Re'eh- Activity investigations related to yearly tithings

In this week's parsha, we have two mentions of the tithings that were to be given at different times over the course of the shmita cycle. Additionally, tithings are referred to again in 3 weeks, in Parshat Ki Tavo. These three instances are looked at collectively in commentaries regarding the shmita cycle. 

• "You may not eat in your cities: the tithe of your grain, and your wine, and your oil; and the firstborn of your cattle and your flocks; all your vow offerings that you vow and your free-will offerings; and what is raised of your hand. Rather you shall eat them before Hashem, your G-d, in the place that Hashem, your G-d, will choose- you, your son, your daughter, your slave, your maidservant, and the Levite who is in your cities- and you shall rejoice before Hashem, your G-d, in your every undertaking. Beware for yourself lest you forsake the Levite, all your days in your land." ~Devarim 12:17-19
• Rashi on 12:18- regarding eating the tithings with the Levite in your city:
• Eat your first tithing together with him (1/10 portion of the crop given to Levites in each of the first 6 yrs of shemita)
• If you have no first tithe, then give from tithe for poor (1/10 of portion given to poor in third and sixth years (additional reference see 14:28-29, 26:12)
• If you have no poor tithe, then share your peace offering
• "At the end of three years you shall take out every tithe of your crop in that year and set it down within your cities. Then the Levite shall come- for he has no portion or inheritance with you- and the convert, and the orphan, and the widow who are in your cities, and they shall eat and be satisfied, in order that Hashem, your G-d, will bless you in all your handiwork that you may undertake." ~Devarim 14:28-29
• "When you have finished tithing every tithe of your produce of the third year, the year of the tithe, and you will have given to the Levite, to the convert, to the orphan, and to the widow, and they will have eaten in your cities and will have been satisfied, then you shall say before Hashem, your G-d, "I have eliminated the holy things from the house, and I have also given it to the Levite, to the convert, to the orphan, and to the widow, according to the entire commandment that you commanded me; I have not transgressed any of Your commandments, and I have not forgotten..." ~Devarim 26:12-13 (from Parshat Ki Tavo)

What were the tithings and the cycles?

• 1st tithe- 1/10 to the Levites
• 2nd tithe- 1/10 to be brought to Jerusalem and eaten there
• poor tithe- 1/10 to be given to the poor

The cycle of tithings over the shmita cycle was as follows:

Year 1- 1st tithes and 2nd tithes given

Year 2- 1st tithes and 2nd tithes given

Year 3- 1st tithes and tithes for poor given

Year 4- 1st tithes and 2nd tithes given

Year 5- 1st tithes and 2nd tithes given

Year 6- 1st tithes and tithes for poor given

Year 7- shmita year- no tithings

Activity suggestions:

• Younger children could investigate what it means to give 1/10. If you have a set-up for them to take a collection of items and divide them into ten groups, they would be donating one of those groups. The idea of 1 out of 10 might be conceptually easier for some than 1/10. In other words, for every 10 that's count out, 1 is going to be donated. 
• As children get to a point where they understand the concept of division by 10, they can practice some simple sample calculations of how much might have been donated based on a given monetary value. 
• Older children could be presented with sample scenarios of realistic incomes- some monetary based and some agriculturally based- and have them calculate projected tithings (per tithe and total donations) that families may have made over a 7 year shmita cycle. 
• Note that older students should also be able to make the connection that each 1/10 tithing would be equivalent 10% of their produce or earnings.
• It's also possible that, for some students, it would need to be clarified that all tithings were 1/10 of the total earnings; the 2nd tithing would not be calculated as 1/10 of what's left after the 1st tithing is given. This may be obvious to many, but for students who are making sense of the process, this may be a question that is unclear to them without explicit clarification.
• Extension thought- Based on these calculations, how could they think about how much the Levites had to live off of in a given year? This type of investigation could include researching information such as census information for each tribe listed in recent parshiot- if all the Levites were living off of tithings from those families, how much did they really have to live off of, per Levite family?

Re'eh- Overlapping Patterns

"At the end of seven years you shall institute a release. This is the matter of the release: Every creditor shall release his authority over what he has lent his fellow; he shall not press his fellow or his brother, for He has proclaimed a release for Hashem." ~Devarim 15;1-2

Rashi on Devarim 15;1:
Rashi here explains that one might think that each time a person makes a loan, they count seven years on that particular loan. Rather, we learn here that the seven years mentioned are referring to counting of the year according to the shmita cycle, and all loans are released every time we come to a shmita year, regardless of when they were made.

I'd like to use this information about a different aspect of shmita years to build on the shmita cycle information that we looked at in Parshat Behar. 

In the shmita/yovel chart in that post, you can see that every 7 years is a shmita year. At the time of the post, I made the chart based on my understanding of the text- with shmita every 7 years, and a final yovel year in the 50th year (after 7 groups of 7 years). With further research, I found a discrepancy in the understanding of how the cycle works. One explanation of the discrepancy can be seen here in an explanation on Parshat Behar.

In essence, the calculation discrepancy is as follows:
*Rabbi Yehuda understood that the yovel cycle was independent from the shmita cycle. In his view, there was a shmita cycle occurring every 7 years and a yovel cycle occurring every 50 years. The separate cycles overlapped in such a way that yovel fell in the 1st year of every 8th new shmita cycle.

*The sages understood that the yovel cycle was a final year within the larger shmita cycle. In their view, yovel was the 50th and final year of the previous shmita cycle, and the next shmita cycle would start the following year at year 1.

Here is a chart that compares the calculation implications in these differing understandings (bear with me- the chart gets lengthy in order to start to see the difference as we get into the second set of cycles):

Regular Counting year	Rabbi Yehuda	Sages
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Year 4
Year 5
Year 6
Year 7	Shmita	Shmita
Year 8
Year 9
Year 10
Year 11
Year 12
Year 13
Year 14	Shmita	Shmita
Year 15
Year 16
Year 17
Year 18
Year 19
Year 20
Year 21	Shmita	Shmita
Year 22
Year 23
Year 24
Year 25
Year 26
Year 27
Year 28	Shmita	Shmita
Year 29
Year 30
Year 31
Year 32
Year 33
Year 34
Year 35	Shmita	Shmita
Year 36
Year 37
Year 38
Year 39
Year 40
Year 41
Year 42	Shmita	Shmita
Year 43
Year 44
Year 45
Year 46
Year 47
Year 48
Year 49	Shmita	Shmita
Year 50	Yovel (yr 1 of new shmita cycle)	Yovel (yr 50 of old cycle)
Year 51		(yr 1 of new shmita/yovel cycle)
Year 52
Year 53
Year 54
Year 55
Year 56	Shmita
Year 57		Shmita
Year 58
Year 59
Year 60
Year 61
Year 62
Year 63	Shmita
Year 64		Shmita
Year 65
Year 66
Year 67
Year 68
Year 69
Year 70	Shmita
Year 71		Shmita

Just looking at the comparison chart, we can see that after the first full shmita/yovel cycle, the Sages' cycle falls behind Rabbi Yehuda's. For the next 7 shmita cycles, Rabbi Yehuda's shmita years fall one year earlier than the Rabbi Yehuda's. If we continue this pattern, after the next 7 shmita cycles, the Sages' shmita years will fall two years earlier. This discrepancy continues over time. Although the Sage's will fall farther and farther behind, every certain number of cycles, they will be in line again. Can you figure out how frequently that alignment will occur? To connect with counting in different bases, discussed in Parshat Behar, can you count the years in base-7 (as I started in the chart there) to help identify the alignment shift?

We can look at how this discrepancy in understanding changes the meaning of loan release that we learn of in our parsha this week. It says clearly that the loan release takes place after 7 years, which Rashi explains is in the shmita year. According to Rabbi Yehuda, the math works, and every 7 years is a shmita year, even when a yovel year follows a shmita year. According to the sages, though, when a yovel year falls out, there are actually 8 years between the shmita year before and the next shmita year. What happens if someone makes a loan during a yovel year? According to my understanding of the sages, a loan made during the yovel year would not be required to be released until the following shmita year, which would actually be 8 years. Following the sages, of the calculation were to keep to 7 years, then in the 2nd yovel cycle loans would actually be released the year before shmita, and in the 3rd yovel cycle loans would be released two years before shmita, and so on.

Although I did try to research this question, I was not able to find an answer. It seems that the Gaonim followed the Sages calculation of the yovel cycle, but at the time of exile from Israel, yovel was discontinued and the 50th yovel year was removed from the cycle. With this new calculation, the counting cycle looks like the column for Rabbi Yehuda's cycle, but with the yovel label taken out, since the new shmita cycle is bumped up a year.