If Mayim (water) is the essence of Yam (water), and Mikdash (tabernacle) is the essence of Kodesh (holiness), then might tithing, ma’aser, be the essence of the meaning of assar, ten?
Tithing, recognizing G-d as the source of all of our posterity, of every blessing in our world, may help explain why the word is literally ma’aser, “from ten.” Tithing would thus connect to every use of the number “ten” in the entire text of the Torah – and connects Avraham’s victory over the kings (after which, at the Covenant Between the Parts, G-d promises a much bigger miracle delivering Avraham’s descendants – the Exodus!) to the ten plagues.
Might Avraham’s decision to tithe in appreciation of divine deliverance be a cause for G-d’s decision to use that same word in a much bigger (but connected) episode of deliverance?