Asser Te’Asser’ in Piyyut and Piyyut Commentary
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
PARASHAT ‘ASSER TE’ASSER’ IN PIYYUT AND PIYYUT COMMENTARY Elisabeth Hollender Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Germany The Biblical passage Asser Te’asser (‘You shall surely tithe’) covers Deut 14:22–15:18. This passage deals (1) with the tithe which is to be con- sumed at the Temple, (2) with the tithe for the poor, which is given every third year (according to rabbinic interpretations instead of the rst mentioned tithe), (3) with the remission of debts every seventh year, and (4) with the freeing of the Hebrew slave. The tithe described there usually is referred to as ma’aser sheni, ‘second tithe’, since the rulings in Lev 27:30–33 and Num 18:21–32, while differing from each other, do agree that a (rst) tithe is to be given to the Sanctuary or its person- nel, the priests and Levites. According to rabbinic teaching, the ma’aser rishon, the ‘rst tithe’ is to be given to the Levites who in turn give a tithe from it to the kohanim (the priests)—in the time of the Second Temple it was given to the kohanim, since the number of Levites who returned from Babylonian exile was too low in relation to the number of kohanim who returned. The ‘second tithe’ is to be consumed dur- ing pilgrimages to Jerusalem every rst, second, fourth, and fth year, while it is distributed as ma’asar-oni, the tithe of the poor, every third and sixth year. There is no tithe in the seventh year (shemitta), during which the land is not tilled, but left fallow instead. The tithe is closely connected to the teruma, the obligatory donation of a small part of the harvest (1/48 to 1/60) to a kohen. Teruma and tithe are, according to the Biblical commandments, laws that apply in the land of Israel, when ‘all of Israel’ is residing there, and they are closely connected to the Temple. Since nobody who is not a kohen in the state of ritual purity is allowed to partake of the teruma, the practice to give teruma to kohanim could not be continued after the destruction of the Temple, for without the ritual involving the ashes of the red heifer, no kohen could achieve ritual purity, e.g. after contact with a dead body. Nevertheless, teruma and tithes were probably separated and handed over to its recipients for some time even after the destruction of the 92 elisabeth hollender Second Temple, as quotes from early rabbinic texts and from the Bar Kokhba period indicate. Agricultural tithes were redeemed with money and this money was then put out of use, e.g. by disposing of it into the Dead Sea. But later, and especially in exile, neither teruma nor tithe were practiced according to Biblical and Mishnaic law. Since both the giving of the tithe and the later memorial act of speaking a blessing and burning a piece of dough before baking did and do take place outside of any liturgical framework, liturgical texts that deal with the tithe are not to be expected. The only framework in which the second tithe is mentioned in the synagogue service is the read- ing of the portion re’e according to the annual Babylonian cycle of Torah readings, the fth part of which is Asser Te’asser, the Biblical passage regarding the laws of the second tithe, starting with Deut 14:22. None of the reconstructions of the triennial cycle of Torah reading does include a seder that begins with Deut 14:22. Since liturgical poetry usu- ally deals with the beginning of the weekly portion only, there would be no necessity to write poetry on this topic that could bring it to the attention of the community. But there is evidence that already in late antiquity Asser Te’asser was—contrary to the lists of Torah readings xed in Mishna and Talmud—read as the beginning of the Torah reading on the Sabbath during Sukkot and the Sabbath during Pesa4 (Fleischer 1967, 116–155 esp. 153). This assumption is also supported by the position of piska 10 in Pesikta de Rav Kahana, namely in the middle of the piska’ot on Pesa4. The homily on Asser Te’asser in Pesikta de Rav Kahana is transmitted almost identically in Tan re’e 10–18 and TanB re’e 4–17. The reading was not accepted unanimously and was replaced by Exod 33:12–34:26 later. But Asser Te’asser was not completely erased from the Torah reading on Sukkot. In the Middle Ages it was customary in some communities to read Asser Te’asser on Shemini Aeret, the last day of Sukkot when it happened to fall on a Sabbath. This practice was ostensibly justied because the regular reading for that day, (Deut 15:19–16:17), is not long enough to provide enough text for the seven readings that are halakhically required for a Torah service on the Sabbath. Thus Asser Te’asser, the passage before the required reading, was added. The best known evidence for this Torah reading dates rather late, namely from the 12th century, when Ma4zor Vitry, a compilation of halakhic rulings from the school of Salomo b. Isaac (Rashi) and other sources edited by Sim4a of Vitry, was compiled in Northern France (on this text cf. Lehnardt (2007, 65–99). It contains .