All the tithe of the herds or the flocks, whatever passes under the rod, the tenth shall be holy to Yahweh.
To tithe one's cattle and livestock each year
The cited verse
The Hebrew (Masoretic Text)
וְכָל־מַעְשַׂר בָּקָר וָצֹאן כֹּל אֲשֶׁר־יַעֲבֹר תַּחַת הַשָּׁבֶט הָעֲשִׂירִי יִהְיֶה־קֹּדֶשׁ לַיהוָה
In Maimonides’ words
How Maimonides defines this commandment in his Sefer HaMitzvot — his own words, shown as a primary source.
היא שצונו להוציא עשור מה שיולד לנו בכל שנה ושנה מהבהמה ונקריב חלבה ודמה ונאכל השאר בירושלים, והוא אמרו וכל מעשר בקר וצאן, וזהו מעשר בהמה. וכבר התבארו משפטי מצוה זו בפרק בתרא מבכורות. ושם התבאר שזאת המצוה נוהגת בחוצה לארץ גם כן ושלא בפני הבית, וזהו דין תורה אבל גזרו רבנן שמא יאכלוהו בלא מום מפני שאין אצלנו מקדש ואמרו אינו נוהג אלא בפני הבית. וכשהיה המקדש בנוי נוהג בין בארץ בין בחוצה לארץ. (אם בחקותי, הלכות בכורות פ"ו):
That is that He commanded us to extract a tenth of the animals that are born to us each year, to offer their fat and blood and to eat the rest in Jerusalem. And that is His saying, "And all tithes of the herd or flock" (Leviticus 27:32). And that is the animal tithe. And the regulations of this commandment have already been explained in the last chapter of Bekhorot. And there it is explained that this commandment is practiced also outside of the Land and also not in the presence of the Temple. However the Rabbis decreed - lest [people] eat it without a blemish because we have no Temple (which prevents the eating of such an animal) - and said that it is only practiced in the presence of the Temple. But when the Temple was built, it was practiced both in the Land and outside the Land. (See Parashat Bechukotai; Mishneh Torah, Firstlings 6.)
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 ritual instruction
Applicability
How the catalog describes where and when this commandment applies. These are independent descriptions, not a verdict on which laws still count.
- Requires a standing Temple
- 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 Not binding
- 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 Treats firstfruits, tithes, and priestly dues generally rather than the Leviticus 27 animal tithe specifically
Josephus
- Ant. 4.205 affirmed it
The New Testament
- Matthew 23:23 reinterpreted it Pharisaic tithing of herbs critiqued for neglecting 'weightier matters'; reflects expansive tithing scope rather than the animal tithe specifically
- Hebrews 7:5-9 read it allegorically Levitical tithe rights typologically subordinated to Melchizedek/Christ
The Church Fathers
- Origen, Homiliae in Numeros 11 read it allegorically Treats the Numbers/Levitical agricultural tithe generally rather than the Leviticus 27 animal tithe specifically
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.