“You shall not blaspheme God, nor curse a ruler of your people.
Not to alter the order of separating tithes; terumah must precede the tithe
The cited verse
The Hebrew (Masoretic Text)
מְלֵאָתְךָ וְדִמְעֲךָ לֹא תְאַחֵר
In Maimonides’ words
How Maimonides defines this commandment in his Sefer HaMitzvot — his own words, shown as a primary source.
הזהיר מהקדים חקי הזרע קצתם על קצתם אבל יוציאם כסדרן, ובאור זה החטה דרך משל כשזרוה היא טבל יוציא ממנה תחלה תרומה והיא חלק מחמשים ואח"כ יוציא מהנשאר מעשר ראשון ואח"כ יוציא מעשר שני מהנשאר ותנתן תרומה גדולה לכהן והמעשר ראשון ללוי ומעשר שני יאכל לבעלים בירושלים, ועל זה הסדר ראוי שיעשה, ובאה האזהרה מהקדים מה שראוי לאחר ומלאחר מה שראוי להקדים מאמרו מלאתך ודמעך לא תאחר כאילו יאמר לא תאחר ממלאתך ודמעך מה שראוי להקדימו. ובמשנת תרומה (פ"ג) המקדים תרומה לבכורים ומעשר ראשון לתרומה ושני לראשון אע"פ שהוא עובר בלא תעשה שנאמר מלאתך ודמעך לא תאחר מה שעשה עשוי: ובמכילתא מלאתך אלו הבכורים הניטלים מן המלאה ודמעך זה תרומה לא תאחר שלא תקדים שני לראשון ראשון לתרומה תרומה לבכורים [כו', מכאן אמרו המקדים תרומה לבכורים ומעשר ראשון לתרומה], ומעשר שני לראשון אע"פ שהוא עובר בלא תעשה מה שעשה עשוי. וכבר התבאר בפ' ראשון מתרומה שהמקדים אינו לוקה. (משפטים, הל' תרומות פ"ג):
He prohibited having some laws of [produce] precede others, but they should rather be executed in their order. And the explanation by way of illustration is with wheat: When it is winnowed, it is tevel. First the priestly tithe is separated from it - and that is one part in fifty. And afterwards, one should separate the first tithe from the remainder. And afterwards, he should separate the second tithe from the remainder [of that]. And he should give the great priestly tithe to the priest, the first tithe to the Levite; and the owners should eat the second tithe in Jerusalem. And it is appropriate that he do it according to this order. And the prohibition about bringing forward what is appropriate to delay or to delay what is appropriate to bring forward is from His saying, "You shall not delay the first of your ripe fruits and of your liquor" (Exodus 22:29) - as if He said, "Do not delay that which is appropriate to bring forward from your ripe fruits and liquor." And in the Mishnah of Terumah (Terumot 3:6): "He who brings forward the priestly tithe before firstfruits, or the first tithe before the priestly tithe, or the second tithe before the first tithe: Even though he transgresses a negative commandment - as it is stated, 'You shall not delay the first of your ripe fruits and of your liquor' - what is done is done." And in the Mekhilta (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 22:28:1) "'Your ripe fruits' - these are the firstfruits, which are taken from the ripe fruits. 'And of your liquor' - that is the priestly tithe. 'Do not delay' - you shall not bring forward the second tithe before the first-tithe, the first [tithe] before the priestly tithe, or the priestly tithe before the firstfruits, [etc. From here they said, 'If one brings forward the priestly tithe before the firstfruits or the first tithe before the priestly tithe] or the second tithe before the first [tithe] - even though he transgresses a negative commandment, what is done is done.'" And it has already been explained in the first chapter of Temurah (Temurah 4a) that one who brings [a category] forward is not lashed. (See Parashat Mishpatim; Mishneh Torah, Heave Offerings 3.)
Hebrew: Sefer HaMitzvot, Warsaw 1883 (public domain). English: Sefaria Edition, trans. Rabbi Francis Nataf, 2021 (CC0). Via Sefaria; translator’s footnotes omitted.
Literary form: a prohibition
Applicability
How the catalog describes where and when this commandment applies. These are independent descriptions, not a verdict on which laws still count.
- Binding in the land of Israel
Classical halakhic consequences
The consequences the classical halakhah attaches to this commandment, grouped by who imposes them. Where a category has none recorded, that absence is itself meaningful.
Imposed by a court
No court-imposed penalty is recorded.
At the hands of Heaven
No divinely-imposed consequence is recorded.
Ritual remedy
No ritual remedy is recorded.
How the streams of Judaism treat this commandment
The streams of Judaism read the same commandment differently — an ongoing plurality, not a ranking. Each position below is reported as the catalog records it; none is presented as the correct one.
- Orthodox Binding, with modification
- Conservative Kept as an ethical principle
- Reform Not binding
- Reconstructionist Not binding
- Karaite Not binding
24 of 613 commandments have been examined in depth so far — this one is queued.
How later traditions received this commandment
How later traditions read or reworked this commandment, each attributed to its own voice. The catalog’s own classification of each reception is shown as it records it, never adopted as GEBible’s.
Philo of Alexandria
- De Specialibus Legibus 1.131-144 rationalized it
Josephus
- Ant. 4.240-243 affirmed it
Where this commandment meets modern human-rights frameworks
One modern normative lens, attributed to it — not GEBible’s assessment. Each row names the framework it measures against and the catalog’s own classification of the relation.
This framework catalogues tensions; it records agreement in only one of its entries. The near-total tension rate is the shape of the instrument, not a finding.
No tension with the catalogued modern frameworks is recorded here.