The Denver Jewish news., 1921-06-08
The 1.-THE (1Ma' Assr =,
in Jewish Tradition
(Continued from Paxc One.)

n sum sufficient to enable the bride
to meet the Maaser taA. A son ill.,
heriting from his father was Obliged
to pay Ma'aser, even tho the father
had paid the tax upon the same sum
previously. The reason Tor this lay
in the fact that M'aser was regard
ed as the duty of the individual and
not; merely as burden upon the
capital sum.
From the 1iabbinical Response of
that day we can clearly see the extent
to which our people carried out the
Ma'aser principle In all its minute de-
tails. The "Gaonim' of that day dis.
cussed with sense of deep RESPONSE
biiity the application of the Ma'aser
to various practical cases. For ex-
ample, regarding Ma'aser upon income,
the question arose to whether the bur-
den fell upon the gross or upOn the
net income; or, again, if man prof
tied In one transaction but lost in an
other, whether he was entitled to off
set his losses against his profits.
Rabbi Abraham Hurwitz. father Of
the famous author Of "Shene Luhot
ba- -Berit" (knOwn us the "Shellah").
wrote in his will to his children: "And
as soon as your earnings reach yOur
hands you should set apart the
Ma'aser, and then you may put the
balance in your purse along with your
other profane money; but on no ac-
count before you have put aside your
Ma'aser, lest, God forbid, you forget.
You should always have separate
purse in which you keep your Ma'aser
money. in order I'd prevent its being
mixed up with other money. and it is
desirable that you should enter in
your notebook the receipts and pay
ments of the Ma'aser money ANNUALLY.
These simple, homely words speak
for themselves. They typify the men,
tality of the Ghetto which made the
long Galuth endurable and ensured the
preservation Of our people.
No Jew attempted to bargain about
the NIa'aser tax. On the contrary.
when it yielded insufficient revenue
more was willingly paid. SO firmly
was the fund established that 1t was
possible to pledge It as security for
a loan. and often Jews met public ex-
penditure out. of their own funds
! trusting, to be repaid from Maaser
FUNDS to be collected on future in
come.
In times of a communal disaster, or
when the existence of the nation was
threatened. and the NIa'aser was
found to be Insufficient 20 meet the
calamity. Jews gave more. the "tithe'
being only considered as a minimum.
In some communities the tax was rails.
ed from .one-tenth to one-fifth. At
the time of the expulsion of the Jews
from Spain and the Chmelnitzky per-
secuations the Jewish communities Of
Italy and Turkey gave quarter of
all they possessed to ransom the cap
tives and support the refugees.
The Gaonim emplmtically declared
that NO Jew has discharged his
charity obligation by merely paying
his Ma'aser punctunlly, SINCE the Ma
aser does not belong to him, whilst
charity is and remains his moral
duty"
At the time of Ezra and Nehemiah.
when the Jews returned to their own
country from the Babylonian exile.
one of the first Institutions OF the
return of Zion of that day was the
Nh 'aser From the very beginning Ne
hemiah introduced the strict ol,ser- |
vance of the historic agricultural 1.-THE
of grain and fruit as a state tax for
the maintenance of the whole Tribe |
of Levi.
But Nehemiah went further than
that. He instituted Ma'aser Of men.
One Jew in ten was Obliged to settle
In Jerusalem "And the princes |
of the people dwelt in Jerusalem; the |
rest of the people also cast lots to
bring one of ten to dwell in Jerus-
alem. the Holy City. and nine parts |
in other cities. And the people blessed
all the men that willingly offered
themselves to dwell in Jerusalem"
(Nehem. Ii, v, 1, -
Thus the Ma'aser tradition lives on
thru the ages of our history. If our
ancestors were so anxious to contri- |
butte the tithe for the mere ordinary
charitable purposes of everyday life.
one cannot help wondering how much |
more literally they would have given
for the reconstruction of Palestine had
they been allowed the opportunity
The generations of the past impose OH
our more fortunate generation. the
first of the redemption, the moral OBJ
legation to bring the required sacri-
flee for the rebuilding of our Ma
tiona1 Home. 1t is necessary for the