Pe'ah 074

Today's shiur is dedicated by Solomon J. Freedman to mark the Yahrzeit of his mother Sylvia Freedman, Surah Sheindel Bas Luzar, whose Yahrzeit falls today.

1:
Concerning Mishnah 7, all Rambam has to say in his commentary is "this is straightforward". I think that we need a little more explanation! The mishnah is concerned with a situation in which it becomes apparent that all the grapes in a certain vineyard answer to the definition of Olelot as previously given in mishnah 4 [Pe'ah 072]. Does one follow the rule that all such grapes belong to the poor? This would mean that the farmer loses the entirety of his crop.

2:
Rabbi Eli'ezer, a noted Shammuti, says that in such a case the rule does not apply and the farmer takes all. (The term "Shammuti" denotes a member of the more conservative school of Shammai, which also shows an economic bias in favour of the landed classes.) He quotes the Torah [Deuteronomy 24:19]:

According to Rabbi Eli'ezer the logic of the verse plainly indicates that the rule concerning 'picking over' [Olelot] can only apply when there has been a harvest. If the yield of the vineyard was so poor that everything was Olelot then there is no real harvest, so the little that there is belongs to the owner and not to the poor. (A definitive description of Olelot is given in 7:4 [Pe'ah 072].)

3:
Rabbi Akiva, who is a staunch and resourceful follower of the school of Hillel, fends off this 'attack' on the income of the poor by quoting the other verse from the Torah which deals with the same subject [Leviticus 19:10]:

This verse, he claims, leaves no room for maneuver: it plainly must mean that under all circumstances Olelot must belong to the poor. In order not to leave untidy ends Rabbi Akiva also gives his interpretation of the verse quoted by Rabbi Eli'ezer: this verse, he says, intends to indicate that the poor have no claim on the Olelot before the grape harvest has begun.

4:
At the start of this shiur I noted that Rambam's commentary is very succinct (as is his wont). However, he does add that halakhah follows the view of Rabbi Akiva.

In Pe'ah 070 I gave the following explanation: One method habitually used for harvesting olives was as follows: the harvester would stand under the tree and throw a stick up among the branches. This would dislodge the fruit which would fall down and lie at the foot of the tree waiting to be collected.

Jim Feldman writes:

The beating-stick method is still in active use, particularly among the Arab olive farmers. They lay blankets underneath the tree and then take a long stave and whack the branches to release the olives. No stick throwing appeared to be involved since olive trees are relatively low to the ground and the sticks reach to the topmost branches. The work seems to be relegated to Arab women. When I have watched it done, I thought it hard on the trees, but since many of these trees are centuries old, it clearly doesn't threaten their health.

I comment:

On second thoughts, I think that my reference to throwing the stick must have been influenced by my recollection of sticks also being used to dislodge dates from palm trees, where throwing is an obvious necessity.