Do Not Delay Your Firstfruits and the Order of the Gifts

Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 351:5

"Your fullness and your tithe-offering you shall not delay (Exodus 22:28)." "Your fullness" - these are the firstfruits, which are taken from the full produce. "And your tithe-offering [dim'akha]" - this is the priestly portion [terumah]. "You shall not delay" - that you should not bring forward the second before the first, nor the first before the priestly portion, nor the priestly portion before the firstfruits. But I do not know which of them takes precedence, whether terumah before firstfruits or firstfruits before terumah. You say: Let the firstfruits come first, for they are called by four names - "beginning," "firstfruits," "offering," and "fullness" - before terumah, which is called by only three names. Let terumah, which is called by three names - "beginning," "offering," and "that which is mingled" - take precedence before the first tithe, which is called by only two names. Let the first tithe, which is called by two names - "offering" and "tithe" - take precedence before the second tithe, which is called by only one name. From here they said: Anyone who brings the terumah before the firstfruits, the first tithe before the terumah, and the second tithe before the first - even though he transgresses a negative commandment, what he has done is done [and remains valid].

Themes