Torah Portion: Kedoshim

“לא תכלה פאת שדך… לעני ולגר תעזוב אותם” (ויקרא יט ט-י)

It is a positive commandment to leave the Pe’ah, a corner, of the field un-harvested from the wheat that grew there, as it is written, You shall not complete your reaping to the corner of your field… for the poor and the proselyte shall you leave them (Vayikra 19:9-10). The “proselyte” mentioned here refers to a ger tzedek, a full-fledged convert. Nevertheless, the Sages taught that poor gentiles are not prevented from taking of the Pe’ah in the interest of peace.

The basic law of Pe’ah is that when harvesting the wheat in one’s field, the person is to leave a small amount of the wheat at the edge of his field. On the Scriptural level there is no set amount that one must give. However, the Sages ordained a minimum amount—one sixtieth [of the field]

Among the roots of the mitzvah is the idea that Hashem, may He be blessed, wished that His People, whom He chose, be decorated with every positive and precious trait and that they have a blessed soul and a giving spirit. Now, when a person leaves a portion of his produce in his field and he relinquishes them so that those who are needy can enjoy them, there is no doubt that his soul will develop an abundance of goodwill and a firm, blessed spirit. Hashem will satisfy the person with His bounty and also “his soul will repose in goodness” (Tehillim 25:13). Conversely, a person who gathers everything into his home and leaves nothing for the destitute to enjoy—after they had seen the field fully grown and wishing they could satisfy their hunger from it—demonstrates that he is cruel hearted and mean spirited. Also, evil will befall him, as our Sages said, “A person is treated measure for measure, [that is, the way he treated others is how he will be treated.]

This mitzvah applies to both men and women, whether an Israelite, Kohen or Levi. It applies only in the Land of Israel, when the Jewish people reside there, as the case with Terumah and Ma’aser.

“לא תכלה פאת שדך… לעני ולגר תעזוב אותם” (ויקרא יט ט-י)

It is a negative commandment to not harvest all of the wheat that had been planted but to leave a remnant of it for the poor at the edge of one’s field, as it is written, You shall not complete your reaping to the corner of your field (Vayikra 19:9). This negative commandment can be corrected by fulfilling a positive mitzvah: for the poor and the proselyte shall you leave them  (ibid. v.10); that is, if the person went ahead and harvested his entire field in violation of this precept, he should give the poor a portion of the wheat he had harvested in the amount of what should have been left in the corner of his field. That amount is Rabbinically ordained as being one sixtieth, although Scripturally there is no minimum amount for Pe’ah.

The roots of the mitzvah and the details of its laws are the same as discussed above, in the previous mitzvah with regard to the positive mitzvah to leave a corner un-harvested.