Rabbi Aryeh Lebowitz

The second possibility of what the nature of Ma'oz Chitim is

is that the Mekor Chaim writes, it's a din mas, it's like a tax that's placed on the community.

And in fact, the Lashon of the Dark Emosha, the Ramah in his commentary on the Torah, in the Dark Emosha, in Siman Tov Chaf Tes, quoting from the Or Zeruah, is pretty explicit that that's what it is, that it's in fact a tax, and not just...

A regular din in tzedakah.

And that would explain why there's a 12-month time period before you become chayiv.

Because in Choshe Mishpat, we passkin, that in order to become chayiv in the local taxes of the community, one needs to be there for 12 months.

Whereas for tzedakah, it could be 30 days would be enough.

And the chayiv to give, that might explain the Sheet of Magan Avram also.

Because...

the chiev to give matzah to anybody who's there for 30 days might be limited by the rules of tzedakah, but the additional chiev to give chitim is not limited by the rules of tzedakah, and maybe that only applies to people who are there for 12 months, meaning that there could be a double chiev.

There could be a chiev to give tzedakah, and another chiev to pay this tax called ma'uz chitim, and maybe it has different ways of fulfilling the chiev.

But then there's a, by the way, one issue might be, do we assume, would we assume that poor people from your own city would come before other poor people?

So if it's a din in tzedakah, people from your own city come before other people, in the sense that when you're giving your tzedakah, you're supposed to divide it up, where the majority of your tzedakah goes to and then some smaller portion goes to Israel,

and an even smaller portion from other cities.

So that would be the same over here if it's a din tzedakah.

But if it were a din in a tax, so local taxation is local taxation.

It doesn't go outside of the city at all.

It would be not Ani Eircha Kodman, but only Ani Eircha.

It wouldn't apply to other places.

But then there's a third possibility of what this whole minhag is based on.