Sefer HaChinuch ספר החינוך

To not finish the corner of the vineyard: To not finish all of the fruit of the vineyard at the time of the grape harvest, but [rather, one] leaves a corner from them to the poor, as it is stated (Leviticus 19:10), “And [in] your vineyard, you shall not take the bunchless grapes” — this is the corner of the vineyard. So wrote Rambam, may his memory be blessed. And he said further that, that which is written (Deuteronomy 24:20), “you shall not take from the branchlets after you” with olives, also instructs about the corner of the olive tree. As the corner of the olive trees is called branchlets (porot), and the corner of the vineyard is called bunchless grapes (ollalot). And from the both of them we learn [this] for all the trees. And Ramban, may his memory be blessed, argued against him about this and said (in his introduction to the details of the commandments) that it is all a mistake. And he said that the negative commandment of “And [in] your vineyard,” is unique specifically to the vineyard — and it is that we leave over all of the small grapes in it that do not have a katef or a natef. And the understanding of katef is sprigs one over the other (clusters); [of] natef is that they all hang and descend. And it comes out according to this that the ollalot are the small grapes sometimes found in the vineyard that are called gatimas in the vernacular. And this is certainly a small thing, according to that which we see in our vineyards. And so did they, may their memory be blessed say (Mishnah Peah 7:4), “Which are ollalot? All that do not have a katef nor a natef.”

And (for Ramban,) besides this obligation of bunchless grapes, there is an obligation upon us to leave over the corner. And with the corner of the vineyard, the verse did not come clearly about it, but rather we learn [by a comparison of the words], “after you,” from olives. And [it is] as we say in the Gemara Chullin 131a explicitly, “There are four gifts in the vineyard: the fallen grapes; the bunchless grapes; the forgotten [grapes]; and the corner. [There are] two in the trees: forgotten [fruit]; and the corner.” And there, it learns the corner in the vineyard, from that which it is written (Deuteronomy 24:21), “you shall not take the bunchless grapes after you”: And Rabbi Levi said, “‘After you’ is the forgotten [grapes]” — meaning what remains after you, which is the forgotten [grapes]. And the corner we learn [from a comparison of] “after you” [and] “after you” from olives, as it is written about the olive tree (Deuteronomy 24:20), “When you beat your olive tree, you shall not take from the branchlets (tefaer) after you” — and the House of Rabbi Yishmael learned, “That you should not takes its splendor (tiferet) from it” — which is the corner. And Ramban, may his memory be blessed, learns the corner of all trees from the olive tree — for which the verse explicitly obligated the corner — and from the vineyard, about which we learned it from the expression, “after you.” And he, may his memory be blessed, said that Rambam, may his memory be blessed, wrote the matter corrected in his great essay (Mishneh Torah, Laws of Gifts to the Poor 4:17). But there is no addition or subtraction in the tally of the negative commandments implied in this disagreement of theirs. As the disagreement is only that Rambam, may his memory be blessed, explains “you shall not take the bunchless grapes,” [to be] for the corner, whereas Ramban, may his memory be blessed, explains it literally as bunchless grapes, and learns the corner of the vineyard from the expression, “after you”; as we have written that we learn [by a comparison of the words], “after you,” from olives. And this negative commandment is also rectified by a positive commandment — as if he transgressed and finished all [of the grape harvest], he is obligated to give the bunchless grapes to the poor. (See Mishneh Torah, Laws of Gifts to the Poor 4.)

I have written above in this Order on the commandment of the corner (Sefer HaChinukh 216) a little of the roots of the commandment and its laws. And there, it is written in which place it and all of the other gifts to the poor are practiced, and that the details of the commandment of the corner are elucidated in Tractate Peah. And we still must write here that which they, may their memory be blessed, said about bunchless grapes (Mishnah Peah 7:7): That if the whole vineyard was bunchless grapes, all of it is for the poor, as it is stated, “And [in] your vineyard, you shall not take the bunchless grapes” — and they, may their memory be blessed, expounded (Mishnah Peah 7:7), “even all of it [being] bunchless grapes.” And [also that] the poor do not have the right to take the bunchless grapes until the owner of the vineyard begins to harvest his vineyard, as it is stated (Deuteronomy 24:21), “When you harvest your vineyard, you shall not take the bunchless grapes.”