I guess I can add something to this. As the Jewish Historian
Alfred Edersheim seems to have done a fair bit of research on
the subject. Basically the subject is extremely more complex
than a simple 10% and would have generally amounted to more
under the Old Testament. In fact I am not sure I fully
understand what Edersheim has explained but that helps
communicating how complex it really was. The basic idea of the
tithe (i.e 10%) was bound up into the first fruit offerings of
the land: Two of these firstfruit offerings were public and
national; viz. the first omer, on the second day of the
Passover, and the wave-loaves at Pentecost. The other two kinds
of ‘firstfruits’—or Reshith, ‘the first, the beginning’—were
offered on the part of each family and of every individual who
had possession in Israel, according to the Divine directions in
Ex. 22:29; 23:19; 34:26; Numb. 15:20, 21; 18:12, 13; Deut. 18:4;
and Deut. 26:2–11, where the ceremonial to be observed in the
Sanctuary is also described. Authorities distingu