Bava Metzia, Chapter 7, Mishnah 2. In the previous mishnah, we learned that employers are obligated to provide a worker with whatever is customary for that time and place, and that the default is the local custom - except that they can make a condition for less than the custom. In contrast, the Torah itself establishes that workers who work with food, under certain circumstances, are permitted to eat from it during their work. This is a right from the Torah, and one cannot make a condition for less than what the Torah permits. Our mishnah comes to describe the rules of this law, which is based on verses in the Book of Devarim.
The source of the law in the verses of the Torah:
"When you come into your fellow's vineyard... you may eat grapes according to your desire, to your fill, but you shall not put any into your vessel" - On a simple level, this speaks of someone who enters his fellow's vineyard, but the tradition of our Sages is that the verse is not speaking of just anyone who enters, but rather a worker who is there for the purpose of his work. "According to your desire" - whatever his soul desires; "to your fill" - until completely satisfied. However, "you shall not put any into your vessel" - he is not permitted to put grapes into his own vessels and keep them for later, but rather he may eat now as he pleases.
"When you come into your fellow's standing grain, you may pluck ears of grain with your hand, but you shall not swing a sickle upon your fellow's standing grain" - One who enters his fellow's field of standing grain may pluck ears of grain by hand and eat the kernels. However, he is not permitted to swing a sickle, meaning to harvest for himself in large quantities while he is harvesting for the homeowner; rather, he plucks ears of grain one by one by hand and eats from them as he pleases during his work.
These verses therefore teach that workers who work with food are permitted to eat from it during their work.
The three stages of the produce:
Our mishnah teaches that the permission is not sweeping, but rather there is only a defined window of time. We will illustrate this with a vineyard designated for making wine, which has three stages:
Stage 1 - Too early: The grapes have not yet ripened and the time for their picking has not yet arrived. A worker working in the field at this stage - spraying, weeding, and tending to the needs of the plant - is not permitted to eat from the grapes, since they have not yet reached the completion of processing.
Stage 2 - The window of permission: Once the grapes have ripened and are ready for harvesting, and the workers come to harvest, they are permitted to pluck and eat from the grapes themselves. "Completion of processing" here means that they have finished ripening on the vine. This stage continues even during the harvesting, treading, and collecting of the juice into the winepress (the pit in the ground).
Stage 3 - Too late: Once the processing is finished and the produce is ready for sale or storage - and for wine, storage in barrels - the prohibition returns.
It is worth noting a potentially confusing point: both the transition from stage 1 to stage 2 and the transition from stage 2 to stage 3 are referred to as the "completion of processing".
The language of the mishnah:
"Ve'eilu ochlin min HaTorah" - The following workers are permitted to eat according to Torah law.
"Ha'oseh bimechubar lakarka besha'as gemar melachah" - One who works with produce attached to the ground, which is still on the vine, on the stalks, or on the tree, provided that he works with it from the time it has finished ripening and the time for its picking has arrived. "Gemar melachah" (completion of processing) here means the end of ripening.
"Uvetalush min hakarka ad shelo nigmerah melachto" - One who works with produce that has been detached from the ground, such as grapes that have already been harvested and are undergoing their processing until they become juice in the winepress, is permitted to eat as long as the processing has not finished. The end of processing is the stage where the produce becomes obligated in tithes, and for grain - the stage where it becomes dough and is obligated in challah. Once this completion of processing has arrived, we enter stage 3 and the prohibition returns.
"Bedavar shegidulo min ha'aretz" - The law applies only to food that grows from the ground. A worker preparing cheese or milking cows has no window of time to be permitted to eat at all.
"Ve'eilu she'einan ochlin":
"Ha'oseh bimechubar lakarka shelo besha'as gemar melachah" - One who works with produce attached to the ground when it is not the time of the completion of its processing - such as grapes that are still in the ripening process, when it is too early to pluck and eat.
"Ha'oseh betalush le'achar shenigmerah melachto" - One who works with detached produce after its processing is complete - once the processing has finished and the obligation of tithes has taken effect, and the produce is ready for storage or sale, it is too late, and the worker is no longer permitted to eat from it.
"Ha'oseh bedavar she'ein gidulo min ha'aretz" - One who works with something that does not grow from the ground - someone working with cheese or milk is not permitted to eat or drink from them, and not only after the completion of processing but at any time, since this law does not apply to milk and cheese.
The Source for Detached Produce - The Comparison to Animals:
The verses that were brought deal only with the first stage, when the produce is still attached to the ground. From where, then, do we know that the law also applies to detached produce? This is learned from a separate section in the Torah dealing with animals, which were compared to human workers: The verse forbids muzzling an ox while it threshes grain in the field and on the threshing floor, and this law applies to any animal - whether a donkey pulling or a cow pulling the threshing implement. This means that the animal eats freely from the grain it is working with.
From the comparison we learned: Just as an animal must be allowed to eat freely while it works with detached produce, as long as it has not reached the completion of its processing, so too with humans. This is the basis for the halachah before us, that workers dealing with produce are permitted to eat from it.
In summary: In this Mishnah we learned the worker's Torah right to eat from the produce he works with, as sourced in the verses of the vineyard and the standing grain in the Book of Devarim; we discussed the three stages - too early, the window of permission, and too late - and how the two transitions between them are called "completion of processing"; we detailed the two sides of the Mishnah, "ve'elu ochlin" - and these may eat, and "ve'elu she'einan ochlin" - and these may not eat, and the condition that it must be something that grows from the ground; and finally we saw the comparison to animals, from which the permission is learned even for detached produce.