In Judaism, the twenty-four priestly gifts are an enumeration of the various gifts which halakha requires to be given to Jewish priests (kohanim).[1]
These gifts were considered compensation for their service in the Temple in Jerusalem. The majority of these gifts were food items. Of these twenty-four gifts, ten gifts were given to the priests in the Temple, four were to be consumed by the priests in Jerusalem, and ten were to be given to the priests outside the land of Israel.
Most of the gifts are not given today, because there is no Temple. For example, most practicing Jews today do not give first-born of their animals to modern Kohanim. Other practices may be followed, such as selling the mother animal to a non-Jew before it gives birth to the firstborn, and then buying back both the mother and the firstborn.[2]
Gifts
According to the Tosefta,[3] ten 'gifts' which were to be given to the Kohanim within the Temple area were portions of:
20. Money given to redeem a firstborn son (Pidyon haben)
21. Money (or a sheep or goat) redeemed in place of a firstborn donkey (Petter chamor)
22. Property declared herem (dedicated to the Temple) without specifying to which use it is to be given
23. Inherited fields that were dedicated to the Temple and not reclaimed in the Jubilee year
24. Recovered property, which was stolen from a convert who then died without leaving heirs
Females, who did not serve in the Tabernacle or the Temple, were permitted to consume and/or benefit from some of the twenty-four priestly gifts. But if a priest's daughter married a non-priest, she was no longer permitted to benefit from the priestly gifts.[6] Conversely, the daughter of a non-priest who married a priest took on the same rights as an unmarried daughter of a priest.
^Talmud Bavli: the Gemara: the classic Vilna edition Hersh Goldwurm - 2007 "A bechor is one of twenty-four "gifts" that the Torah awards to Kohanim (Rashi ; for a complete list of the twenty-four Kohanic gifts, see Gemara below, 110b)."
^Zeʾev Grinvald (2001). Shaarei Halachah: A Summary of Laws for Jewish Living. p. 384. Firstborn male animals are one of the twenty-four gifts which were given to Kohanim. Many halachos apply to firstborn animals (e.g. one may not slaughter them, eat their meat, etc.). Today, when there is no Temple, first-born animals are not given to Kohanim, but it is customary to sell the mother cow, sheep, or goat to a non-Jew before she gives birth to her firstborn, and then buy back the mother and the firstborn.
^Tosefta Challah 2:8, brought also in Talmud Bavli Bava Kamma 110b, Chulin 133b
^Neusner The Comparative Hermeneutics of Rabbinic Judaism: Why this, not that? p115
^Jacob Neusner Texts Without Boundaries: Sifra and Sifré to Numbers 2002 D. The sin offering, guilt offering, sacrifices of peace offerings of the community, the hide of the burnt offering, the excess of the log of oil presented by the metzora, the excess of the sheaf of first barley, the two loaves and...
