- Pe’ah – “Corner” – Pay it forward
- This tractate is all about taking care of the poor within your community. On the surface, it comes across as a fair amount of imposition on folk who are involved in agriculture, both in terms of financial burden and extra work. And it certainly requires extra effort on their part. On the other hand, those in other professions have their obligations to the community’s poor, who don’t have extra tasks on their plate, have higher financial obligations that make up for it. Most important, however, is that all of this is about building community, and taking care of those who are less fortunate within that community.
- Chapter 1 – Most of us are familiar with the religious concept of tithing, giving a tenth of what we earn or produce to whatever entity we recognize as a religious authority. It’s pretty much where taxation came from, it’s just the secular version. In addition, in the world of agriculture, within Jewish tradition, we are obligated to leave the corners of our fields unharvested. There’s not an exact measure, other than “no less than 1/60 of the field or orchard”. The produce of the corners is considered ownerless, and is fair game for the poor of the community, and/or for animals, wild or domestic, to gather and eat.
- Chapter 2 – They jump right into the nitty gritty here. What happens if you are robbed or lose a portion of your crop? Bandits sneak in and steal grain, vegetables, or fruit, or they’re destroyed by an insect infestation, blight, or other natural causes. Obviously you’ve suffered a loss, and to further expect you to give up a portion of the remainder might well be a hardship that you can’t afford. Harvest what you can, and sell it, and the purchaser, who presumably is in a better financial state than you, becomes responsible for giving a portion of what they buy to the poor, donating to whatever would have been the equivalent back then of a soup kitchen or shelter.
- Chapter 3 – Is a vegetable garden, or fruit trees in your yard, raised with the intent to feed your own family, the same as a farm or orchard when it comes to leaving “pe’ah” for the poor? As with many things in the Talmud, it depends on the size, and, of course, none of the rabbis agree as to where it crosses the line and becomes liable. It’s pretty much left unresolved, but with a sort of common sense, if you’re raising food for your family, and there’s extra, then you’re obligated to leave some for the poor.
- Chapter 4 – Things that can be easily pulled out of the ground, like, say, a carrot, can be simply left as is for the poor to pluck. Anything which requires either harvesting implements, like wheat, or would require risk or equipment like a ladder, you are responsible for harvesting and laying out in a way that makes the collecting of it easy for those who aren’t trained to harvest.
- Chapter 5 – You don’t get to pick and choose who gets the produce left in the corners of your field. Come one, come all. Any person who is, or claims to be, destitute, is welcome to help themselves to that produce, whether you personally like that person or not. This, by the way, introduces an interesting element similar to what’s going on with “identity politics” in today’s society. Someone can simply self-identify as poor and take advantage of community services, regardless of how the rest of the community views their economic and/or social status.
- Chapter 6 – Harvesting and transport are generally not accomplished in one fell swoop. In this chapter, the rabbis undertake to define what constitutes something simply left behind and forgotten, which becomes fair game for the poor, and something which you’ve bundled and/or stacked with the intention of returning to pick it up and transport it in a second round. Apparently you can’t just mark things off with a sign. Perhaps that was due to illiteracy at the time. Instead the rabbis base things on the quantities left behind. Basically, anything more than a small bundle left off to the side, is not considered forgotten and available for the poor.
- Chapter 7 – Vineyards and olive groves have their own special rules. When thinning grape clusters from vines, anything that you let fall to the ground is to be left there for the poor. On the other hand, olive trees are pretty much sacrosanct. I’m guessing this might relate to the fact that you don’t just eat olives right off the tree, they need to be processed, and/or pressed into oil, and they ripen at different times. So trees that the grove owner has not harvested are not assumed to be fair game, as they may simply be waiting for full ripeness. And since olives are harvested by beating the branches and collecting what falls, the usual rule for fruits that fall to the ground being left, don’t apply. Basically, the poor don’t get olives other than what the grove owner specifically gives to them.
- Chapter 8 – If a poor itinerant comes to your door, you are obligated to give them, at a minimum, a loaf of bread. If you offer them a place to stay, it is obligatory to include a meal. If it is the Sabbath, where you can’t expect the person to continue wandering and searching for food, you are obligated for three meals. Interestingly, in refutation of the self-identified poor mentioned above in regard to gathering, this doesn’t hold true when it comes to prepared food or other charity. The rabbis set two hard and fast lines – anyone with enough money to buy two meals cannot partake of the food being offered at the soup kitchen, and anyone who has enough money to buy fourteen meals, i.e., one week’s food, is not allowed to take community financial charity.
Continue forward to Demai/Doubtful