Mishnah Eight

1)      A standing stalk of grain can save a sheaf and another standing stalk [from being regarded as “forgotten”].  

2)      A sheaf cannot save either another sheaf or a standing stalk.  

3)      What is the standing stalk of grain that can save at sheaf?   Anything which has not been forgotten, even though it is a single stalk.

Explanation

Section one:  A standing stalk of grain that has not been forgotten prevents an adjacent sheaf or an adjacent standing stalk of grain from being considered forgotten.  Commentators explain that is based on a midrash. Deuteronomy 24:19 says, “When you harvest…and you forget a sheaf.”  From here the rabbis derive that a sheaf that is forgotten is one that is next to other harvested sheaves, and not one that is next to a standing stalk. 

Section two:  However, a sheaf that has not been forgotten does not save another adjacent sheaf or standing stalk from being considered forgotten.  This is because there is no midrash according to which forgotten sheaves must be next to other forgotten sheaves.

Section three:  This section explains that even a single stalk of grain saves that which is next to it from being considered forgotten.