Pe'ah 047

4:
The Torah [Leviticus 19:9-10] instructs:

In our study of this tractate, not surprisingly we have had occasion to quote these verses (and their parallel in Leviticus 23) several times. However, there is one point that perhaps we should note here, in passing – something that we have not mentioned so far. I refer to the almost enclitic ending of the instruction, "I am your God". This phrase occurs very often in the Torah, especially in the book of Leviticus. Possibly a better – but certainly a less felicitous translation – would be "by Me, your God". In other words, the Torah is, as it were, reminding the commanded who it is that is commanding. In many places the sages have noticed that this phrase (and its like) is most often used when human frailty (greed, laziness and so forth) are likely to cause the commanded to ignore the command. Let us attempt an imaginary paraphrase: "do not convince yourself that you may ignore this command for it is signed 'by Me, your God', and I require that you observe it even when you may think that you have good reasons to act otherwise."

In our present case the danger is, of course, that the farmer may not see good reason why he should let complete strangers trample all over his field and take as their own what is his 'rightful property', earned at 'the sweat of his brow' – and so forth. The eternal reaction of farmers, it seems, has always been "Get off my land!"

5:
I wish to expand this consideration. So natural is it that land-owners will object (often violently) to strangers poaching on their preserves that it was seen necessary that the matter of these 'poor laws' become part of the basic curriculum that a would-be convert must study before being accepted into the Jewish people. The Gemara [Yevamot 47b] quotes a baraita which tells us that part of the instruction of the candidate for conversion must include "the sin of gleaning, the forgotten sheaf, pe'ah and the indigent's tithe". The Gemara then asks why this seemingly inconsequential part of Jewish law should be considered so important that it must be one of the elements that the would-be Jew must learn before he accepts upon himself the yoke of the commandments. The answer of the Gemara is:

Rashi comments:

6:
Our present mishnah gives a definition of 'gleanings'. To avoid confusion it would perhaps be preferable if we were to use the Hebrew term leket since it refers not only to the act but also to that which is collected.

Leket is produce which falls from the hands of the reaper during the harvest. Ideally, this produce belongs to the poor, who may follow behind the reapers to collect such produce. In ancient times a field of cereal crops was harvested by having teams of reapers cover the field. Each team consisted of two workers. One was the person who actually used a scythe to cut the cereal grass. He would gather an armful of the cereal with one hand and cut it from the roots with the other. He would then turn around and drop what he had reaped into a container held by his team mate. Inevitably, some of this produce would be dropped during this process: the dropped produce is leket, and rightfully belongs to the indigent following after these reapers.

7:
According to what is defined by the examples given in our present mishnah, leket refers only to ears which fall from the hand of the reaper during the actual reaping – the cutting of the grass. If the reaper drops some after the reaping it is not leket. For instance, if the sheaf that he is holding contains a nettle which stings him and thus some of the produce is dropped before it reaches the container, it belongs to the landowner and is retrievable. It is only if it falls from the reapers hands (or arms) during the cutting process that it becomes leket and thus becomes the property of the indigent.

8:
Similarly, if the reaper knocks some of the crop with his hand or his scythe and it falls to the ground before he cuts it it belongs to the landowner, since it did not fall during the actual cutting process.