{"id":79856,"date":"2020-09-12T22:40:21","date_gmt":"2020-09-12T19:40:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=79856"},"modified":"2020-09-12T22:40:21","modified_gmt":"2020-09-12T19:40:21","slug":"the-trouble-with-tithes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-trouble-with-tithes\/","title":{"rendered":"The Trouble With Tithes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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To Israel\u2019s question, \u201cHow shall we turn back?\u201d (v. 7) God through Malachi responds that the people have been defrauding God. \u201cHow?\u201d they ask in response. The response, \u201cIn tithe and contribution\u201d deserves some attention. The people are accused of cheating God by not fully paying their obligations to the priests, Levites and needy. The accusation says nothing about withholding sacrifices to God, nor is the charge stated as violating God\u2019s law by withholding\u00a0 \u00a0 tithes and contributions. Rather the charge is defrauding God, improperly retaining possession of something that, by rights, belongs to God.<\/span><\/p>\n

The claim is religiously simple but emotionally difficult. The produce for which the farmer labored is not truly his, the gain from our work is not actually ours. They are blessings from God which we are responsible for allocating. As God\u2019s agents for resource distribution, depriving public servants (priests and Levites) and the needy of their due is theft, from both the people and from God.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet Malachi, on God\u2019s behalf, does not mention the poor directly. Is he thus not telling the whole truth?\u00a0 Why are they omitted? It almost makes it seem that God is more concerned with Godself than with meeting people\u2019s basic needs. More likely, Malachi is tailoring his words to his audience, because he, like all of the prophets, is, as Heschel wrote \u201ca person, not a microphone.\u201d The prophet tempers God\u2019s word with his own character, which hopefully helps him communicate in an idiom that will be heard.<\/span><\/p>\n

People in Malachi\u2019s day (and not only then) seemingly had few qualms about cheating the poor; after all, they have no power. But their fear of God was real. Therefore, the prophecy stresses the sin against God rather than that against the poor, and promises that bounty will be restored if the full tithe is brought to the storehouse, and food is available in the Temple.<\/span><\/p>\n

The gap between the full message that the tithes and contributions belong to their earthly recipients, as a matter of right not privilege, is muted in favor of stressing God\u2019s power as a way of increasing the odds of compliance. Malachi tells the truth, but not all the truth. Ensuring that the people dependent on us receive their due, that no one goes hungry on our watch, is important enough to justify the omission.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":79857,"id":79857,"title":"mal3-rich poor","filename":"mal3-rich-poor.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/mal3-rich-poor.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-trouble-with-tithes\/mal3-rich-poor\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"mal3-rich-poor","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":79856,"date":"2020-09-12 19:40:01","modified":"2023-08-30 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