Talmud Bavli
Talmud Bavli

Halakhah for Shabbat 45:11

ומנא תימרא דחיישינן לחשד דתניא אמר רבי שמעון בשביל ארבעה דברים אמרה תורה להניח פיאה בסוף שדהו מפני גזל עניים ומפני ביטול עניים ומפני החשד ומשום (ויקרא יט, ט) בל תכלה מפני גזל עניים שלא יראה בעל הבית שעה פנוייה ויאמר לקרובו עני הרי זו פאה

Whose suspicion? Shall we say, that of strangers:<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Lit., the world'-i.e., a stranger passing through the town may be unaware that a lamp is burning at another door. ');"><sup>37</sup></span> then let it be necessary even on the same side?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' For a stranger may think that the courtyard fronts two separate houses. ');"><sup>38</sup></span> Whilst if the suspicion of townspeople, then even [if] on two different sides it is still unnecessary?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' They know that both belong to the same house. ');"><sup>39</sup></span> — After all, it is on account of the suspicion of the townspeople, yet perchance they may pass one [door] and not the other, and say, 'just as it [the lamp] has not been lit at this door, so has it not been lit at the other.' And whence do you know<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Lit., 'say'. ');"><sup>40</sup></span> that we pay regard to suspicions? Because it was taught, R. Simeon said: On account of four considerations the Torah ordered <i>pe'ah</i><span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' V. Glos. ');"><sup>41</sup></span> to be left at the end of the field:<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Instead of enacting that a certain portion of the field be left for the poor, its situation to be at the owner's discretion. ');"><sup>42</sup></span> [as a precaution] against the robbing of the poor, against wasting the time of the poor, against suspicion, and against [transgressing], thou shalt not finish off [the corners of thy field].<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Lev. XIX, 9. 'Thou shalt not finish off' implies at the end of the field, where the harvesting is completed. ');"><sup>43</sup></span> [As a precaution] against the robbing of the poor: lest the owner see a free hour<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' When no poor are about in the field. ');"><sup>44</sup></span> and say to his poor relations, 'This is <i>pe'ah</i>;'<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' But now the poor will know when the end of the field is likely to be reached. ');"><sup>45</sup></span>

Sefer HaChinukh

And so [too,] that which they, may their memory be blessed, said (Talmud Yerushalmi Peah 4:4) that the obligation of the corner is only after the fruits have reached a third [of their ripeness], and that we leave the corner only at the end of the field, so that the poor will know its place (Shabbat 22a). And what is the law of brothers that split a field (Mishnah Peah 3:5), and so [too,] the law of partners that split [it]; the law of one who sells parts of his field to [different] people; the law of [a group of poor people, in which] one poor person says to divide the corner among them and his fellows say to plunder, that we listen to the one - and even against many - since he is saying like the law (Mishnah Peah 4:1); the law of at which times of day we distribute the corner (Mishnah Peah 4:5); the law of a poor man who took a little of the corner and threw [it] on the rest, or he spread his cloak over it [to acquire it] (Mishnah Peah 4:3); the law of poor people standing over the corner, that if [another] poor person came and took it, he acquires it, since a poor person does not acquire gleanings, forgotten sheaves and the corner - nor any person a found coin - until it reaches his hand (see Bava Metzia 118a); so [too] that which they, may their memory be blessed, said that a man is obligated to add to the corner according to the size of the field, according to the number of the poor and according to the blessing of the seed (crop); and the rest of its details are in the tractate that is built on this, and that is Tractate Peah.
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