Torah.org - The Judaism Site

Torah.org - The Judaism Site: " terumas maaser (a tithe of the tithe, given by the Levites to the Kohanim). In Deut. 12 and 14 the Torah discusses maaser sheni (a second tithe, brought to Jerusalem and eaten there by the owner) and maaser oni (which takes the place of maaser sheni and is given to the poor in the third and sixth years of the Sabbatical cycle). 2 Chron.(Ch. 31) and Nehemiah (Ch. 13) describe methods of centrally collecting the terumah and maaser and distributing them to the Kohanim and Levites; apparently, in the later years of the monarchy, it was found necessary to organize these processes and not leave them entirely up to the individual farmer"