A story of people working together and caring for the poor:

During February to March in Adar in Israel, flax was the first crop that got attention and then the harvesting of grain.

Bringing in the grain was a big job that usually involved the whole family, as well as hired labourers.

When the moment was judged favourably, reapers young and old moved through the stands of waving grain, grabbing clumps of heave-headed stalks with one hand and cutting them with a sickle in the other hand. Helpers followed, binding up the loose bundles into sheaves.

When the gatherers were finished, they signalled the gleaners, waiting expectantly at the field's edge, to come and help themselves to the leftovers. By ancient and charitable custom a share of the farmer's crop, usually the plants growing along the edges and in the corners of the field, was reserved for harvesting by the village's landless poor.