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One of the mitzvot that applies only in the Land is tithing produce. In the past, the Torah obligated field owners to give about two percent (teruma) of their produce to the priests and ten percent (ma’aser) to the Levites, to enable them to study Torah and serve the community in the positions of educators, advisors, and halakhic adjudicators. An additional tithe was given to the poor during the third and sixth years of each seven-year cycle. During the other years, the “second tithe” was for the owners to bring to Jerusalem and eat in purity. This connected the whole nation to the Temple. However, when the majority of the Jews are not living in the Land, these mitzvot have only rabbinic force. Additionally, since the destruction of the Temple, priests can no longer eat teruma with the required sanctity. Accordingly, today tithing is a rabbinic obligation which serves to remind us of the original mitzva. (For more details about tithing, see 6:12-14 above and 24:4-5 below.)
