Commentary for Peah 4:9

רבי אליעזר אומר זכה לו – a dispute of Rabbi Eliezer and the Rabbis concerning a rich person that gathered Peah to make assignment to a poor person, for Rabbi Eliezer holds that we say two Miggos (i.e., that a deponent’s statement is accepted as true on the ground that, if he had intended to tell a lie, he might have invented one more advantageous to his case); [the first] Miggo – that if he had wanted to make his possessions ownerless he would be a poor person and that it is appropriate for him, now also, it is appropriate for him. And [the second] Miggo, that if he wanted, he could have taken possession for himself, he also gave possession to his friend, but the Rabbis hold that we say [only] one Miggo; two Miggos we don’t say, but from a poor person to a poor person, everyone says that it is appropriate, and the Halakha is according to the Sages.

Introduction The first section of our mishnah deals with the owner of a field who transfers title over the peah to a poor person without the poor person being present. The second half of the mishnah deals with the fields of non-Jews.

של נכרי חייב במעשרות – for since the heathen is not liable in gleanings, that which is forgotten and the corner of the field/Peah, it is like the other grain of the heathen which is liable for tithes.

One who collected peah and said, “This is for so-and-so a poor man:” Rabbi Eliezer says: he has thus acquired it for him. The sages say: he must give it to the first poor man he finds. According to Rabbi Eliezer, a field owner can harvest his own peah and by mere declaration transfer ownership to a poor person of his choosing. This would seem to follow the general rule that a person can benefit another person even though that person is not in his presence. However, the other rabbis disagree and say that the peah remains peah and can still be taken by the first person who comes across it. This would seem to prevent owners from selecting one poor person over another, and potentially corrupting the system of “first come, first serve.”

אלא אם כן הפקיר – to the ppor and to the rich, for that which is ownerless is exempt from tithes. But our Mishnah is according to Rabbi Meir who said that there is no acquisition in the Land of Israel for a heathen to be released from tithes. But the Halakha is not according to this.

Gleanings, the forgotten sheaf and the peah of non-Jews are subject to tithes, unless he [the non-Jew] had declared them ownerless. Gleanings, forgotten sheaves and peah that are taken from a field of a Jew are not liable to be tithed, meaning the poor person can eat them without tithing them. However, if they are taken from the field of a non-Jew then they are liable for tithes because the non-Jew was not liable to give the gifts to the poor in the first place. In other words, these are not technically considered gleanings, forgotten sheaves or peah, but rather just ordinary produce. The only way that they can be exempt from tithes is if the owner declared them ownerless and gave them to the poor as ownerless property. Ownerless property is always exempt from tithes, as we shall learn when we learn tractate Maasrot.