Egyptian-Hebrew stream·Mishnah·Treatises II. Peah to III. Demai [synopses]
Synopses: Peah and Demai (untranslated)
Translators' synopses of the two tractates of Seder Zera'im they did not render in full. Peah — the corner of the field left for the poor (Lev. 23:22, Deut. 24:19); Demai — the tithing of doubtfully-tithed agricultural produce.
Source context
- Theme
- Tannaitic legal-ethical rulings on agricultural tithes, gleanings for the poor, and doubtfully-tithed produce (Peah and Demai tractates)
Steiner
not engaged in the GA corpus
Cross-tradition
- Hebrew / Levitical legislationTractate Peah codifies obligations derived from Leviticus 19:9–10 and 23:22, formalising the right of the poor to corner-of-the-field gleanings as a legally enforceable duty rather than voluntary charity.
- Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh / zakat)Cross-tradition congruence appears in Islamic obligatory almsgiving (zakat al-fitr and zakat on crops), which similarly specifies thresholds, exemptions, and classes of recipients for agricultural produce — a structural parallel to the Mishnaic Peah and Demai frameworks.
- Dharmashastra (Hindu legal literature)Dharmashastra texts regulate gleaning rights (sila) and the category of food acquired without begging as a legitimate ascetic livelihood, displaying cross-tradition congruence with Peah's concern for both donor obligation and recipient entitlement.
Treatises II. Peah to III. Demai [synopses]
[Contains laws relating to the corner of the field to be left for the poor (Levit. xxiii. 22, and Deut. xxiv. 19), and generally such laws as relate to the rights of the poor on the soil of the Holy Land.]
[Contains laws relating to such agricultural produce in the due liquidation of tithes and heave offerings, of which the payment is doubtful.]
N.B. It must be remarked, that the Mishna nowhere confines itself to the subject only of which it professes to treat; but that remarks and opinions are occasionally introduced, bearing no reference to the subject which precedes or succeeds them.
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