Hunger and food issues appear all over the Torah. These two passages from the book of Deuteronomy remind us that we must feed not only ourselves, but also those who do not have access to good food.
Created by Rabbi Margie Jacobs for the Institute for Jewish Spirituality Reprinted with permission from Mazon: A Jewish Response to Hunger Note: The two passages in this section refer to the practice of tithing for the sake of the poor. Every third year a tithe was taken explicitly for the sake of the poor, those who have no landholding from which to provide for themselves, who are dependent on others for both sustenance and protection. The food was offered to the poor en mass, by farmers as a group. There was no direct one to one connection between food provided by a farmer and the satisfaction of one or another individual.
Deuteronomy 14:27-29 But do not neglect the Levite in your community, for he has no hereditary portion as you have every third year you shall bring out the full tithe of your yield of that year, but leave it within your settlements. Then the Levite, who has no hereditary portion as you have, and the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow in your settlements shall come and eat their fill, so that YHVH your God may bless you in all the enterprises you undertake.
Deuteronomy 26:12-15 When you have set aside in full the tenth part of your yield—in the third year, the year of the tithe—and have given it to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that they may eat their fill in your settlements, you shall declare before YHVH your God: “I have cleared out the consecrated portion from the house; and I have given it to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, just as You commanded me; I have neither transgressed nor neglected any of Your commandments: I have not eaten of it while in mourning, I have not cleared out any of it while I was unclean, and I have not deposited any of it with the dead. I have obeyed YHVH my God; I have done just as You commanded me. Look down from your holy abode, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel and the soil You have given us, a land fl owing with milk and honey, as You swore to our fathers.
