Pe'ah 081

נושא: Pe'ah

Pe'ah 081

BET MIDRASH VIRTUALI

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A poor person travelling from place to place should not be given less than a one-pundyon loaf, at [the rate of] four se'ahs for one sela. If he spends the night he must be given sleepover necessities. If he spends Shabbat he must be given food for three meals. Anyone who has food for two meals must not take from the soup kitchen; [if he has] food for fourteen meals he must not take from the cash dole. The cash dole is collected by two and distributed by three.

1:
Our mishnah contains three clauses. The first clause is concerned with the amount of assistance that is to be given to the poor from communal sources. The next clause is concerned with the financial threshold that permits a person to receive assistance from communal sources. And the third clause is concerned with organizational mechanisms connected with the communal sources of assistance.

2:
Mishnah 7, almost at the very end of the tractate, takes us from the countryside to the town and village. So far Tractate Pe'ah has been concerned with the rights of the poor to take produce directly from the fields, gardens and orchards of the farmers. However, of course, the poor were not only to be found in rural areas where farmers were 'handy', as it were. There were poor in the towns, villages and hamlets of the country as well. (We might also add that there were poor among non-Jews as well as Jews, a fact which prompts the Talmud of Eretz-Israel [Gittin 5:8, 33a] to regulate this matter as well.)

3:
Each community was required to create and maintain two mechanisms which were designed to give immediate assistance to the needy. "Needy" in this context is anyone who needs assistance at this moment: if a person has money immediately available he is not needy; if he does not have money immediately available he is needy even if he has millions momentarily beyond his reach in the bank. (We discussed this in 5:4, Peah 053.)

4:
The two mechanisms we refer to are termed tamĥui and kuppah. The kuppah was in order to provide cash assistance to the needy whereas the tamĥui was in order to provide them with ready-cooked food. For the sake of clarity we shall call the kuppah 'dole' and the tamĥui we shall call 'soup kitchen' (even though it was not an 'eatery' as such).

4:
Our present mishnah does not legislate concerning these two institutions, but rather assumes their existence. So we must look elsewhere for details concerning the modus operandi of the 'dole' and the 'soup kitchen'. There is a baraita [Bava Batra 8b] which gives us information even though its main concern is slightly different:

The 'dole' is collected by two [officials] and distributed by three. It is collected by two because less than two people [working in tandem] may not impose authority over the public; it is distributed by three as in dinei mamonot,. The 'soup kitchen' is collected by three and [also] distributed by three, for its collection and distribution are equal. The 'soup kitchen' [operates] daily [but] the 'dole' is every Friday. The 'soup kitchen' is [available] for all poor people [whereas] the 'dole' is [intended only] for the local needy. But the councillors are entitled to treat the 'dole' as 'soup kitchen' and the 'soup kitchen' as dole and to make as many [such] alterations as they deem necessary.

To be continued.

Concerning the 'Second Tithe', in Peah 079 I wrote: However, almost everybody would avail themselves of the loophole offered by the Torah and exchange the produce for its value in money and spend the money on a feast in Jerusalem; thus the effect of this loophole was to bolster the economy of the holy city.

Meir Noach asks:

Did the money have to spent in Jerusalem that year? Or could a person save it for a two are more years before he goes to Jerusalem?

I respond:

I hope that what I wrote in Sotah 070 will serve as a full response to this question:

… the agriculturalist must separate terumot and ma'aserot from each year's produce and give them to priests, Levites and the indigent as appropriate. However, people being what they are in all times and all places, we can well imagine that many neglected to make these donations during the first three or last three years of the seven year Shemittah cycle. In such a case the amount that should have been set aside must preferably be given to an appropriate recipient (in each case), or at the very least, it must be removed from the donor's house as a prelude to distributing it. This removal is termed Bi'ur, and it must be completed before the evening of the first day of Pesaĥ in the fourth or seventh year of the cycle. After removing these belated terumot and ma'aserot from his possession, the owner makes a special declaration. This declaration is termed Vidui Ma'aser.

The Torah [Deuteronomy 26:12] stipulates:

When you have finished tithing all the tithes of your produce in the third year, which is the year of tithing, then you shall give it to the Levite, to the foreigner, to the fatherless, and to the widow, that they may eat within your gates, and be filled.

It is this verse which is interpreted by the sages as being the basis of the requirement for Bi'ur Ma'aser, the physical removal of the as yet undonated produce – or its value at the very least.

The continuing verses [Deuteronomy 26:13-15] contain the declaration which the farmer must make at this time:

I have put away the holy things out of my house, and also have given them to the Levite, and to the foreigner, to the fatherless, and to the widow, according to all Your commandment which You have commanded me: I have not transgressed any of Your commandments, neither have I forgotten them. I have not eaten of it … neither have I put away of it … I have listened to the voice of my God; I have done according to all that You have commanded me. Look down from Your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel, and the land which You have given us, as You promised our ancestors – a land flowing with milk and honey.

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