had to hurt in abandoning. Beware of stopping short of abandonment to God. Most of us know abandonment in vision only.
It is essential to practise the walk of the feet in the light of the vision.
Chambers, O. (1993). My Utmost for His Highest
the Poetry of R.S. Thomas
The Father Dies
Ah, forget this snivel, the gone
lip. I am not maudlin;
it is just that all my life
I tried to keep love from bursting
its banks. Love is the fine thing
but destructive. I strove to contain it,
to picture it as the river
we lived by. But to fall
headlong in, to be carried away
in front of you, son; to have
no firm ground: a father drowning
in tears and without
breath to keep his voice casual
as in the old days; and the smile
you hold out to me breaks
like a stick, because there is
as much pity in it as love.
Berakhot 47b
Every religion has laws and ritual procedures. People need to know the right way of doing these rites. For Jewish practice, a rabbi can usually answer this question. The rabbi will know the law or will consult books that teach the correct way of doing things. But there are times when even a rabbi does not know the law, because there is no one right way and because the accepted practice is “what the people are doing.”
Local customs develop; these become the practice of the people, the actual law, passed down from one generation to the next. The beauty of Abaye’s answer is that it shows that he and his colleagues are not deciding the matter at hand from an ivory tower. Rather, they are in touch with the masses of people, for their ruling will be legitimate and binding only in so far as it reflects reality and is accepted. To determine this, they say: “Go and see what the people are doing.”
A simple contemporary example of “Go and see what the people are doing” from the Pesaḥ Seder tables may help explain this concept, especially since Rabbi Tarfon is well known from the haggadah. During the Seder, we praise God with the psalms of Hallel. As we do, we remember the Egyptians at whose expense our victory came about, and we remove some wine from our cups, as if to say: Our joy is not complete because the victory came at someone else’s expense. Therefore, our cup cannot be full.
Now the question arises: How should this ritual be performed? How should the drops of wine for the Ten Plagues be removed from the cup? Should they be spilled, taken out with a spoon, or dipped out with a finger? And if the last, with which finger? There is no exact law on this, only custom, and the best a person can do is “go and see” the practice of others. Most Jews spill the ten drops of wine from the cup at their Seder table not based on a theoretical legal ruling, but based on what they have seen practiced at other Seders.
At times, there is one law, very clear and very specific, based on theoretical rationales or philosophical justifications, clearly codified in the traditional literature. At other times, though, law is determined by the practice of Jews—not just any Jews but, as Robert Gordis delineated, “the body of men and women in the Jewish people who accept the authority of Jewish law and are concerned with Jewish observance as a genuine issue.” In many cases, a rabbi can say, “The halakhah (the law) is …” However, there are times when, like Abaye, the rabbi will say: “In order to know what Jewish law is, we need to go and see what the people are doing.”
Some may feel that the realm of Jewish law is owned by rabbis and, therefore, is a closed book. Abaye is showing that the practice of the people is important, and what Jews do plays a central role in the development of the law. Rabbis need to be aware of and to consult with “the people” as one of the important elements in the creation of halakhah. The wise arbiter will have a finger on the pulse of the people and will make not only a truly authentic ruling but also one that is acceptable and accepted.
A mitzvah performed by means of a transgression.
Text / “Women, slaves and minors may not be counted in the zimmun.” Rabbi Yosé said: “A minor lying in a cradle is counted in the zimmun.” But is it not taught: “Women, slaves and minors may not be counted in the zimmun”? What he said follows the opinion of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi, for Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: “Even though they said: ‘A minor in a cradle may not be counted in the zimmun,’ we make him a ‘wedge’ for the ten.” And Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: “Nine and a slave are counted together.” They objected: It once happened that Rabbi Eliezer entered the synagogue and did not find ten; he freed his servant and completed the ten. If he freed him, yes [he is counted]; if he did not free him, no. Two were needed; he freed one and added one. How could he do this? Did not Rav Yehudah say: “Whoever frees his slave violates a positive mitzvah, as it says: ‘They shall serve you forever’ [Leviticus 25:46, author’s translation]!” It is different for a mitzvah. But it is a mitzvah performed by means of a transgression! A mitzvah affecting many is different.
Context / The expression “counted for a minyan” is redundant, since minyan means “counting” or “numbering” and refers to the ten adult males who the Rabbis said are needed for certain public rituals like Torah reading and Kaddish. (In many congregations today, women are also counted in the minyan.) The Talmud traces the number ten, by verbal analogy, to the ten spies who brought back the negative report on the land of Israel (Numbers 14). There are many other references to minyan in the Talmud, with several different biblical sources cited as proof. It is likely, therefore, that the requirement of a minyan predated the Talmud’s reasoning. Today, we require a minyan for repetition of the Amidah with Kedushah, for recitation of certain prayers like Kaddish and Bar’khu, for reading the Torah in public, as well as for several other ceremonies and parts of the liturgy. The practice of adding a minor as a “wedge” is still used today; a minor who knows how to answer “Amen” and knows that he (or, in some communities, she) is praying to God may be counted as the tenth for a minyan where no adult may be found. Often, the minor is given a Bible to hold.
The problem of finding ten worshipers for a minyan is not unique to our times. There are several references in the Gemara to batlanim, idle or unemployed men who would always be available for the minyan. In fact, the Mishnah (Megillah 1:3) defines a “big city” as one with ten batlanim, that is, ten men always ready and available for a minyan.
The Gemara is discussing who may be counted for a minyan and who for a zimmun. A minyan is the ten worshipers needed to recite certain prayers and to read from the Torah. A zimmun is the introduction in the birkat ha-mazon, the blessings after a meal, recited when three or more eat bread together. Both minyan and zimmun are desirable: we would want to have a minyan for prayer and a zimmun for birkat ha-mazon since, in each case, we add words of praise of God that can be recited only with a required number of people. The Gemara tells us that “women, slaves and minors” are exempt and not included. However, a minor may be used as a “wedge,” the final piece that is added to make up the whole. Thus, the minor is counted as the tenth in a minyan.
Next, a story about Rabbi Eliezer is brought in to add a point of case-law. Even though slaves were not counted in the minyan, may a freed slave be added to the minyan as the tenth? The case here deals with a non-Jewish servant owned by a Jew. In rabbinic times, many non-Jewish slaves were educated household managers and were circumcised. Thus, on a minute’s notice, the master of the house could free a servant, making him Jewish (according to the standard of that day)—and theoretically solving the minyan problem. However, there is a disagreement as to whether this is allowed, since the text in Leviticus may actually prohibit this practice. The verse—“They shall serve you forever”—can be understood in two different ways: If the Torah means that they may serve you in perpetuity, then one may free such a slave. However, if the intention of the text is that they must serve you in perpetuity, then we are not allowed to free such a slave.
An answer is suggested: Even if the text means “they must serve you,” we are allowed to transgress this rule in order to fulfill a mitzvah, having a minyan. But then, the Gemara answers, we are performing a mitzvah via a transgression, which is clearly prohibited! No, respond the Rabbis, if it is for the communal good, it is not a true transgression of the Torah’s rule.
Katz, M., & Schwartz, G. (1998). Swimming in the Sea of Talmud: Lessons for Everyday LIving
. Philadelphia, PA: The Jewish Publication Society.by Diana Wallis
If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right is born of him. --- 1 John 2:29
Righteousness is ours is by faith.71 Perfect righteousness exists not, except in the angels—and scarcely in angels, if compared with God. Yet if there is any perfect righteousness of souls and spirits, it is in the angels. In them is perfect righteousness.
But in us [righteousness] has begun, by faith, by the Spirit. The beginning of our righteousness is the confession of sins. You have begun not to defend your sin; now you have made a beginning of righteousness, but it will be perfected in you when “death has been swallowed up in victory,” when there will be no itching of lust, when there will be triumph over the enemy—then will there be perfect righteousness.
At present we are still fighting. We pummel and are pummeled, but who will conquer remains to be seen. And those conquer who presume not on their own strength but rely on God. The Devil is alone when he fights against us. If we are with God, we overcome the Devil, for if you fight alone with the Devil, you will be overcome.
He is a skillful enemy! Consider to what he has cast us down. That we are born mortal comes of this, that he in the first place cast down from Paradise our very original. What then is to be done, seeing he is so well practiced? Let the Almighty be invoked to your aid. Let him who cannot be overcome dwell in you, and you will securely overcome him who is accustomed to overcome those in whom God dwells not. For Adam being in Paradise despised the commandment of God as if he desired to be his own master, loath to be subject to the will of God, so he fell from that immortality, from that blessedness.
This is what the epistle would have us lay to heart, that we may overcome the Devil, but not of ourselves. “If you know that he is righteous,” it says, “you know that every one who does what is right is born of him”—of God, of Christ. And in that he has said, “is born of him,” he cheers us on. Already therefore, in that we are born of him, we are perfect. --- Augustine of Hippo
Wallis, D. (2001). Take Heart: Daily Devotions with the Church's Great Preachers
Regulations concerning Canaan: Leviticus 25–27
The rest of Leviticus focuses on the way that God’s people were to live when He brought them out of the wilderness and settled them in the Promised Land. This section too is linked with God’s holiness, but in a distinctive way. We move here to God’s design for a just, moral community: a holy social order. That order is expressed in part in the establishment of a Sabbatical year and a Year of Jubilee, and even in regulations concerning slavery! To understand the significance of these striking laws, we need to understand the total system God’s Law sets up for the care of the poor and needy. This system is summarized in the Expository Dictionary of Bible Words. (Zondervan Expository Dictionary of Bible Words Preservation of capital. This is one of the most significant of Old Testament social mechanisms. Israel was an agrarian society: originally wealth was based on land and what the land could produce. Old Testament Law decreed that the land was to remain perpetually in the family of the first settlers. “The land must not be sold permanently.… Throughout the country that you hold as a possession, you must provide for the redemption of the land” (Lev. 25:23–24). What the Old Testament Law did permit was sale of the use of the land. The value of a property was to be computed by the projected value of crops between the time of sale and the Year of Jubilee. Every fiftieth year was a Year of Jubilee. In that year, people were not to work the land but to enjoy a year of rest; and in that year everyone was to take possession again of his family heritage—his own land. In addition, if a person needed funds and sold the use of his land and later prospered or found a rich relative who was willing to help him, that person could reclaim his property by recomputing its projected value to the Year of Jubilee and paying that sum. The potential significance of this mechanism cannot be overestimated. A person might make bad decisions or squander his wealth, but there was always provision for capital for the next generation, to be reclaimed in the Year of Jubilee. Thus, every fiftieth year, wealth was in a sense redistributed, and the poor were given the means for making a fresh start. Voluntary servitude. Another option that the poor in Israel had was to sell their personal services to a fellow Israelite. This relationship was carefully governed by Old Testament Law (Lev. 25:39–54; Deut. 15:12–18). Such a sale of services was paid for in an initial purchase price, but it was not a permanent sale of the individual. Rather, at the end of his seventh year, a Hebrew servant was to be released. “And when you release him, do not send him away empty-handed. Supply him liberally from your flock, your threshing floor and your winepress” (Deuteronomy 15:13–14). In a sense we can perhaps look at this as an apprenticeship program. A poor person who could not meet his financial obligations was given a sum of money to pay off his creditors. He bound himself to serve the person who had purchased him. During the seven years of service the servant should have learned skills, both for working and for managing his own finances, so that when he was released, he would be able to make it on his own. At the time of his release his former master supplied him “liberally” with the resources he needed for a fresh start. While these two features of God’s design of a just, moral community are presented here, there are other mechanisms imbedded in Old Testament Law we need to grasp if we are to understand the whole picture. The Zondervan Expository Dictionary of Bible Words Access to necessities. Two social mechanisms were designed to give the poor immediate access to life’s necessities. First, during the seventh Sabbatical year no crops were to be planted. Instead, the poor of the land were to be given access to any crops that had grown up (Exodus 23:10–11). In addition, during regular harvests in other years, the landowner was to go through the fields one time only. Everything that had been missed and all that fell to the ground or was left on the vine or tree was to be made available to the poor. They were to be allowed to glean such fields freely (Leveticus 19:10; 23:22). Interest-free, forgivable loans. Loans to other Israelites were to be made without charging interest (Leviticus 25:35–37; Deuteronomy 23:19–20) and were to be canceled when the Sabbatical (seventh) year came (Deuteronomy 15:1–3). Of course a person was to try to repay a loan he made, but if this was impossible, that debt was not to be permitted to weigh him down forever. The proper and loving attitude toward a brother is indicated in verses Deuteronomy 23:7–11: “If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother. Rather be openhanded and freely lend him whatever he needs. Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought: ‘The seventh year, the year for canceling debts, is near,’ so that you do not show ill will toward your needy brother and give him nothing.… There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land.” Organized collections. A number of tithes were to be collected from the people of Israel. One such collection described in Deuteronomy 14:28–29, was to be undertaken every three years, and what was collected was to be stored in each locality. This was to supply the Levites and also “the aliens, the fatherless, and the widows.” Taken individually, or together, these social mechanisms are extremely striking. They make provision for the immediate needs of individuals, for training of the ineffective, for the preservation of capital, and for the preservation of the respect of the poor as well as of the wealthy.
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