Pe'ah is given
[while the produce is still] in the ground.
[However,] for vines and palm trees the owner collects
[the produce from the tree] and distributes it to the poor; Rabbi Shim'on says
[that this applies] also to nut trees. Even if ninety-nine say that he should distribute and one is for 'plunder' his is the request to be accepted since he is speaking according to halakhah.
This is not the case with regards to vines and palm trees: even if ninety-nine are for 'plunder' and one is for distribution his is the request to be accepted since he is speaking according to halakhah.
1:
The first five mishnayot of Chapter 4 are concerned with the social organization of the distribution of
pe'ah. Here I have joined the first two mishnayot together since the second is merely a continuation of the first. Indeed, in the Talmud of Eretz-Israel [
Pe'ah 18a] these two mishnayot are treated as one.
2:
The first matter to be discussed in this chapter is how the pe'ah which the farmer has left for them is actually to get into the possession of the poor. Our mishnah states what I have said on several occasions in response to queries and comments: ideally the pe'ah produce is to be left in the ground for the poor to come and reap for themselves. This is because it is the plain meaning of the biblical command [Leviticus 19:9-10]:
When you reap the harvest of your land you shall not completely reap the edges of your field … You shall leave them for the poor and the stranger…
Here the Torah is obviously requiring the farmer to leave part of his field unreaped so that the indigent may reap it for themselves. Later mishnayot in this chapter will outline the way in which this was managed.
3:
However, our mishnah does admit to exceptions to this ideal rule. In the case of a field of crops there can be very little danger of further loss to the farmer: he has harvested his whole field except for what he has left for the poor. But in the case of his trees the matter is different. If the poor are left to climb the trees for themselves in order to collect their produce severe damage could be done to the trees during what must have been a mad rush to see who would reach the top first. Our mishnah singles out the vine and the date palm. The kind of vine that is indicated by the Hebrew of our mishnah is one whose fronds have been trained downwards and are supported by struts. Many people pulling on these fronds to rip off the clusters of grapes could do phyasical damage to the vine itself. Another consideration concerns the date palm, which is a very high tree: many people scrambling up the tree could not only do damage to the tree but could also do damage to themselves. (Remember that after picking the dates they would be thrown to the bottom of the tree, so there would be another mad rush to get down again before someone else runs off with the produce.)
4:
In the light of these considerations our mishnah states that in the case of the low-trained vine and the date palm the farmer should collect the produce from the trees and distribute it himself to the waiting poor. The Gemara [Pe'ah 18a] quotes Rabbi Me'ir as holding the view that, from this point of view, all trees constitute a potential danger; but the rest of the sages uphold the strict teaching of our mishnah. This despite the fact that Resh Lakish relates that on one occasion five brothers were killed while climbing five nut trees.
5:
We should perhaps note here that the farmer must distribute the produce; he may not leave it in a heap for all to come and take as much as they can. In order to avoid any possible favouritism the farmer must divide up the pe'ah fruits of the vine and the palm in equal portions to all who have come to collect their pe'ah. The Gemara [Pe'ah 18a] sees this need for distribution (rather than a 'free-for-all') as being indicated in the latter part of the biblical quotation given above: "You shall leave them for the poor and the stranger".
To be continued.
The change-over to the new server has been successfully accomplished. At the moment I can be reached by email at the old address (bmv@masorti.org – from which these shiurim are still coming) and the new address (admin@bmv.org.il).
