Peah, chapter seven, mishnah seven. We have already dealt with the gifts to the poor, among them the olelos - individual grapes that grow without forming a cluster, which the Torah awarded to the poor. Our mishnah comes to clarify the law when an entire vineyard consists of olelos: a poor vineyard that did not grow properly, and has no complete clusters at all.
The question of the mishnah: "Kerem shekulo olelos" - a vineyard that is entirely olelos, to whom does it belong? Under these circumstances does everything go to the poor, or does it remain in the hands of the owner?
The dispute of the Tannaim:
Rabbi Eliezer says: "Leva'al habayis" - it belongs to the owner. Since nothing at all is left for the owner, we would be dealing here only with maaser ani, and maaser ani does not take effect, since something must remain for the owner in order for maaser ani to be given from it.
Rabbi Akiva says: "La'aniyim" - it belongs to the poor. Olelos are olelos, and in any case their law is that they go to the poor.
The reasoning behind the dispute:
Rabbi Eliezer said: the verse states "ki tivtzor karmecha lo se'olel" - when you harvest your vineyard, do not take the olelos, for they belong to the poor. From here Rabbi Eliezer derives: "im ein batzir - ein olelos" - if there is no harvest, there are no olelos. The Torah linked the two together: when you are about to harvest for your own needs, you do not take the olelos; but when there is nothing for you at all, the law of olelos does not apply at all.
Rabbi Akiva said to him: the verse states "vecharmecha lo se'olel" - from your vineyard you shall not take the olelos, and the meaning of this is "afilu kulo olelos" - even if it is entirely olelos, even if there is nothing in it but olelos.
We must ask, then, how Rabbi Akiva explains the verse from which Rabbi Eliezer learned. Why does the Torah say "ki tivtzor... lo se'olel"? Rabbi Akiva explains it for a different purpose: "ein la'aniyim ba'olelos kodem habatzir" - the poor have no rights in the olelos before the harvest. The olelos are indeed linked to the harvest, but not in the sense that without it there are no olelos at all; rather in the sense of when the right to them takes effect: until the harvest arrives the poor have nothing. They may not enter the vineyard and say, "These grew as olelos and I will take them," but only from the moment the harvest actually takes place.
This law does not apply to the case in our mishnah, where the entire vineyard is olelos, but rather to the ordinary case where there is a portion for the owner and a portion for the poor: the verse comes to teach that the poor may not take their share early, but must wait until the owner harvests.
Rabbi Eliezer's approach to Rabbi Akiva's verse:
The Yerushalmi clarifies what Rabbi Eliezer derives from the verse "vecharmecha lo se'olel." The Yerushalmi explains: since the poor may not take olelos before the harvest, one might have thought that the owner of the vineyard could acquire them for himself - that he could go out to his vineyard and pick the olelos before beginning the harvest, since they are not considered olelos until the harvesting takes place. Regarding this the verse comes and teaches that he may not take the olelos, neither at the time of the harvest nor before it.
The measure of a harvest:
The Yerushalmi also discusses the question of how much is considered a harvest. According to Rabbi Eliezer, when there is no harvest everything goes to the owner - so how much constitutes such a harvest, in order for the poor to acquire the olelos? On this the opinions differ:
The first opinion: three clusters that produce a quarter of a log of wine, which is the familiar revi'is.
The second opinion: a quarter of a kav, which is actually a full log and not a quarter of a log.
This quantity must be obtainable from the vineyard in order for it to be considered a harvest for the owner, and through that the poor acquire the olelos.
In summary: in this mishnah we learned the law of a vineyard that is entirely olelos. Rabbi Eliezer awards it to the owner, since "if there is no harvest, there are no olelos," while Rabbi Akiva awards it to the poor from the verse "vecharmecha lo se'olel" - even if it is entirely olelos. We saw how each one accounts for the other's verse: Rabbi Akiva learns from "ki tivtzor" that the poor have no rights in the olelos before the harvest, and Rabbi Eliezer learns from "vecharmecha lo se'olel" that even the owner of the vineyard may not take them early, before the harvest. Finally we examined the measure of a harvest disputed in the Yerushalmi - three clusters producing a quarter of a log, or a quarter of a kav, which is a full log.