In this week’s Torah portion, Parshas Re’eh, we learn of the positive commandment to tithe our produce and livestock (14:22-23). The tithe, or maaser, is given to a Levite, a member of the tribe of Levi.
Maimonides (Hilchos Shemita v’Yovel, Chapter 13, Law 12) explains: “Why doesn’t the tribe of Levi receive a regular portion in the Land of Israel and of the spoils of war when the Jews conquered the Land? Because he was separated to serve Hashem and to teach the Torah and answer the questions of the Jewish people, as the verse in Deuteronomy says, ‘Teach the laws to Jacob and the Torah to Israel.’ Therefore [the Levites] are separated from the ways of the world, they don’t serve in the army, and they don’t receive a portion in the Land or booty. Rather, they are the army of Hashem.” And therefore G-d gave them the tithe: because they serve in the Holy Temple and teach us, the rest of the Jewish nation, Torah.
Maimonides continues (in Law 13) to say that this status is not reserved only for the Levites. Anyone in the world can also achieve the status of a Levite by separating himself from the “rat race” – pursuit of worldly pleasures – and totally devote himself to the service of G-d and study of His Torah. Such a person is “holy of holies” and G-d will take care of him just as he takes care of the Levites by designating the tithes for them. Although he can’t receive the tithe, G-d promises to support him in other ways, in addition to the great merit he will receive in the World to Come.
There is much here that Maimonides doesn’t mention. The Talmud (Makkos 10a) quotes the verse in Psalms (122:2), “Our feet were standing in the gateways of Jerusalem,” and asks, “What is this verse referring to?” The Talmud answers by explaining the verse as follows: “Why were our feet able to stand in war? Because of the [people by the] gates of Jerusalem who toiled in Torah.”
Today there is a movement wishing to tear yeshiva students away from their books of Torah in order to serve in the army. We already learned from Maimonides that, like the Levites in the time of the Temple, Torah students and scholars are exempt from army service. But this Gemara is an even bigger revelation. The reason Israeli soldiers are able to “stand” in war is because of those who are toiling in Torah. Knowing this, it seems ludicrous to take yeshiva students away from their Torah studies in order to serve in the army.
And it goes even further than that. The Talmud (Sanhedrin 99b) explains the verse in Jeremiah (33:25), “If not for My covenant day and night, I would not set the laws of Heaven and Earth,” as follows: Torah is called G-d’s covenant. If not for the Torah being studied day and night, the “laws of Heaven and Earth,” i.e., the existence of the world, would be discontinued. Rashi adds that those who keep G-d’s covenant through Torah study benefit the world and keep up its existence.
With this in mind, we can easily understand why the tithes are given to the Levites: they study and teach Torah and thereby sustain the world. And in our times, this manifests itself in the form of supporting the modern-day Levites, the yeshiva students and Torah scholars who devote their lives to the study of Torah and service of G-d, whether with financial support or by relieving them of army service. Because in reality, it is they who support us.
Many of us are not in the position to dedicate our lives to full-time Torah study. Yet, we can surely each increase our study of Torah to a degree appropriate to our circumstances, as much as we can. (Oorah’s TorahMates program is an excellent medium for this: sign up to be matched with a study partner for half an hour a week.) And in the merit of our Torah study, may we soon see a time when there is no need for any army other than G-d’s, as we greet Mashiach together speedily in our days.
Shmuel Dovid Kirwan
