Deuteronomy 26:12

כי תכלה לעשר את כל מעשר תבואתך בשנה השלישת WHEN THOU HAST FINISHED TITHING ALL THE TITHES OF THY INCREASE IN THE THIRD YEAR — this means: when you have finished the setting apart of the tithes of the third year. It (Scripture) has fixed the time for removing the tithes from the house (ביעור) and the confession regarding their proper disposition (ודוי) for the eve of the Passover festival of the fourth year, because it is stated, (Deuteronomy 14:28) “At the end (מקצה) of three years thou shall bring forth [all the tithe of thy increase in the same year, and shalt lay it up within thy gates]”. It uses here (in the verse just quoted) the words “at the end of” (מקצה) and it states further (Deuteronomy 31:10—11): “At the end of every seven years … [in the festival of Tabernacles, … thou shalt read this law before Israel]” with reference to the law of “public assembly”, in order to suggest an analogy. How is it in the case further on? It takes place at a festival period as stated! So, too, here, the rite takes place at a festival period. If so, one might argue: What is the case there? It takes place on the festival of Tabernacles; so, too, here the rite takes place on Tabernacles! Scripture, however, states here: When thou hast finished tithing the tithes of the third year, which thus points to a festival on which all tithes are finished and this is the Passover festival, for there are many trees the fruits of which are gathered after Tabernacles, and consequently the setting apart of tithes of the third year is at an end on Passover of the fourth year. And whoever had delayed his tithes until then Scripture declares him bound to clear them out by that time from his house (cf. Sifrei Devarim 302; Talmud Yerushalmi Maaser Sheni 5:6). שנת המעשר [THE THIRD YEAR] WHICH IS THE YEAR OF TITHE — These apparently redundant words (for every year except the Sabbatical year it “a year of tithing”) suggest: that year in which only one of the two tithes that had to be separated in the previous two years is due (שנת המעשר, lit., the year of the tithe), viz., the “First Tithe”. For in the first year of the Shemitta-period the law of the “First Tithe” applies — as it is stated, (Numbers 28:26) “[And to the Levites shalt thou speak …] when ye take of the children of Israel the tithe” (which is the First Tithe) — and that of the “Second Tithe”, as it is stated, (Deuteronomy 14:22—23; cf. Rashi on the latter verse) “[Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed … year by year], and thou shalt eat before the Lord thy God … the tithe of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thine oil”. You thus have two tithes every year, one that you must give the Levite and the other which you must consume yourself in Jerusalem (the “Second Tithe”). It now comes and teaches you here that, in the third year, of those two tithes mentioned only one is due, and which is it? It is the “First Tithe”. And that instead of the “Second Tithe” one has to give in the third year (and similarly in the sixth) the “Tithe of the Poor”, for it states here ונתת ללוי “AND THOU HAST GIVEN UNTO THE LEVITE”, i.e. given him that which is due to him — here you have mention of the “First Tithe”, לגר ליתום ולאלמנה “[AND THOU HAST GIVEN] … UNTO THE STRANGER, THE FATHERLESS, AND THE WIDOW” — this is the “Tithe of the Poor” (cf. Sifrei Devarim 303:1; see also Rashi on Deuteronomy 14:23 and 29). ואכלו בשעריך ושבעו THAT THEY MAY EAT WITHIN THY GATES, AND BE SATISFIED — Give them sufficient to satisfy them. From here they (the Rabbis) derived the law: one must give the poor in the barn no less than half a kab of wheat or a kab of barley (Sifrei Devarim 303:2; Talmud Yerushalmi Peah 8:5; see also Rashi on Deuteronomy 14:29).

כִּ֣י תְכַלֶּ֞ה לַ֠עְשֵׂ֠ר אֶת־כׇּל־מַעְשַׂ֧ר תְּבוּאָתְךָ֛ בַּשָּׁנָ֥ה הַשְּׁלִישִׁ֖ת שְׁנַ֣ת הַֽמַּעֲשֵׂ֑ר וְנָתַתָּ֣ה לַלֵּוִ֗י לַגֵּר֙ לַיָּת֣וֹם וְלָֽאַלְמָנָ֔ה וְאָכְל֥וּ בִשְׁעָרֶ֖יךָ וְשָׂבֵֽעוּ׃

When thou hast made an end of tithing all the tithes of thy produce in the third year, which is the year of tithing, and hast given it the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that they may eat within thy gates, and be replete;