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A heave offering (Hebrew: terumah), is a type of Biblical sacrifice, specifically a sacrifice which was a tithe. The term heave offering refers to the fact that such offerings were heaved (lifted) above the altar, as opposed to being waved around it, during their ritual. Heave offerings were the posession of the priests, and, if edible, could be eaten by their families, as well as the priests themselves if they were ritually pure.

Originally the term was not directly connected with sarifices, simply referring to taxes and gifts made to superiors (etymologically, terumah simply refers to the lifting apart of a quantity from a larger quantity), but as most of these taxes and gifts, in Jewish law, ended up at sanctuaries, the term came to have the sacrificial meaning; a transitional phase between these two meanings is observable in the Book of Ezekiel.

There were two groups of heave offerings:

• Sacrifice/redemption of the firstborn:
  • Redemption of firstborn male children (Pidyon haBen)
  • Tithe of First fruits (heave-offering of the Priests - terumat haKohanim in Hebrew).
• General tithes:
  • Tithe of dough (Challah)
  • Portion of gift offerings, of slaughter offerings, which were allocated to the Priests.
  • Portion of the Levite tithe which was allocated to the Priests (heave-offering of the tithe - terumat haMaaser in Hebrew).

The heave offering of the tithe, though mentioned by the Priestly code is not mentioned in the Deuteronomic code; biblical scholars believe that this is because the deuteronomist regarded all Levites as being able to become priests, and not just Aaronids, hence this tithe of a tithe would be meaningless.

The Mishnah, Tosefta, and Gemara, include a tract entitled Terumot, which deals with the laws regulating heave offerings. According to these, the tithed material could only be separated from the non-tithed material by its owner, or someone appointed on their behalf; minors, deafmutes, the mentally ill, and non-Jews were not permitted to perform such separation

Notes and Citations

1. ibid
2. Jewish Encyclopedia
3. ibid
4. ibid

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