3,415. When the Employer Must Feed His Workers

Hilchos Maaser 5:12

If a worker was working with inferior figs, he may not eat the superior figs; if he was working with superior figs, he may not eat the inferior figs without tithing them. He may, however, choose to refrain from eating figs until his work takes him to the better ones.

Hilchos Maaser 5:13

Let’s say that a landowner takes workers to his field to work there. If he isn’t contractually obligated to feed them, they may eat from the produce of the field without having to tithe it so long as the labors of the produce are not finished. However, if he is contractually obligated to feed them, they may not eat the produce even if the labors have not been completed. This is because we don’t pay debts (in this case, his obligation to feed them) from untithed produce. Nevertheless, the workers may eat the figs individually, though they may not eat from figs in a basket or other vessel, or that have been put into storage.