3,150. Whose Potential Loss Is Greater?

Hilchos Matnos Aniyim 4:8

Let’s say that the landowner has to fertilize his field before the needy come for the leket. If the loss he will suffer by not doing so exceeds the loss that the needy will suffer through loss of the leket, he may do so; if the loss to the needy exceeds his loss, he may not. A pious person will gather all the leket and put it on the fence for the needy.

Hilchos Matnos Aniyim 4:9

Kernels of grain in ant holes among the standing grain belong to the land owner because the needy don’t have rights to anything among the standing grain. In a place that was already harvested, however, they belong to the needy because they might be from leket. Even if a kernel is black, we don’t assume that it came from the previous year’s harvest. This is because in cases of doubt concerning leket, we err on the side of it being leket.