Mitzvah Project

(1) The commandment to allow the wageworker to eat from the attached [produce] upon which he is working: That we have been commanded that the wageworker eats at the time of his work from that which he is working upon — when that thing is something that grows from the earth and its production has not been completed. And about this does it state (Deuteronomy 23:25), “When you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, etc.” And the [traditional] explanation [that] came about it (Bava Metzia 87b) is that the verse is speaking about a wageworker. And so [too] did Onkelos translate, “When a wageworker.” And so is it likewise written, “When you enter your neighbor’s field of standing grain, etc.” And they, may their memory be blessed, explained in the chapter [entitled] Hasokher et Hapoel (Bava Metzia 88b), that we learned from these two verses that a person eats that which is connected at the time of the production’s completion. And they elucidated there that it would be insufficient to learn that which we need [to learn] from one of the verses without the other.

(1) That the worker not take into his hand more than his eating: That the wageworker is prevented from taking more than his eating, from that [upon] which he is working. (See Sefer HaMitzvot, Negative Commandments 268.) And about this is it stated (Deuteronomy 23:25), “you may eat as many grapes as you want, until you are full, but you must not put any in your vessel.” The whole matter of this commandment is also elucidated in its positive commandment in this Order (Sefer HaChinukh 576). And one who transgresses it — whether a man or a woman, in all places, at any time — and takes more than his eating, from that which he is working [upon], has violated this negative commandment. But we do not give lashes for it, since it is a financial matter, which is given to repayment. And the general rule which they, may their memory be blessed, said (Makkot 16a) already preceded us — that we do not give lashes for any negative commandment that is given to repayment.