In earlier times, when a private individual slaughtered an animal for his family, he would give the gifts to his kohen neighbor. Today, slaughter takes place in slaughterhouses where vast quantities of animals are processed daily. The gifts that accumulate in a single day are far more than any kohen or group of kohanim could eat. It is certainly not fitting for kohanim to open shops selling forelegs, cheeks, and maws; the gifts are meant to free them for Torah study and teaching, not to make them merchants.
The proper arrangement is for the kohanim to receive the gifts and sell them to the business owner, who then sells them to consumers. Strictly speaking, this would require each kohen to come to the slaughterhouse every day. To spare him that burden, the business owner may give the kohen a loan at the beginning of each month, agreeing that the gifts designated for him will serve as repayment. Even without the kohen physically receiving the gifts, they are considered his, since it was established from the outset that they were designated for him. Kohanim of this kind are called makirei kehuna (above, 9:11). It is proper to choose Torah scholars as makirei kehuna, so that the gifts strengthen their Torah study for the sake of teaching. The value must be calculated at wholesale — what a wholesale meat merchant would pay, bearing in mind his responsibility for kashering, packaging, and marketing. Some merchants pay a token sum, knowing the kohen has no practical recourse. They bear the sin of shortchanging the kohanim and withholding what is theirs.
Some merchants try to evade the mitzva by entering into partnership with a non-Jew, since an animal partly owned by a non-Jew is exempt. If they stipulated from the outset, as many do, that the front half belongs to the Jew and the rear half to the non-Jew — because of the difficulty of removing the forbidden fats and sinews from the hindquarters — they must still give the kohen the foreleg and cheeks from the front half (SA YD 61:25–27). To be fully exempt, the non-Jew must be a partner in the whole animal from the start, with the division made only after slaughter.
Regrettably, most badatzim and kashrut agencies do not supervise the fulfillment of this mitzva. Some evade it through non-Jewish partnership; while not guilty of theft, it is unseemly to construct legal fictions to avoid a mitzva. Others shortchange the kohanim. Consumers, for their part, may buy meat under any kashrut certification, since the obligation to separate the gifts rests on the owners and slaughterers; as long as purchasers do not know with certainty that the gifts were improperly withheld, they may buy even the foreleg, cheeks, and maw. The pious practice is to verify that the gifts were properly separated, or that the meat was exempt through non-Jewish partnership.
It is fitting to strengthen this mitzva by using it to support kollel scholars and rabbis who are kohanim and who dedicate their lives to learning and teaching Torah — which is precisely the mitzva’s purpose. Every person is in any case obligated to give ma’aser kesafim from his profits, and the superior practice is ḥomesh. Why not have meat merchants separate the gifts and fulfill both mitzvot at once?[3]
[3].The retail value of the priestly gifts in butcher shops is about 500–600 NIS per cow (as of 5778). Since these gifts are valuable, some seek ways to avoid the mitzva. Some argue that since kohanim today cannot prove their lineage, the gifts are not given to them until they can prove it (see Mishna Halakhot 13:108). Others argue that since priestly lineage is not adjudicated today, if gifts were given on the basis of a man’s own testimony, some might falsely claim to be kohanim in order to receive them (see Ḥazon Ish, YD 7:3). In practice, the Aḥaronim rule that one may not evade the mitzva, and that it must be fulfilled in Eretz Yisrael (Knesset ha-Gedola; Peri Ḥadash; Ḥida; R. Shmuel Salant; Ḥevel Naḥalato 4:25). The value of the gifts must be calculated at wholesale — what a wholesale meat merchant would pay for that quantity, bearing in mind his responsibility for kashering, packaging, and marketing, which is less than half the retail price. Some calculate the cost of transporting the gifts from the slaughterhouse to each kohen’s home, delivering only enough meat for his family’s one-day meal (about 25 NIS wholesale), and claim that after delivery costs only a few shekels of net value remain. Thus, instead of paying 250 NIS — the wholesale value of the gifts from one animal — they pay 20 NIS. Since the kohen is to receive the monetary value of the gifts, and that money can be deposited into his account at minimal cost, he must receive the full 250 NIS. True, one can pressure the kohen to agree to sell the gifts for a token sum, threatening that otherwise the gifts will be given to another kohen who will agree to accept a token sum, or that a partnership agreement will be made with a non-Jew, exempting the owner from the gifts altogether. But one who wishes to fulfill the mitzva properly must give the true value of the gifts.
Owners of animals may count the gifts toward ma’aser kesafim, for the original enactment of ma’aser kesafim was meant to replace the obligations of terumot, ma’asrot, and the priestly gifts from animals. When ninety percent of Israel made their living from agriculture, nearly twenty percent of produce went to terumot and ma’asrot, and a similar proportion from animals. When Jews began earning their livelihood through commerce and manufacturing, the Sages established that the middle measure is a tenth and the superior measure a fifth. Giving the gifts to kollel scholars who are kohanim, or to a yeshiva for the salary of a kohen-rabbi, fulfills the mitzva of tithing money. The meat merchant must calculate his profits: if the value of the gifts is less than a tenth of his profits, he must add tzedaka until he reaches a tenth. If the cost of the gifts exceeds a fifth of his profits, and it is difficult for him to give the full gifts because he must compete with merchants who do not give the gifts, he should ask the kohen to be generous. After the kohen receives the gifts, he may agree to accept payment equal to a fifth of the merchant’s profits — and, in pressing circumstances, even only a tenth.
