Pe'ah 024

1:
Our mishnah is concerned with several situations which obviate the need to give Pe'ah.

2:
Let us assume that a field of crops that are subject to Pe'ah is owned by a non-Jew – and already in mishnaic times there were very many such in Eretz-Israel. After he has harvested his crop the non-Jewish owner will probably want to sell at least part of it. If he sells his wheat or barley or olives and so forth to a Jew the Jew is not required to separate off an amount of what he has bought as Pe'ah. (This can be explained as being based on the fact that the Torah [Leviticus 23:22] exacts Pe'ah from "your field", and not from a field belonging to a non-Jew.

3:
Such an exemption is open to abuse. For example, before the harvest an unscrupulous Jew may sell his land to a non-Jew only to buy it back after the crop has been harvested and thus deprive the poor of their share of the harvest. Such an abuse is prevented by an enactment of the sages reported in the Gemara [Pe'ah 17a]:

4:
A mishnah which we shall encounter in chapter 4 raises another possibility concerning land owned by non-Jews: when the crop was harvested the land belonged to a non-Jew who subsequently converted to Judaism. (In mishnaic times this was by no means unusual – especially among women.) If the convert was not yet a Jew when the crop was harvested it is not subject to Pe'ah.

5:
The rest of our mishnah is concerned with common mishaps that may have befallen a field in mishnaic times: for instance, bandits may have stolen the crop. (In the period which concerns us here banditry was very common indeed in Eretz-Israel.) Or the crop may have been blighted by insects or ruined by natural forces or by been trampled and eaten by unrestrained animals. In all such cases the rules of Pe'ah are not applicable because the Torah [again Leviticus 22:23] says "when you harvest your land" and in these cases it was not you who harvested the field.

6:
The explanation of the conclusion of this mishnah will be be given as part of the explanation of the next mishnah, mishnah 8.

Reuven Boxman writes concerning the treatment of carob trees in mishnah 4 of this chapter:

I am curious about what is known concerning Mishnaic era cultivation of the carob tree. In all my wandering about the countryside, I have never seen the carob grown in anything resembling an orchard. Rather, they are frequently encountered in groups of only a few, typically along a wadi. I recall also hearing that (like certain date palms) an individual tree will be either male (pollen producing) or female (fruit producing). If the current dispersal is a reflection of more ancient practice, I would be guessing that

1. the carob might have been semi-cultivated (i.e. natural growth encouraged, rather than planted),
2. that this occurred primarily along natural water courses, rather than in fields or orchards per se, and
3. it was not grown as a major "cash crop" or staple food, but rather as a supplemental crop for cattle feed, flavoring, and as a sweet treat.

The above might explain the different treatment it was given in the present mishnah.

I respond:

I am afraid that I am unable to confirm what Reuven writes because I lack the necessary expertise. However, what he writes sounds eminently reasonable. We know that olive trees, for example, were even given names for the purposes of identification. (See what I wrote in Pe'ah 021.) The discussion on mishnah 4 certainly suggests that carob trees were not grouped together but grew haphazardly. Thus, if one person claimed ownership of several carob trees he would give pe'ah from all those trees that could 'see' each other; otherwise pe'ah was given from each tree individually.

More of your comments and queries next time.