LEV319 What is the intent of "you shall not gather"? You shall not gather it for the poor man (Gittin 12a)

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

LEV320 Our ethical teachings have been able to produce the ideal man because they interwove religion and morality and insisted that man owes duties to his Creator, as well as to his fellow-man. A symbol of this union between Belief and Action is the fact that the Ten Commandments, almost equally divided between these twin duties of man, are depicted in our synagogues as engraved on one tablet and in equal perpendicular columns. Judaism does not countenance any distinction between these two fields of man's responsibility, laying greater stress on man's duties towards his fellows, lest they be given second place. To emphasize this, Rabbi Hanina b. Dosa, one of the saintliest of men, declared: "He in whom the spirit of his fellow creatures takes delight, in him the Spirit of the All-Present takes delight." (Avot iii. 13). The order of this statement is significant. The duties man owes to his fellows take precedence; but only when these are harmoniously combined with his duties towards God, will man reach perfection and qualify for "a portion in the World to Come". (See [this and surrounding verses] for an ethical presentation of faith, followed by the statement "I am the Lord".)

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

LEV323 Leave pe’ah (an unharvested corner of the field for the sake of the poor). Hashem wants His Chosen People to be crowned with every admirable trait and quality. He wants them to be generous and giving so that their souls are blessed. There is no doubt that when a man does not harvest a corner of his field and allows the poor to take freely of what grows there, the act positively influences his soul and helps to make him kind hearted. As a result, the blessings of Hashem will abide in him. He will be satisfied with Hashem's goodness and his soul will be glad. On the other hand, when a man harvests his entire crop and brings it all into his house--when the poor saw it when it was ripe and desired it to quell their hunger but he left none of it for them--he shows a selfish spirit and unfeeling heart. He surely invites evil upon himself.

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

LEV324 There seems to be some type of disagreement over the applicability of agricultural biblical commandments in the outside of Palestine, because even in the Babylonian Talmud, some rabbis saw some of them as applicable in the Diaspora. Hullin 137b. This controversy eventually led to a metaphoric understanding of some of the biblical agricultural commandments and the rabbinic reinterpretation of ethical principles for an urban market economy. So, one finds, for example, that from the agricultural commandments concerning peah, (the leaving of the "corners" of the field for the poor--(this and preceding verse) provided the rabbis with a basis for establishing norms for the treatment and welfare of the poor. (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Matenot Aniyim, Chapters 1-10, especially chapter 7 where he diagrams the different methods of helping the poor.) The principles for the treatment and welfare of the poor established by Maimonides in his Mishneh Torah established norms for controlling the economic imbalances apparent in society as well as curbing the evil effects of this economic imbalance: i.e., total self-interest.

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

LEV321 … all religions, and many secular philosophies (to the hard-line Marxist, charity is a sop extended by the rich to the poor in order to avoid the revolution. Hence it is an evil) are generous in their praise of the virtue of charity. To the best of my knowledge, Judaism broke new ground when it integrated the act of sharing one's possessions with the needy into its ritual and civil law. The giving of charity is not considered to be merely the exercise of another virtue, like courage, prudence, or self-control. It is an integral part of the Law, like the commandant to offer sacrifices, or not to steal or swear falsely. The commandment enjoining the sharing of one's possessions with "the poor and a stranger" is sandwiched between a ritual law regarding animal sacrifice and a civil law forbidding deceitful dealing with one another. ... [Citing Leviticus 19:9–10] ... A large tractate of the Mishnah and the Jerusalem Talmud (Pe'ah) are devoted to this elaboration of these verses. They form the basis for the law of tzedakah, of sharing one's material possessions with the less fortunate. This occupies a prominent place in every major code of Jewish Law (see Maimonides, Hilkhot Matnot Aniyim and Hilkhot Zedakah, in [sic? should be "and"?] Shulhan Arukh Yoreh Deah, pars. 247-59).

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

LEV322 It was taught: The owners have no donor's rights in Peah [i.e., they cannot give it to the poor man of their choice]. Why so? "Leaving" is written in that regard (Chullin 131b)

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

LEV328 True charity bestows as well as receives; "more than the householder does for the needy, the needy does for the householder". (Leviticus R. xxiv. 8). The Talmud quotes the parable of the two lambs passing through a stream, one shorn of its wool the other not. The shorn one found it easier to cross (Gittin 7a). Is not the possession of wealth rather precarious -- with us today, with another tomorrow? "A wheel rotates in this world" (Shabbat 151b explaining the words kee biglal hadavar hazeh in Deut. 15:10), causing some to be on top one day and at the bottom another. The giving of charity is constantly stressed because of this truth. That any Jew should be indifferent to the woe of another is inconceivable [this verse; Deut 14:29; Isa. lviii. 6ff; Job xxxi.13]. No duty is more important, and none ushers in salvation more speedily (B.B. 9a; Sukk. 49b; Ket. 67b).

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

LEV327 See [[LEV317]] Leviticus 19:9 harvest TAMARI 251

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

LEV325 "To the poor man and to the stranger," and not to ravens and bats [i.e., he must not leave them to be scavenged if there are no poor men or strangers to take them] (Chullin 134b)

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

LEV326 It was taught: Two berries constitute "fallen fruit"; three do not. Two stalks constitute "gleaning"; three do not. Whence is this derived? From: "To the poor man and to the stranger you shall leave them": "To the poor man" -- one; "and to the stranger" - one (Yerushalmi Peah 6:1).

SHOW FULL EXCERPT