DEUT1308 Let workers eat of what they are handling. Allow hired laborers working with your produce to eat of it while on the job. The mitzvah applies to workers who pick the produce and to those who work with the picked produce, as long as the picked produce is not ready to be tithed. When working with already picked produce, the laborers may eat it only while they actually are working with it. As for harvesters, they are allowed to eat only after having completed a portion of the work, such as after they fill a basket. The Rabbis instituted that harvesters may eat also after finishing one row, while they walk to the next row, so as to avoid eating when they should be working. Key concept: To teach our nation goodwill and positive character traits, so that we will be worthy of Hashem’s blessings. When someone hires workers to attend to picked produce but forbids them to eat of the produce, he is being cruel and insensitive. All the more so if his workers are picking the produce, for when one sees the Creator’s blessing ripe for picking, one's heart is gladdened, and to then deprive a worker the pleasure of eating the produce shows great cruelty and an evil nature.