Oral Law Assignment

The mitzvah that I chose was Leviticus 19:9  “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap all the way to the edge of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. You shall not pick your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen fruit from your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger.” I think that this Mitzvah has two meanings to it. On the surface, it talks about how we should always leave part of our land full of fruit so that people who are not able to get food are able to pick and eat it. On the deeper level, I think it also talks about giving to others in life in general. If we are lucky enough to have this plot of land flourishing with food, then we should help out the needy and not take what we have for granted. While I do not have a plot of fruit trees that I am able to give to others, there are many other ways I can do this mitzvah in my everyday life. Some ways are by volunteering my time at places, and giving food to food banks. I’m so lucky to have the freedom to do what I want in my life, and have a lot of freetime where I am able to make my own decisions, so instead of spending all my free time doing stuff for me, I donate much of my time to help those in need.

I chose this photograph because it is a picture of me and my friend at an orange grove. This orange grove is completely open to the public to come and pick as much fruit as you want. While it doesn’t relate to the mitzvah completely, it still has a lot in common because people who don’t have a large amount of food can come here and eat the oranges. The owners of the grove could choose to keep all their oranges for themselves, or sell them for money, but instead they chose to give it to others.