by that time lived in the Diaspora. The prophets sought to extend the obligation to Babylonia and the early rabbis to Egypt and the neighboring lands(Demai 6:11), but we do not know with how much success.
5. The scholarly family of Asher ben Yehiel (1250-1327) set a fine example in Toledo where they resided after moving from Germany . They signed a statement through which they accepted their father’s ordinance, which obligated them and their children to provide a tithe of all their profits to the poor and agreed to pay it within eight days of the due date. The example of this leading family and others led to the tithe becoming fairly universal. Israel Abrahams , Jewish Life in the Middle Ages(London , Edward Goldstone: 1932), pp. 344 f.
6. Asher ben Yehiel in 12th-century Spain tried to revive the practice, but with little success. A small group of farmers in modern Israel follow the segment of the law that demands that the land lie fallow; some use hydroponics to circumvent the letter of the law but voiding its spirit.
7. The Book of Jubilees(200 B.C.E.—100 C.E.) attempted to recreate the history of the patriarchal period by reorganizing it in fifty-year periods. Jubilees was not included in the canon and remained forgotten until the nineteenth century, when one complete manuscript along with some fragments were discovered.
8. The legislation appeared in the mishnaic section, Peah, chapter 8. which dealt with‘gleaning’ and without any connection to that earlier system. No Scriptural
source was given.
9. Louis Finkelstein , Jewish Self-Government in the Middle Ages, New York , 1964 is the most accessible source.
10. Market officers who looked after fair weights and measures also dealt with prices(B.B. 89a). As in our times, the recorded discussion indicates some opposition to any controls(B.B. 99a). It depended ultimately on the Exilarch for enforcement(J. Talmud, B.B.5.5;15a). Price controls usually occurred on the local level in the talmudic period(B.M. Tosefta 11.23); the townspeople had the authority to set prices as well as workers’ wages. They were also authorized to compel the local citizenery to build a synagogue, furnish it and obtain a Torah . Those who objected would be fined. Price controls applied to necessities— oil and flour; luxury items were not affected.
The later codes show that a profit level for essential goods was generally