It’s All In The Giving
‘Five Laws Require A Minimum Peruta’
(Bava Metzia 55a)
Our mishnah enumerates five halachic matters that requires at least a perutah (or its equivalent value). One is effecting betrothal.
An Omission
The Maharal Diskin (Responsa Vol. 1:24) deduces from the mishnah’s notable omission of tzedakah that one may actually accomplish this mitzvah even with less than a perutah. Indeed, while both the Rambam (Hilchos Matnos Aniyyim 7:7) and Rema (Yoreh De’ah 249:4) are very strict in adjuring us not to ever send away a poor person empty-handed, they opt for the most lenient measure when the commodity for charity is food. In their view, giving a poor person merely a grogeres – a dried fig – is satisfactory, even though a dried fig in Talmudic times was worth less than a perutah.
The Distinction
The Beis Yitzchak (Orach Chayim 21:2) draws a distinction between food and money (and other non-edibles). He reasons that since the Torah uses the term of “giving” (“nesinah”) regarding charity – “Nossan titten lo – you shall give him” (Devarim 15:10); one must give the indigent something which is minimal enough to constitute “giving.”
Less than a perutah’s worth of food can sometimes be considered “giving.” Anything less than a perutah, however is not considered “giving” if we are talking about money or any other non-edible item.
Rashi (Shabbos 25b s.v. “reishis degan’cha titten lo…”) explains that volume is relevant when discussing the minimum amount of food necessary to fulfill the mitzvah of tzedakah. Therefore, even though the foodstuff being given is worth less than a perutah, it may still be considered as “giving” if the food satisfies the poor person’s immediate hunger (see Ta’anis 23a-b).
Ke’zayis?
What about another common measure of food – a ke’zayis (an olive)? Is giving that measure of food a proper nesinah to the poor?
Although the Beis Yitzchak is inclined to regard a ke’zayis of food as sufficient for the purposes of charity, he nevertheless seems to infer from the Rambam that a dried fig is the minimum (see Shabbos 91a); as such, if a person gives less than that measure, he does not fulfill the mitzvah of tzedakah.
