Demai – “Doubtful” – Provenance and taxes
- It’s a given within most societies that if you impose a tax, people will look for a way around it. “Demai”, doubtful, as it applies to the world of agriculture, was an exploration of what is to be done when you’re not sure that the producer of produce you acquire has tithed their appropriate amounts, either for the poor, as we saw in the previous tractate, Pe’ah, or as taxes for the community. Whose responsibility is it, and how is it handled?
- Chapter 1 – We dive right in, making it feel almost like this is the continuation of another conversation, though it doesn’t seem to follow directly on the ending of Pe’ah. The entire first chapter is devoted to listing various fruits, vegetables, breads, and oils which are exempt from tithing. We are also advised that produce of doubtful tithing can be used for things like designating the boundaries of an eruv. And, in an image unlikely to be forgotten, and which seems to come out of the blue, we are told that it’s perfectly acceptable to separate out tithing portions while naked. Why this came up, I have no idea.
- Chapter 2 – In what has to be the ultimate sanctioning of scamming, we are told that wholesalers are allowed to buy and sell grain and produce of dubious provenance. Retailers, however, are prohibited from reselling these things. So you really have to trust your supplier, or you could end up buying grain or produce that you’re not allowed to sell. Interestingly, bakers can buy and use grain of dubious provenance as long as they make it into bread or pastries and aren’t reselling the raw grain.
- Chapter 3 – If you find yourself in possession of produce of doubtful provenance, you can feed it to the poor, to laborers, and even to guests. You can’t sell it without first tithing it. If you give produce to someone else to prepare, in specific an innkeeper or your mother-in-law, you’re obligated to tithe the prepared food they give back to you, because, it seems, you can’t trust that they used the produce you gave them, they might have swapped your properly tithed produce for their own un-tithed produce. You know how those restaurant chefs and mothers-in-law are, right?
- Chapter 4 – Even if you suspect that produce has not been properly tithed, if the person who is giving or selling it to you claims that it is, and is someone known to you, you take their word for it. If they are someone unknown to you, you don’t take their word for it unless someone else vouches for them (even if you don’t know the second person). Regardless of your suspicions or even knowledge that someone is lying to you, you take their word for it. That seems to me to be way off of the usual approach to these things.
- Chapter 5 – In a system of producer, wholesaler, retailer, consumer, there’s a built in assumption that whatever government is around is going to want its share from each level in the food chain. So what happens if you’re further along that chain, not the original producer, and you’re just not sure that one or more of the preceding folk paid their fair share? Why, of course, you just pay it all, a little something for all those who came before you. Just in case, you know? I’m sure that went well.
- Chapter 6 – If you grow produce in Israel and sell it in Syria, you must declare both that it was grown in Israel and that you’ve already tithed the produce. Then, the buyer has no tithing obligation, and can trust your word. If, however, you own land in Syria as well, regardless of your claim that the produce is from Israel, the purchaser must assume that you could be lying and haven’t tithed your Syrian produce, and must pay the tithe himself.
- Chapter 7 – If you invite a friend over for dinner, and you know that he doesn’t trust you and thinks you haven’t paid your tithes, you have to tithe the produce and food in front of him, setting things apart for donation to the appropriate authorities. It’s not at all clear that there’s any enforcement of the payment after your friend leaves, and more importantly, why are you friends with someone who has that level of distrust in you?