Introduction

In today’s mishnah we see that the rabbis extended the laws of forgotten sheaves to standing stalks of grain as well. The question then is, when is a stalk considered to have been forgotten?

Mishnah Seven

1)      A standing stalk of grain that contains two seahs and he forgot it, it is not considered “forgotten.”

2)      If it does not contain two seahs now, but is fit to yield two seahs, even if it was of an inferior kind of barley, it is regarded as full barley [grains].

Explanation

Section one: Truth be told, I’m not really sure that one stalk of grain can actually produce two seahs of grain, but if it could, it would not be considered forgotten, just as a sheaf with two seahs is not considered forgotten.

Section two:  If the stalk will yield two seahs, then we treat it as if it has two seahs and it is not considered forgotten.  Indeed, this makes a lot of sense because if this stalk was going to produce a whole two seahs of grain, he probably left it in the field so that he could harvest it when it ripened.  The mishnah adds that even if the barley was low quality barley such that it would not actually yield two seahs, we evaluate it as if each grain was of full barley and if the amount that this type of barley will yield equals two seahs, then it is not forgotten.