The Needy of Your People Shall Eat the Seventh-Year Fruit

"And the needy of your people shall eat" (Exodus 23:11). One verse says, "And the needy of your people shall eat," and another verse says, "for you and for your servant and for your maidservant" (Leviticus 25:6). How can these two verses both stand? When the produce is plentiful, all may eat: "And the needy of your people shall eat." And when the produce is scarce: "for you and for your servant and for your maidservant." Rabbi Yehudah ben Beteira says: One verse says, "And the needy of your people shall eat," and another verse says, "for you and for your servant and for your maidservant." Before the time of removal arrives, both poor and rich may clear it away; once the time of removal arrives, the poor clear it away but not the rich. "And what they leave the beast of the field shall eat" (Exodus 23:11). Why is this said? Because it says, "You shall surely tithe" and so forth (Deuteronomy 14:22), I might understand that even seventh-year produce is included. When it says "for you," "and for your cattle" (Leviticus 25:7), it compares the human being to the animal: just as the animal eats in the seventh year from what is fit for it, untithed, so too the human being eats in the seventh year from what is fit for him, untithed. You say it comes for this; or does it come only to compare the animal to the human, that just as the human eats only from what is tithed, so too the animal may eat only from what is tithed? Scripture teaches, "and what they leave the beast of the field shall eat." After you have learned that the wild beast eats in the seventh year from what is fit for it, untithed, you cannot compare the animal to the human, for it has already been said, "and what they leave the beast of the field shall eat." Rather, compare the human to the animal: just as the animal eats from what is fit for it, untithed, in the seventh year, so too the human eats in the seventh year from what is fit for him, which is untithed. So then, what does Scripture teach by "So shall you do with your vineyard and with your olive grove"? For the matter we have already stated.