And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap all the way to the edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: I the LORD am your God.
Questions:
Who do the gleanings belong to?
Are they a gift or rightful property?
(א) אלו דברים שאין להם שעור. הפאה , והבכורים, והראיון, וגמילות חסדים, ותלמוד תורה. אלו דברים שאדם אוכל פרותיהן בעולם הזה והקרן קימת לו לעולם הבא. כבוד אב ואם, וגמילות חסדים, והבאת שלום בין אדם לחברו ותלמוד תורה כנגד כלם. (ב) אין פוחתין לפאה מששים. ואף על פי שאמרו אין לפאה שעור, הכל לפי גודל השדה ולפי רוב העניים ולפי רוב הענוה.
(1) These are the things that have no measure: The Peah [corner of the field that must be given to people experiencing poverty], the Bikurim [first-fruits that must be given to the Kohen], the appearance-sacrifice [at the Temple in Jerusalem on Pilgrimage Festivals], acts of kindness, and the study of the Torah. . . . (2) One should not make the Peah less than one-sixtieth [of the entire crop]. And although they [the Rabbis] say that there is no definite amount given for Peah, it is all based upon the size of the field and upon the number of poor [who will be collecting it] and upon the abundance of the crop.
ובקצרכם...לעני ולגר תעזוב אותם, The Torah now turns to how we can emulate G’d’s attributes in [practice after having accepted that it is our purpose on earth to emulate G’d’s characteristics to the extent that God has revealed them to us. We are to perform acts of charity and righteousness. Part of such acts of charity are the providing for the underprivileged out of the bounty G’d has seen fit to grant us. The specific items known as leket, shikchah, and peyah are examples of such demonstrations of our generosity towards the poor. אני ה' אלוקיכם, this recognition of G’d as our G’d is demonstrated by our meticulously fulfilling these commandments relating to the time when we gather in our harvest. Before we even give tithes of the completed harvest which has been brought into the barn we already allow for the poor to help themselves to what other, gentile farmers, might consider the product of their own hard earned labour.
(א) ובקצרכם כו'... ולא יעלה על רוחך כי משלך אתה נותן לעני או כי מאסתיו מתת לו לחם כאשר נתתי לך. כי גם בני הוא כמוך. אך הוא כי חלקו הוא בתבואת' ולזכותך כונתי לתת לו חלקו מתחת ידיך. כמפורש אצלנו על פסוק (בפרשת משפטים) את העני עמך ובפסוק (פ' בהר) וחי אחיך עמך. וזהו החילו בלשון רבים באומרו ובקצרכם וצאתו בלשון יחיד באומר לא תכלה כו'. אך היא מתחלה אמר לשון רבים לומר קציר ארצכם של בעל השדה ועני והגר כי מהכל הוא לפי האמת כי חלקם שם...
You shouldn’t think that you are giving to the poor person from your own property, or that I have despised them by not giving bread to them as I have given to you. For they are also my child, just as you are, but their portion is in your produce...It is for your merit that I have intended to give their portion from your hand. And this is the reason why the beginning of the verse ‘When you reap’ is plural, but the end ‘you shall not reap all the way’ is singular. At the beginning it uses the plural ‘the harvest of your [plural] land,’ [‘your’ meaning belonging to] the owner, the poor, and the stranger, for in truth, their portion is there [in the field].
Questions:
Why do we not have the landowners provide ready made food for the poor?
Why do they only provide the most basic of ingredients?
Why do the poor have to work so hard to collect God's gift?
From Dirshuni, Vol. 1
Elisheva, the wife of Aaron, asked: The manna falls from the heavens, why is it upon us to grind it and pound it?
Miriam responded to her: "These are the labors that a woman does for her husband: milling, baking, laundry, cooking, nursing the children, preparing the bed, and working with wool." (Mishnah Ketubot 5:5)
Elisheva said to her: "If they have one maidservant - then the wife doesn't mill, nor bake, nor do the laundry." (same Mishnah) Only the women least well off of women grind on a mill, as it says, "From the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits upon the throne to the firstborn of the maidservant who is working the mill."(Exodus 11:5)
Miriam said to her: "But even the angels themselves grind manna, as it is said, "and manna rained upon them for food and heavenly grain was given to them. The bread of heroes a person eats." (Psalms 78:24-25) All the time that a woman mills the manna, even the least well off of us, she is comparable to an angel!
Elisheva said to her: This is not the way it is, my sister. The angels, they don't have to do the laundry, and cook, and nurse the children, and prepare the bed, and work with wool...
