RAV KOOK ON Shoftim Part 1: Food for Thought

Gifts of Meat One of the lesser-known ways that the Torah provides for the support of the kohanim in their holy activities is through gifts of certain cuts of meat: “This shall be the kohen’s due from the people: when an ox or sheep is slaughtered for food, they shall give the kohen the foreleg, the jaw, and the maw [the last of a cow’s four stomachs].” (Deut. 18:3) Rav Hisda’s Offer While this gift belongs to the kohanim, they do not have to eat it themselves. The Talmud (Shabbat 10b) recounts that Rabbi Hisda, fourth-century Babylonian scholar and a kohen, found an original use for his gifts of meat. Rabbi Hisda held up two portions of priestly gifts and announced, “I will give this beef to whoever will come and teach me a new dictum of Rav.” (The great Talmudic scholar and leader of Babylonian Jewry, Abba Aricha (160-248 CE) was known simply as ‘Rav’ (‘the Master’) due to his stature as the preeminent scholar of his generation.) The scholar who won the prize was Rava bar Mahsia, who quoted Rav’s statement that one should inform his neighbor when giving him a gift. Why does the Torah reward the kohanim with gifts of meat? And is there some connection between the prize offered by Rabbi Hisda and the dictum quoted by Rava bar Mahsia?