Question:
Hello! I have a question about tithes. I do not study Kabbalah but my husband does. There is a man who teaches Kabbalah to a group of just men between 19 and 23 years old. Every week they have to give him 10 percent of their paychecks for "tithes" but I feel that he is forcing them. My question is, how real is this? Must one be forced to give up money? I would appreciate if you could explain this to me. What is this and how often does one need to do it? ~NI
Answer:
First, what is tithing?
Tithing is recognized spiritually and historically as a portion that is meant for the community – in the past it was associated with agriculture. The Zohar explains, tithing usually represents a tenth of the net income of a person. The reason for this is that, when we remove the aspect of physicality, Malchut, the tenth dimension (this is the reason it is one tenth), it detaches the material and limited aspect of money from its energy and creates greater perpetuity and continuity. Moreover, as in Kabbalah it is commonly believed in most spiritual paths that giving benefits the giver more than the receiver. Consider the biblical verse “Cast your bread upon the water and after days you will receive a return. “ Ecclesiastes 11:1
Must one tithe? The answer is no. There is no law that instructs us to tithe, and Kabbalah teaches that there is no coercion in spirituality -- as the benefit of a spiritual action comes in doing it out of our freewill and choice.
If you want to learn more about this concept you can ask to speak with one of our instructors or refer to books like, True Prosperity or The Way of the Kabbalist. There are also several courses on Kabbalah University that discuss these spiritual principles in depth.
All the best!
