MISHNAH · PEAH · 1 OF 2
A minimum is not the whole measure
Two teachings about peah invite a careful question. Learn to read them together, then attend to the people and circumstances behind the amount.
In this lesson
Leave room for another person
The Torah, the five books of Moshe (Moses), teaches care for the poor within the work of gathering food. Leviticus, one of those books, gives this command amid its teachings about the appointed seasons. To reap is to cut a ripe crop; the harvest is its gathering.
Hashem, “the Name,” is our reverent way of referring to God. We use it in the English rendering of the divine name below.
ובקצרכם את קציר ארצכם לא תכלה פאת שדך בקצרך ולקט קצירך לא תלקט לעני ולגר תעזב אתם אני יהוה אלהיכם
When you reap the harvest of your land, do not finish reaping the edge of your field, and do not gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and for the stranger. I am Hashem your God.
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva
Peah means “edge.” In this field case, it is a portion deliberately left standing, not yet cut, for the poor. Leket, “gleanings,” consists of ears of grain that fall during reaping. An ear is the plant’s seed-bearing head. The verse names both gifts; they are distinct.
Before opening the answer, compare a portion left uncut with grain dropped during reaping. Which gift will our lesson’s peah passage measure?
1. Which gift are we reading about?
The portion left standing is peah; the fallen gleanings are leket. Our Mishnah passage concerns the measure of peah, not a single measure for every field gift.
The Torah tells the harvester to leave these gifts for their recipients. They are part of the harvest’s obligations, not merely an optional favor.
For the wider harvest setting, visit Return at harvest. Here we will follow a different question: how do our sages describe the amount to leave?
Read two statements together
The Mishnah gathers our sages’ teachings, compiled around 200 CE. A tractate is a named book within it. Peah belongs to Zeraim, “Seeds,” the order containing agricultural teachings and Berakhot. We are entering another tractate in that same order.
Peah 1:2 means chapter 1, mishnah 2. Meet the Mishnah supplies the larger map. We begin with just the heading and first item of 1:1:
אלו דברים שאין להם שיעור: הפיאה
These are things that have no fixed measure: peah.
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva
Shiur means a specified measure or amount. One-sixtieth means one of sixty equal portions. Keep the opening statement in mind as you read the next mishnah in full.
אין פוחתין לפיאה משישים, אף על פי שאמרו אין לפיאה שיעור: הכול לפי גודל השדה, ולפי רוב העניים, ולפי הענווה.
One does not leave less than one-sixtieth for peah, even though they said that peah has no fixed measure. Everything depends on the size of the field, the number of poor people, and the crop's yield.
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva
“The crop’s yield” follows Rambam’s explanation of the final phrase. Yield means what the land produces. Rambam, Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, is a later sage whose Commentary on the Mishnah explains the text. We will read his short explanation below.
Try the question before its explanation. Write one sentence stating the difficulty between these two passages. Both concern peah. Keep your sentence in view as you open the check and read Bartenura’s comment.
2. What difficulty needs explaining?
How can peah have no fixed measure when the next mishnah says not to leave less than one-sixtieth? Renaming one gift as leket would not solve the problem: both passages name peah.
Rabbi Ovadiah of Bartenura, a later Mishnah commentator, distinguishes Torah law from a rabbinic enactment, a measure established by our sages. His comment explains the heading “These are things that have no fixed measure”:
מדאורייתא, אבל מדרבנן יש להם שיעור, דהא תנן בסיפא אין פוחתין לפאה מששים
By Torah law; but by rabbinic enactment they have a measure, for we learn later: one does not leave less than one-sixtieth for peah.
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva
These are Bartenura’s explanatory words, not an extra sentence in the Mishnah. His distinction lets us understand the two peah statements together.
Keep the minimum and the circumstances
After reading Bartenura in the previous answer, complete this pair in your own words: “By Torah law …; by the sages’ enactment ….” Name the commentator who supplies the distinction.
3. How does Bartenura resolve the tension?
By Torah law, peah has no specified amount; by the sages’ enactment, it has the stated minimum. “Rabbinic” does not mean optional, and “no fixed measure” does not remove the Torah’s command.
The Mishnah states the two teachings. Bartenura explains their different levels of specification. Keeping those voices distinct makes the connection clearer.
A minimum is a lower bound. Read beyond that lower bound in 1:2: field size, the number of poor people and the final factor all matter. For that last phrase, our English follows this selected sentence of Rambam’s commentary:
יש מי שיקרא ענווה בוי"ו, ופירושו: מה שתענה הארץ, אם זרע רב או מעט.
Some read anavah with a vav, and its meaning is what the earth yields, whether much produce or little.
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva from the traditional Hebrew translation of Rambam’s Arabic commentary
Vav is a Hebrew letter; anavah is the word being discussed. Rambam explains this reading through what the earth yields. His next sentence considers a different reading concerning grain size and quality. Our rendering uses his crop-yield explanation rather than treating the final phrase as obvious from the English alone.
Rambam also wrote the Mishneh Torah, a code that organizes Jewish law. This is a different work from his commentary. In its Gifts to the Poor, he gives these cases:
כיצד: שדה שהיא קטנה ביותר, שאם הניח ממנה אחד משישים, אינו מועיל לעני--הרי זה מוסיף על השיעור; וכן אם היו העניים מרובין, מוסיף. ואם זרע מעט ואסף הרבה, שהרי נתברך--מוסיף לפי הברכה.
How so? If a field is so small that leaving one-sixtieth of it is of no benefit to a poor person, he adds to the measure. Likewise, if there are many poor people, he adds. If he sowed little and gathered much, so that he has been blessed, he adds in keeping with the blessing.
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva
A worked case: a very small field
Fact: one-sixtieth of this very small field is of no benefit to a poor person. Response in Rambam’s case: add to the measure. Reasoning: naming the lower bound has not yet answered the concern described in the case.
Compare that case with the rest of 1:2. Why would “one-sixtieth is always the complete answer” leave part of the teaching unread?
4. Why is a minimum not the whole answer?
The Mishnah continues with field size, the number of poor people and yield. Rambam’s cases describe increases. In the tiny-field case, he explicitly asks whether the amount benefits a poor person.
One-sixtieth remains the stated lower bound. It is not a single final amount sufficient in every case the source describes.
Try a different comparison
Work this out before opening the answer. Two imagined fields have the same area and ordinary yield. More poor people need access to field B’s peah. Someone says, “Their equal area settles the whole comparison.”
Which supplied fact has that reasoning omitted? Point to a supporting phrase in 1:2 or Rambam’s cases. Then say what numerical information the sources have not given you.
5. What does equal area leave unanswered?
It leaves out the number of poor people. The Mishnah names that factor, and Rambam describes an increase when the poor are numerous. Equal area alone does not account for the supplied facts.
The passages give no new numerical rate for these two imagined fields. We can identify the relevant difference without inventing a formula or claiming to have calculated each field’s final amount.
Make a source note you can explain
Write four short lines: the Torah’s command; the apparent tension in the Mishnah; Bartenura’s distinction; and one of Rambam’s reasons that the minimum may not finish a case. Add your field comparison and identify the numerical information still missing.
With a study partner, ask “Which words support that?” Alone, point to the relevant phrase before checking. Now repair this summary in your own words:
“Since the Torah gives no percentage, any tiny gift settles the matter; generous people may choose a little extra.”
6. How would you repair the summary?
“The Torah commands leaving peah. Bartenura explains that the sages establish a minimum even though Torah law specifies no amount. The Mishnah’s stated circumstances and Rambam’s cases can call for more than the minimum.”
The faulty summary made the stated measures into optional generosity. A sound source note preserves the command, the minimum and the circumstances, rather than deriving a modern charity percentage from a field-gift passage.
Our sages teach us to attend both to the command and to the people it serves. For an actual agricultural or giving question, bring the relevant facts and your source question to a knowledgeable rabbi.
Read in context
Leviticus 23:22: the full harvest command. Mishnah Peah 1:1–2: the opening list and complete measure teaching. Bartenura on 1:1: the comment on its opening heading. Rambam on 1:2: the yield interpretation. Rambam, Gifts to the Poor 1:15: the measure and explanatory cases, also shown together under standard section 15.
We selected only the heading and peah item of 1:1, then read all of 1:2. The next reading returns to a distinct section of 1:1. Together they open this tractate without treating its whole first list as one measure question.