וכל אשר תתן לי. מדרש יעקב תקן לתת מעשר מן הממון ואמרי' בב"ר שאל מין אחד את ר' יהושע בן לוי היכן מצינו שעישר בניו אמר לו לוי שהקדישו לשמים אמר לו ומה ראה להקדיש לוי והוא לא הי' עשירי אמר לו שעשה יעקב מכל בניו כטלאים הנכנסין לדיר להתעשר והכניס דרך תולדותם וכו': 'וכל אשר תתן לי וגו, “and all that You will give to me, etc.;” Yaakov promised to tithe all the money (material goods) that he would acquire with the help of G–d. (B’reshit Rabbah, 70,7) A heretic once asked Rabbi Yoshua son of Levi, where the Torah reported that Yaakov kept this promise. He was answered that Yaakov declared this tithe “sacred,” i.e. he gave it to the treasury of religious institutions. Thereupon the heretic wanted to know what this tithe consisted as precisely seeing that Yaakov was not a wealthy man. He was told that Yaakov made all his newly born animals pass under a gate, and every tenth animal he declared as holy, i.e. not to be used for secular needs. In the Talmud this procedure is called: מעשר בהמה, “tithe from livestock.” [Since Yaakov did not plant crops, not owning any arable land in the land of Canaan (except one small field near Sh’chem from which he moved away before it could produce a crop), he could not tithe his crops. The version in my edition of B’reshit Rabbah is slightly different but the point is made that Yaakov certainly did not default on his vow. Ed.]