Commentaire sur Péa 5:7

ולא שכחו בעל הבית – such as the case where the owner of the house is in the field and refers concerning him and he acquires it, but the owner of the house is in the city, it is considered forgetting, even though the owner of the house did not forget it.

Introduction Our mishnah begins to deal with the topic of forgotten sheaves. Deuteronomy 24:19 states, “When you reap the harvest in your field and overlook a sheaf in the field, do not turn back to get it; it shall go to the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow in order that the Lord you God may bless you in all your undertakings.” Today’s mishnah teaches what it means for a sheaf to be considered “forgotten.”

A sheaf which the workers forgot but not the land owner, or which the land owner forgot but not the workers; or [a sheaf] which the poor stood in front of [and blocked its view], or they covered it up with stubble, it is not considered a forgotten sheaf. In order for the sheaf to be considered “forgotten” and therefore belong to the poor, both the one who actually owns the land and the worker who is harvesting the crop must forget it. If only one of them “forgets” it there in the field, then it is still not considered forgotten. Similarly, if the poor stand in front of the sheaf so that the owner or field worker can’t see it and thereby forget it, or if they to cover it up with stubble so that it won’t be noticed, then they don’t get to keep it as a “forgotten sheaf” because they themselves caused it to be forgotten. Note that while in yesterday’s mishnah we were concerned with the field owners cheating the poor out of what belongs to them, today we are concerned that the poor might cheat the field owner. The rabbis’ concern for cheating is not protection for one side over the other. It is balanced protection in order to ensure that the system operates justly to both sides.