The Torah, “Numbers,” 18:25 – 18:29: The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: “Speak to the Levites and tell them, ‘When you take the tithe from the children of Israel which I have given you from them as your inheritance, you shall set aside from it a gift for the Lord, a tithe of the tithe.
Your gift shall be considered for you as grain from the threshing-floor and as the produce of the vat. So shall you too set aside a gift for the Lord from all the tithes you take from the children of Israel, and you shall give thereof the Lord’s gift to Aaron the priest. From all your gifts, you shall set aside every gift of the Lord, from its choicest portion, that part of it which is to be consecrated.'”
The sacred part of the offering to the Lord is one or two hundredths parts of the total tithe.
The issue of tithing is explored in many Talmud treatises because it is a calculation that a person must produce in one’s desires by comparing them with the Creator’sproperties of bestowal.
Therefore, while correcting our desires, we should categorize and split them in levels that we can work with: bestowing for the sake of bestowal, rejecting and transferring everything we have to others.
There are levels at which we still receive, but it is done as if we bestow. For example, when one’s life is dedicated to the quality of bestowal, even if one continues receiving in order to support one’s existence it is not considered to be receiving. There are many nuances in this matter.
The Torah speaks of correction at still, vegetative, animate, and speaking levels. In this world, correction at the first three levels occurs when people deal with plants and animals. In spiritual work, all three levels are inside each of us separately and in all of us together, in the common soul.
The fourth level is the level of “man,” (Adam) the speaking level. This state already includes such notions as slaves, foreigners, the people of Israel, Levites, and the Cohen and the interaction between them.
[169232]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 6/3/15
[169232]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 6/3/15
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