When the pasuk talks of from the soldiers’ tithe it says “from people (captives), cattle, donkeys and sheep”. (See Chizkuni that indeed only these were tithed.) The Jews however, tithed the above and “from all the other animals” too. Why?
Why did the soldiers give a different fraction, one of five hundred, than the rest of the Jews, who gave one out of fifty? (Ten times as much!)
Perhaps the lesson here is that one is obligated to be more generous and giving with money gained from windfall than with money hard earned. It’s harder to give away earned money, and therefore less is expected of him by Hashem. So the soldiers tithed only certain animals and only 1/500, but the Jews, who did not work for that money, tithed all and tithed 1/50.
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