Realizing Individual Rights

And when you (plural) reap the harvest of your land, you shall not completely finish the corner of your (singular) field when you reap, and you shall not gather up the gleaning of your harvest, you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: I am God, your Lord.                        Leviticus 23:22

The verse’s transition from plural to singular is consistent with the idea which the Torah teaches, that before a person has the right to see himself as an individual, he must first see himself as part of the collective. It is specifically by realizing that the Land truly belongs to the nation of Israel that the individual farmer acquires his own field. By taking responsibility for the poor among his fellow Israelites, the farmer is able to realize his rights to a portion of the Land. By leaving pe’ah (the unharvested corner of the field), the Hebrew farmer attests to his awareness that the Land ultimately belongs to God. Thus the order of attaining a plot of land in Israel is from the Creator through the klal (the collective) to the individual.