About This Text
Composed: Talmudic Israel, c.190 – c.230 CE
Peah (“Corner”) is the second tractate in Seder Zeraim (“Order of Seeds”) and the first in the order to explicitly address the order’s main topic, agricultural commandments. The tractate’s first four chapters discuss the mitzvah of peah, or leaving crops in the corner of a field for the poor to take, based in Leviticus 19:9 and 23:22. The remaining four chapters discuss other agricultural gifts to the poor, such as the obligation to leave ears of grain that fell during harvest (leket) and sheaves of grain that were forgotten in the field (shikhechah) for the poor.