What is Peah, the Torah's law of leaving field corners for the poor?

Peah (Hebrew for "corner") is the Torah's command that a farmer must leave part of a harvest unreaped so the poor can gather it themselves. Leviticus 19:9-10 states: "When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest... You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner." Leviticus 23:22 repeats the same instruction almost word for word. Deuteronomy 24:19-21 extends the principle to forgotten sheaves left in the field, olives left after a single beating of the tree, and grapes left after one pass through the vineyard - all reserved "for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow." Peah differs from ordinary charity in one important respect: the landowner does not choose who receives it, does not measure it out, and gets no credit for handing it over. The produce is simply left standing or lying in the field, and the poor come and take it directly, on their own initiative, without having to ask. Later rabbinic law (Mishnah, tractate Peah) set a customary minimum of one-sixtieth of a field's produce as the corner left unharvested, though the Torah itself specifies no fixed proportion - only that some portion must be left. The book of Ruth shows peah in practice: Ruth gleans as a poor widow and foreigner in Boaz's field, and Boaz instructs his workers to let her gather freely and even to drop extra grain for her on purpose (Ruth 2:15-16). The law reflects a broader pattern in the Torah's agricultural commands - that land and its yield ultimately belong to God, and every harvest carries a built-in claim for those who have none. Because the poor gather it themselves rather than receiving a handout, peah is often described as a form of dignity-preserving aid: closer to a right the poor may exercise than a gift the wealthy may withhold.