The Tithe That Shrank a Field in Tanchuma Re'eh

Rabbi Levi expounded the verse with reference to one who does not bring out his tithes as is fitting. For Rabbi Levi said: It once happened that a certain man would bring out his tithes as is fitting. He had one field, and it would produce a thousand measures every year, and he would bring out from it a hundred measures for his tithes; from the remainder he and the members of his household would sustain themselves. At the hour of his death he called his son. He said to him: My son, set your mind upon this field. Such and such measures it produces, and such and such do I bring out as tithe, and from it I have sustained myself all my days. The first year that son shepherded it, and it produced a thousand measures, and he brought out from it a hundred measures for the tithe. In the second year an evil eye entered into him, and he diminished his portion by ten, and it diminished its portion by a hundred. And so [the third], fourth, and fifth, until it stood at the level of its tithes. When his relatives and his friends saw, they put on white garments and wrapped themselves in white, and they came to him. He said to them: Why have you come, to rejoice over that man who has been brought low? He said to him: Heaven forbid! We have come only to rejoice with you. In times past you were the householder, and the Holy One, blessed be He, was the priest; but now the Holy One, blessed be He, has become the householder, and you are the priest. Therefore Moses warns Israel, "You shall surely tithe" (Deuteronomy 14:22).