Torah Portion: Kedoshim

“ופרט כרמך לא תלקט… לעני ולגר תעזוב אותם” (ויקרא יט י)

It is a positive commandment to leave the Peret of the vineyard for the poor. “Peret” refers to individual grapes that fall off the clusters during the harvest. It is thus written: For the poor and the proselyte shall you leave them (Vayikra 19:10) after saying, Do not pick up individual [fallen grapes] in your vineyards (ibid.).

And it is a negative commandment to not collect individual grapes that fall during the harvest but we are to leave them for the poor, as it is written, Do not pick up individual [fallen grapes] in your vineyards (ibid.). This mitzvah likewise applies to all trees that grow in a similar manner to vineyards—we are obligated to not gather the individual fruit that fall during the harvest.

The laws of the mitzvah include: Our Sages said, “What is peret [fallen-grapes]? It is one or two individual grapes which falls during the vintage. But three grapes that fall together, is not peret. One who places a basket under the vine when cutting the grapes to catch the individual grapes that fall from his hand, thereby robs the poor” (see Pe’ah 6:5 and 7:3).

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.