Pe'ah 072

נושא: Pe'ah

Pe'ah 072

BET MIDRASH VIRTUALI

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What are olelot? – anything which has neither 'shoulder' nor 'dropoff'. If it has either 'shoulders' or 'dropoffs' it belongs to the owner; if there is any doubt it belongs to the poor. If olelot which are on an angle are wrenched off with the cluster they belong to the owner, otherwise they belong to the poor. Rabbi Yehudah says that a solitary grape [is to be considered as] a cluster, but the [rest of the] sages say that it is olelot.

1:
Olelot is another of those ancient agricultural terms that has no true modern equivalent. The Torah [Leviticus 19:10] legislates this matter as follows:

You shall not pick your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: by me, your God.

Here the first term ('picking the vineyard bare') has rendered olelot and the second term ('gathering fallen fruit') has rendered peret, which was discussed in the previous mishnah.

2:
It is quite clear from the context of the Torah that the term olelot refers to certain kinds of grape which the farmer must leave for the poor, but we can only begin to glimpse what the term actually means in practice by reading between the lines of our present mishnah and trying to understand its intentions.

3:
Peret, which was the subject of the previous mishnah, refers to grapes which fell to the ground during harvesting; Olelot refers to grapes which are still attached to the vine. The vine has a main trunk from which branch off smaller twigs. The clusters of grapes hang on these twigs, each cluster having a main stem from which the grapes hang by small stalks. In his commentary to our mishnah Rabbi Ovadyah of Bertinoro gives the following explanation of the terms used:

'Shoulder' – the central stem of a cluster to which are attached many smaller clusters. They lie one on to of another rather like a burden on a person's shoulders, and it is these that are called 'shoulder'. But when they are attached to the stem one on either side this is not 'shoulder'.

'Dropoff' – These are raisin-like grapes that hang individually at the end of the cluster, instead of the usual many grapes. It is called 'dropoff' because it hangs down and looks as if it will drop off from the stem.

Rabbi Ovadyah also gives his interpretation of the biblical term olelot:

The Torah calls a stem which has neither 'shoulders' nor 'dropoffs' olel [child], because compared with the other clusters it is like the child before the man.

Rabbi Ovadyah here understands the term olel in the same sense as it is used, for instance, in Psalm 8:

From the mouth of children [olelim] and sucklings You have established power.

4:
Our mishnah makes clear that every cluster which has either 'shoulder' grapes or 'dropoff' grapes belongs to the owner. But clusters which have only individual grapes hanging on them belong to the poor. And if it is not certain whether the cluster belongs to the farmer or to the poor the matter must be decided in favour of the poor.

5:
Some grapes may be growing individually where the twig branches off from the stem. If such grapes come off together with the cluster they belong to the farmer, but if they do not become detached as the cluster is wrenched off the stem they must be left for the poor to collect later.

6:
Our mishnah records a maĥloket between Rabbi Yehudah bar-Ilai and the rest of the sages concerning individual grapes. Rabbi Yehudah bases his view on a biblical verse [Isaiah 17:6]:

"There will be some left behind [olelot], like when an olive tree is beaten — two or three ripe olives remain toward the very top, four or five on its fruitful branches,” says the Lord God of Israel.

Rabbi Yehudah thinks that this verse shows that individual olives and grapes may be seen to constitute a cluster and therefore belong to the farmer, whereas the rest of the sages hold that such grapes belong to the poor. Halakhah, of course, does not follow the opinion of Rabbi Yehudah.

Peah 6:10 [Pe'ah 068] mentioned anything that grows under ground, such as 'luf', garlic and onions. In my explanation I wrote: One term … I have left untranslated: luf. I am not at all certain that we really know what is intended by this term. One modern annotator gives nine possible meanings to the term … None of these seems to agree with what the classical commentators understood by the term…

Joshua Peri writes:

As an agriculturist living in Israel, I have no doubt what "luf" is: Arum. I see it often enough. Obviously commentators far removed from this locality could become confused.

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