Numbers 15:20

20. The first of your dough This command is not addressed to the nation as in the case of “the sheaf of the firstfruits,” (see Leviticus 23:10, note,) but to every private family, and the Jews consider a woman as very culpable who neglects it. They interpret the command as requiring not merely a portion of the first dough made from the new harvest, but a portion of every bread-making through the year, whenever the lump of dough exceeds the bulk of forty eggs. This sacred portion was given to the priests or Levites in order to sanctify the rest. In the absence of any of these it was thrown into the fire. Paul refers to this usage in Romans 11:16. See note. Its symbolism is thus explained: “The cake signified in mystery the congregation of Israel, called the firstfruits of the world; which, when it is put into the oven that burneth with the fire of the blessed God, it is necessary to separate therefrom a cake, that it be not partaker of severe judgment; and therefore is a blessing reserved in the world.” Rabbi Menahem. A still wider mystical import is found in the sons of God by adoption, who “are a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.” James 1:18.