Since there are no Rabbi Frand shiurim on the Parsha until Elul, I have been filling the Thursday's Parsha Tidbits with vorts from other Rabbanim. This week I am writing on something that I saw in the Zera Shimshon. Please feel free to post in the comments if you have any questions or corrections on the vorts.
In Devarim 14:22, the Torah states עַשֵּׂ֣ר תְּעַשֵּׂ֔ר אֵ֖ת כָּל־תְּבוּאַ֣ת זַרְעֶ֑ךָ from which we learn the mitzva of giving ten percent of the produce grown in the land of Israel.
The Zera Shimshon quotes a Medrash Yalkut on this pasuk which states that if the person "merits" he will go out to plant in his field, but if not, the one who goes out in the field will provoke him. Who is the one who goes out in the field? Esav. But why does Esav attack solely based on the failure to give ma'aser?
The Zera Shimshon notes that Rashi in Bereishis states that Esav used to ask Yitzchak about the mitzva of ma'aser, but in odd ways. He would ask how one gives ma'aser from straw or salt, in order to give the impression of being overly pious. But why did he choose this mitzva? The Zera Shimshon answers that the great gift that Hashem promised to Avraham was to give his children the land of Israel. Yet at that time, the land belonged to the Cannanites.
So to the outsider, it might appear that the Jews stole the land from the Cannanites, but Rashi deals wi this in the first pasuk in the Torah. Rashi writes that if the nations claim that the land of Israel was stolen, then know that all of the land belongs to Hashem. He created the land and He gave it to whomever He saw fit. In order to show that the land belongs to Hashem we were commanded to give ma'aser after we entered the land, to show that we are paying "tax" to Him on His land.
The Zera Shimshon derives from this that a person who wants to be zoche to yield the fruits of the land of Israel, needs to admit that the land belongs to Him and thus give the ma'aser as He commands. Esav wanted to receive this land, so he used the concept of ma'aser to try to appear pious.
Yitzchak was well aware that all the blessings of the land come from Hashem, thus the beracha that he gave Ya'akov began with "וְיִתֶּן־לְךָ֙ הָֽאֱלֹהִ֔ים מִטַּ֨ל הַשָּׁמַ֔יִם וּמִשְׁמַנֵּ֖י הָאָ֑רֶץ" - Hashem should give you from the dew of the heavens and the fat of the land. But more than blessing him with the fat of the land, he was reinforcing to Ya'akov that because the goodness of the land comes from Hashem, you need to give ma'aser and if you don't, you will lose the land. The mitzva of ma'aser of produce only applies to the land of Israel, but if you don't give the ma'aser from the produce of the land of Israel, you will be called thieves.
The Zera Shimshon closed the vort by quoting a Medrash Rabbah, which states that when Esav went into the field to catch the animals he intended to bring to Yitzchak, he went with the mindset that if he did not find wild game, he would steal. This caused him to lose the capacity to receive the beracha. But in the same way, if we do not give ma'aser we will be called a thief, and the one who lost the beracha will attack us for it.
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