TRANSFORMING SOCIAL WELFARE POLICY: THE SAGES' RECONSTRUCTION OF THE INSTITUTION OF THE SECOND TITHE AS A MODEL FOR SOCIAL WELFARE POLICY

Abstract

AbstractThe academic discourse regarding welfare policy has generally been dominated by views focused on the distribution of resources and welfare. In recent years, another school of thought, known as “relational egalitarianism,” has emerged and shifted the focal point of social welfare policy from traditional redistribution to other aspects of social status. In this article, I will analyze a similar paradigm shift that occurred in the fashioning of the institution of the second tithe in the classical sources of Jewish law. The institution of the second tithe is ostensibly irrelevant to social welfare policy both from the internal perspective of Jewish law and from the external general-theoretical perspective. From the Jewish law perspective, it is not normally conceived of as an institution with a social-welfare goal, and from the general theoretical perspective, it seems to be an anachronistic institution that cannot enrich the modern theoretical discourse. In this article, I will try to expose the social role that was imbued in this institution through its reconstruction by the Sages. I argue that the concealed and indirect mechanism for the promotion of social goals may promote the social status of individuals in society more effectively than conventional social welfare mechanisms. In this respect, the reshaping of the second tithe may provide inspiration for enriching the arsenal of possible relational egalitarian social policy prescriptions.