Pisqa’ 302¹

1

“When you have ended² the tithing” (Dt.26:12).

Is it possible to say that

this coincides with the [winter] Feast of Dedication?

You can reason [to the contrary] as follows—

a synonym for end³ is mentioned here (Dt.26:12),

and end is mentioned [explicitly] elsewhere (Dt.31:10).

Just as end, stated elsewhere (Dt.31:10),

refers to a Pilgrimage-Festival,⁴

so, too, should the synonym for end, stated here (Dt.26:12)

also refer to a Pilgrimage-Festival

[yet the Feast of Dedication is not a Pilgrimage!]

Or, [for a different argument]:

just as the term for the end,⁵ stated elsewhere (Dt.31:10),

refers to the Feast of Huts,

so, too, shouldn’t the term for the end⁶ stated here (Dt.26:12)

also refer to the Feast of Huts?

The Teaching states:

“When you have ended the tithing” (Dt.26:12)—

this refers to the Pilgrimage that

ends the tithing season—

and I would say, this is Passover!

On this basis they taught:

The removal of the [previous year’s] Tithe—

during the fourth and seventh years

of the Sabbatical Cycle—

fell on the eve of the last⁷ Feast Day of Passover.⁸

2

“In the third year” (Dt.26:12).

Is it possible to say that

even the Seventh Year of the Sabbatical Cycle

[in which all produce is declared ownerless]

should be under obligation for the Tithe?

The Teaching states:

“In the third year, the year of the Tithe” (Dt.26:12)—

that is, the Tithe must be offered

for the year in which it is due.

You thus exclude the Seventh Year,

which is not under obligation for the Tithe

[for it is ownerless].

Is it possible to say that

[to compensate for the lack of a Tithe in the Seventh Year]

two separate Tithes should be offered

[in the third year of the Sabbatical Cycle]?

The Teaching states:

“The year of the Tithe” (Dt.26:12)—

that is, one Tithe is offered that year,

but two tithes are not offered that year.

I might infer only that

Scripture mandates the Pauper’s-tithe for that year.

On what basis do I include other Tithes

[such as the Threshing-floor-offering or the First-tithe]?

The Teaching states:

“All the Tithe of your yield” (Dt.26:12)—

this inclusive language

[mandates removal of all offerings designated by the Torah].

1. H:291-292;JN2:280-281.
2. Heb: techaleh; root: ch-l-h, “to make an end of.”
3. Heb: qeitz; normally used in its nominal form to mean “the last of,” “ending.”
4. I.e., The autumnal Feast of Huts.
5. Heb: miqeitz; “from/at the end of.”
6. That is, miqeitz, the synonym of techaleh used at Dt.26:12.
7. Albeck’s edition of the Mishnah corrects the text according to Sifre: “last.”
8. =M.MS.5:6.