During the harvest, stalks sometimes fall to the ground. If one or two stalks fall in a single cut, they must be left for the poor to collect. If three or more fall, they belong to the landowner. The same applies to legumes: if one or two stems fall in a single act of picking, they must be left for the poor; if three or more fall, the landowner may take them. This mitzva is called leket. It applies to grain, legumes, and vegetables that are subject to pe’a. It does not apply to tree fruit, except for grapes. If one or two grapes fall during the grape harvest, there is a mitzva to leave them for the poor; this is peret. Thus the Torah states: “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap all the way to the edge of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest… nor shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger. I am the Lord your God” (Vayikra 19:9–10).
Only produce that fell in the normal manner of harvesting is considered leket – that is, stalks that fall during the harvest of grain, or legumes that fall during picking. As the verse says, “nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest,” meaning only what falls in the manner of your harvest. If, however, one pulled the grain out by hand, then since he did not harvest in the manner of harvesters, whatever fell is not leket. Similarly, if stalks fell because a thorn pierced his hand, or because of some other external cause, the fallen stalks do not have the status of leket; they belong to the field owner (Yerushalmi, Pe’a 4:7; MT, Laws of Gifts to the Poor 4:1–2).
If a wind blew the landowner’s stalks into the leket left in the field, and the amount of leket can no longer be determined, the landowner must give the poor the average amount normally left as leket: 1/337.5 of the crop, approximately one-third of one percent (Bava Metzia 105b; MT, Laws of Gifts to the Poor 4:5; Derekh Emuna 4:31).
