The role of the kohanim and levi’im is to be Israel’s Torah scholars and educators. As it says: “They shall teach Your laws to Yaakov and Your Torah to Israel” (Devarim 33:10). Similarly, when the Torah describes difficult legal questions, it directs the people to the kohanim and the central court: “If a matter of judgment is too difficult for you, between blood and blood, between law and law, between lesion and lesion – matters of dispute within your gates – you shall arise and ascend to the place that the Lord your God will choose. You shall come to the Levitical kohanim and to the judge who will be in those days; you shall inquire, and they shall tell you the matter of judgment” (ibid. 17:8–9).
To ensure that the kohanim and levi’im would be spread throughout the Land and free for their spiritual work – learning Torah and teaching it – the Torah established that they would not receive their own inheritance in the Land. Rather, each tribe was to set aside cities for them within its inheritance. As it says: “The Lord spoke to Moshe… Command the Children of Israel that they give the Levites, from the inheritance of their possession, cities in which to dwell; and you shall give the Levites open land around the cities. The cities shall be theirs to dwell in, and their open lands shall be for their animals, their property, and all their needs… All the cities that you shall give the Levites shall be forty-eight cities… From the larger tribe you shall take more, and from the smaller tribe you shall take less; each tribe, according to the inheritance that it receives, shall give from its cities to the Levites” (Bamidbar 35:1–8).
In other words, the kohanim and levi’im received cities and their surrounding open land, but no agricultural land. Instead, they were to be sustained by the terumot and ma’asrot they received from the rest of Israel. As it says: “There shall not be for the Levitical kohanim, the entire tribe of Levi, any portion or inheritance with Israel; the fire offerings of the Lord and His inheritance shall they eat. He shall have no inheritance among his brothers; the Lord is his inheritance, as He spoke to him” (Devarim 18:1–2). In the days of Yehoshua, the Children of Israel fulfilled this command, as it says: “The Children of Israel gave the Levites, from their inheritance, by the word of the Lord, these cities and their open lands” (Yehoshua 21:3). Over the generations, as the need arose, additional cities were allocated to kohanim and levi’im, such as Nov and Anatot.
Since the purpose of giving terumot to kohanim and ma’aser to levi’im is to support them in their spiritual role, the mitzva is best fulfilled by giving these gifts to the Torah scholars among them, who learn and teach Torah. This is reflected in what King Ḥizkiyahu instructed: “He told the people, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to give the portion of the kohanim and levi’im, so that they might be strengthened in the Torah of the Lord” (2 Divrei Hayamim 31:4).
Even when no kohanim or levi’im engaged in Torah are present, the obligation to give the gifts to kohanim and levi’im remains. Since the tribe as a whole was set aside for this role and therefore received no inheritance in the Land, the obligation applies regardless. However, because the ideal is to give the gifts to the teachers and scholars among them, once such kohanim and levi’im are present, the gifts should again be given to them. [1]
Beyond the tribe of Levi, which was specifically assigned responsibility for Torah study and instruction in Israel, any Jew who wished to do so could also dedicate his life to Torah, studying and teaching (MT, Laws of Shemita and Yovel 13:13). Since terumot and ma’asrot were not designated for Jews from the other tribes, those among them who wished to devote themselves to Torah had to scale back their work in the fields and be content with less, so that they could make time for Torah study. Presumably, those who chose this path were people of unusual talent, diligence, and character. As a result, many reached levels of Torah knowledge above the average among members of the tribe of Levi, and many became heads of yeshivot, members of rabbinic courts, and members of the Sanhedrin.
At times, their families supported them, as in the model of Zevulun and Yissachar. At other times, the public paid them compensation for time away from work so that they could devote themselves to teaching or judging. Even so, the essential role of the tribe of Levi remained in place. Its members bore the overall responsibility for sustaining Torah in Israel: educating children and adults, establishing regular Torah classes for adults, making peace between people and between husband and wife, providing emotional support to those in need, and rehabilitating murderers and other offenders. Upon this solid foundation, Jews from other tribes who devoted themselves to Torah added another important tier, expanding and glorifying Torah through halakhic ruling, education, and the enrichment of communal life in all the areas entrusted to the tribe of Levi. (The enactment of ma’aser kesafim continues the same ideal as terumot and ma’asrot, extending it from agriculture to other forms of work and business.)
According to R. Shimshon and Rosh, one may not give priestly gifts to a kohen who is an am ha’aretz, an unlearned person not presumed to be careful in halakhic observance. Rambam, however, maintains that the gifts may be given to a kohen or levi who is an am ha’aretz, though they should preferably be given to a Torah scholar. In practice, the halakha follows the majority of Rishonim: the preferred fulfillment of the mitzva is to give the priestly gifts to a kohen or levi who is a Torah scholar. If no such Torah scholar is present, however, they may be given to an am ha’aretz instead, and one need not make the extra effort to bring them to a Torah scholar. This is the view of Tosafot, Ramban, Rashba, Ran, Ritva, and Meiri to Ḥullin 130b, and this is the ruling of SA YD 61:7.
Even when no kohen who is a Torah scholar is present, one must nonetheless be careful to give teruma only to a kohen who is careful about the laws of purity. Since teruma is sacred and must be eaten only in purity, giving it to an am ha’aretz would cause him to violate the prohibition of eating teruma in impurity (Sanhedrin 90b; MT, Laws of Terumot 6:2). However, when a kohen who was an am ha’aretz came to the Temple during the week of his family’s priestly watch, he was allowed to participate in the service and eat from the sacrificial meat, because even kohanim who were amei ha’aretz were careful about the laws of purity in the Temple.
