the fathers harvested, the women sang, the children danced, while the poor gathered the gifts of Leket ["Collecting"], Shichechah ["Forgetting"], and
Peah ["Edge of the Field"; all three refer to quantities of grain traditionally left by the master of the field for the poor at the time of harvesting.
Peah 8;7 in which Rabbi Yehu-dah HaNasi chides his students for maliciously giving a poor student enough tzedakah to lift him just over the poverty line, and therefore to make him ineligible for addition support.
The Rabbi added the remark: "Go and search at which hour it is neither day nor night and devote it to the study of Greek philosophy" (
Peah 81.1).
At the beginning of Tractate
Peah, the text reads: "These are the things which have no set measure: The corner of the field left for the poor; the first fruits brought to Jerusalem for the cohanim; appearances in Jerusalem for the pilgrim festivals; acts of kindness to others; and learning Torah.
7 is used as a variant of ac and
peah (as well as in error for the abbreviation th (thaet)).
The Tosephta (
Peah 1,2) (a Tannaitic work coeval with the Mishnah, c.
Ne sceal
peah nan man wenan paet aealla pa pe on helle beod habban gelic wite; ne ealle ba pe on heofenum beod nabbad gelic wuldor.
Thus, for example, the following comment in the Palestinian Talmud
Peah, that "because Rabbi Abbahu wishes to teach his daughters Greek he ascribes [a saying permitting such teaching] to Rabbi Yochanan!" This text was cited by Lieberman in Greek in Jewish Palestine (New York, 1965 [original publication, 19411), p.
The fig tree is not liable for
peah (the portion of a harvest left to be gleaned by the poor, Mishnah
Peah 1:4-5) for this reason, as explained in the Tosefta
Peah 1:7: "Figs, although gathered for preservation, are not picked all at once."
(6) Ac swa
peah he ne dorste beon beforan him upp araered of paere eordan.