Torah Portion: Kedoshim
“כרמך לא תעולל… לעני ולגר תעזוב אותם” (ויקרא יט י)
It is a positive commandment to leave incompletely formed grape clusters for the poor as a type of Pe’ah in the vineyard. The Torah refers this as Olelos. About this it is written, for the poor and the proselyte shall you leave them (Vayikra 19:10).
And it is a negative commandment to not pick all of the grapes of a vineyard during the harvest but to leave some of them for the poor, as it is written, Do not pick the incompletely formed grape clusters in your vineyards (ibid.). This negative commandment, as well, can be rectified by fulfilling a positive commandment: if the person did removed all the grapes, he must give the Olelos to the poor.
The root idea of the mitzvah is the same as what was written above (Mitzvah #216) with regard to the mitzvah of Pe’ah of the field.
The laws of this mitzvah include: If the entire vineyard grew as olelos, incompletely formed grape clusters, the entire vineyard is for the poor.
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.
