YESHIVAT HAR ETZION
ISRAEL KOSCHITZKY VIRTUAL BEIT MIDRASH (VBM)
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INTRODUCTION TO PARASHAT HASHAVUA
by Zvi Shimon
PARASHAT EMOR
The Counting of the 'Omer'
I The period between the beginning of Passover and
'Shavuot' (Pentecost) is a period of counting. Every evening,
Jews count the days and weeks that have passed since the first
day of Passover. This counting is called the 'Sefirat HaOmer'
- the counting of the 'omer.' Why is everybody counting? The
answer to this question appears in our parasha. Chapter 23 of
the book of Leviticus lists the holidays. Following the
commandment to keep the Passover holiday the Torah states the
following:
"The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the Israelite
people and say to them: When you enter the land that I am
giving to you and you reap its harvest, you shall bring
the first 'omer' of your harvest to the priest. He shall
elevate the 'omer' before the Lord for acceptance in your
behalf; the priest shall elevate it on the day after the
Shabbat....And from the day on which you bring the omer
of elevation offering - the day after the Sabbath - you
shall count off seven weeks. They must be complete: you
must count until the day after the seventh week - fifty
days; then you shall bring an offering of new grain to
the Lord. You shall bring from your settlement two loaves
of bread as an elevation offering; each shall be made of
two-tenths of a measure of choice flour, baked after
leavening, as first fruits to the Lord....On that same
day you shall hold a celebration; it shall be a sacred
occasion for you; you shall not work at your occupations.
This is a law for all time in all your settlements
throughout the ages." (Leviticus 23:9-11,15-17,21)
The day "after the Sabbath" an 'omer' (a measurement
according to most commentators) of the first harvest (the
barley harvest), is elevated by the priest in an offering to
God. From this day "after the Sabbath" on which the 'omer' is
offered, the Torah instructs us to count until the fiftieth
day, a sacred holiday on which two loaves of bread are offered
before God. The fiftieth day is commonly called "SHAVUOT"
("weeks," in reference to the counting of the seven weeks
leading to the holiday). The counting of these days is thus
called Sefirat HaOmer (the counting of the omer) since one
counts the days that have passed since the offering of the
omer (the barely offering).
When is the omer offered? The verse states that it is
elevated by the priest "AFTER THE SABBATH." This clause "AFTER
THE SABBATH" has been the focal point of many different sects
throughout the generations, including the Beitusees (called so
after their leader, Beitus) and the Karaites, who rejected the
validity of the oral tradition of the sages. These sects
rejected the traditional interpretation and interpreted the
clause, "after the Sabbath," in reference to the Sabbath, the
seventh day of the week, the day of rest. According to these
sects the 'omer' should be offered on the Sunday following the
Sabbath which falls during the seven days of the Passover
holiday. When the verse states "after the Sabbath" it is
referring to the Sabbath during Passover. The Torah did not
state this explicitly since it relies on the fact that
Passover is mentioned in the preceding section. According to
the approach of these sects, 'Shavuot' would always fall on a
Sunday, seven weeks later.
The Sages rejected the sects' interpretations on many
grounds (see Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Menachot 65a). Rabbi
Hoffman (Rabbi David Zvi Hoffman, Germany, 1843-1921) points
out a flaw in the sectarian interpretation; In a case where
Passover commences on a Sunday, the seventh and last day of
Passover falls on the Sabbath and thus the day "after the
Sabbath" falls after Passover. It is thus possible that the
omer would be offered after Passover. This is awkward since
the omer would occasionally be offered on Passover and
occasionally after it. Therefore, according to the
interpretation of the different sects, in certain cases there
is no definite connection between the omer offering and
Passover.
According to the Jewish tradition, as passed down by our
Sages, the clause "after the Sabbath" does not refer to the
seventh day of the week but rather to the first day of
Passover. What is the connection between the word Sabbath and
the first day of Passover? Sabbath means to cease working. On
the first day of Passover it is forbidden to work as is
written: "On the first day you shall celebrate a sacred
occasion: you shall not work at your occupations"(23:7). Thus
the word Sabbath is referring to the first day of Passover on
which we are commanded to refrain from working. The Ibn Ezra
(Rabbi Avraham ben Ezra, Spain, 1092-1167) cites other
examples in the Torah where the word Sabbath does not refer to
the seventh day of the week but to stoppage of work (see Ibn
Ezra 23:11) . For example, the Torah states in relation to Yom
Kippur, the day of atonement, "It shall be a SABBATH of
complete rest for you, and you shall practice self-denial..."
(23:32). So too, in our verse, the word Sabbath refers to the
stoppage of work on the first day of Passover. The omer is
always offered "after the Sabbath," the first day of Passover,
and from this day we begin to count the forty-nine days till
Shavuot. Passover and Shavuot are thus intricately connected,
and adjoined through the counting of the omer.
II Before analyzing the nature of this connection between
Passover and Shavuot and the significance of the counting of
the omer, we will first probe some of the laws relating to the
counting of the omer and their textual sources. The Torah
instructs us as follows:
"And from the day on which you bring the omer of elevation
offering - the day after the Sabbath - you shall count off
seven weeks. They must be complete: you must count until the
day after the seventh week - fifty days" (23:15,16)
What is meant by the requirement that the counting be
complete? Rashi cites the following explanation of our Sages:
"This teaches that one has to begin counting in the
evening, for otherwise they would not be complete."
According to the Torah, the day begins at night (for
example, the Sabbath begins Friday evening) as it is written
in the narrative of the creation, "And there was evening and
there was morning, a first day" (Genesis 1:5). In order that
the counting encompass forty-nine complete days it must be
performed in the beginning of each day, namely at night.
Our sages also infer from our verse another law
pertaining to the method of counting the forty-nine days. The
verse instructs us to count seven weeks but it also instructs
us to count until the fiftieth day (until but not including
the fiftieth day). Are we to count weeks or days? Our Sages
answer that we must count both. Therefore when counting the
omer we state the number of days and the number of weeks which
have passed since the offering of the 'omer' on the second day
of Passover.
III Let us now attempt to understand the significance of the
counting of the omer. Why do we count forty-nine days between
the offering of the omer and the bread offering? The
commentators offer different explanations. We will begin with
the explanation of the Baal Haturim (Rabbi Jacob ben Rabbi
Asher, Germany and later Spain, 1270?-1340) in his long
commentary:
"There are those who explain that the reason for the
counting of the omer is that [the days of the omer] are
the days of harvesting and the people are busy [working
in the fields] and are not in their homes. They could
therefore not be reached by the messengers of the courts
to be informed when the new month begins. God therefore
commanded us to count the days."
The Jewish calendar is unique in that it is both a solar
and a lunar calendar. The months are determined by the lunar
cycle. The new month begins with the appearance of the "new"
moon, once it has completely waned and begins to wax. Since
twelve lunar months are shorter then the solar year, during
certain years, a thirteenth month is added in order to adjust
the calendar with the solar year. As opposed to our present
calendar which is pre-calculated, in the time of the Torah,
there was no pre-determined calendar. The new-moon would be
announced by the 'beit din,' the court, on the bases of visual
sightings of the "new" moon. The court would then send
messengers to inform all the communities of the beginning of a
new month. Thus, all the Jewish communities functioned
according to the same calendar and would celebrate the
holidays simultaneously. According to the Baal Haturim, this
system was inadequate during the reaping season, the period
between Passover and Shavuot. The people would be too busy
working in the fields and would not get word of the new month.
In order to insure that they celebrate the festival of Shavuot
on the correct day, the sixth day of the month of Sivan, the
Torah instructed that they count forty-nine days from the
second day of Passover. There is no intrinsic significance to
the counting of the omer. Its purpose is simply to keep track
of the date so that every individual know when the holiday of
Shavuot falls.
The Sforno (Rabbi Ovadia Sforno, Italy, 1470-1550) offers
a different explanation for the counting of the omer:
"Now [the Torah] introduces the statement [regarding] the
festival of Shavuot with the Omer because that is when
the harvest of the Omer begins, and with the counting of
the weeks, both of which relate to the festival that is
called the harvest festival and 'Shavuot,' the Feast of
Weeks, at which time thanks is given to God, the Blessed
One, for the appointed weeks of the harvest which He kept
for us (based on Jeremiah 5:24). For indeed, the purpose
of the festivals is [to occupy oneself with] prayer and
thanksgiving ... And being that the success of the
harvest depends on the climate of the season from the
time of ripening (Passover) until the harvest (Shavuot)
as it says, 'The appointed weeks of the harvest He keeps
for us' (Jeremiah 5:24), [therefore] the Omer is a
thanksgiving for the ripening, as though one is offering
the first fruits of the field to the owner. The offering
which accompanies it (verses 12, 13), serves as a prayer
for the future, and the counting is a remembrance of
prayer each day, [while] the harvest festival (Shavuot)
is [an occasion for giving] thanks for the good harvest,
[and] the festival of ingathering (Sukkot) is for the
goodness of the ingathering."
The Sforno's explanation focuses on the agricultural
significance of the holidays. Passover is not only the time of
our redemption from slavery in Egypt. It is also the period of
the ripening of the grains. The omer, offered on the second
day of Passover, is offered from sheaves of barley, the first
grain to ripen. It is an offering of thanks for the ripening
of the produce. Shavuot, the harvest festival, expresses our
thanks for the harvest through the offering of two loaves of
bread. Since Shavuot is the period of the wheat harvest, the
offering is brought from wheat. The novelty of Sforno's
explanation is his connection of this theme to the counting of
the omer. The counting is a form of prayer for the success of
the harvest. The period between Passover and Shavuot is the
critical stage for the success of the harvest. The counting of
the omer spans this critical period and is an ongoing prayer
for its successful culmination. Therefore we can establish the
common theme that exists between the prayer and thanksgiving
of Passover and the counting of the omer culminating with
Shavuot that is expressed through the harvest offerings and
the counting of the days between them. This interpretation
finds much support in the text especially in the fact that the
counting of the days of the omer links two harvest offerings
thereby emphasizing the agricultural component of this complex
of commandments.
The Sefer Hachinukh (Lists and elaborates the 613
commandments, anonymous author, Spain, 13th century,) offers a
totally different explanation for the counting of the omer:
"At the root of the precept [of the counting of the Omer]
lies the reason that the entire life of Jewry is nothing
other than the Torah. On account of the Torah, heaven
and earth - and the Jewish people were created. This is
the principal element and the reason why they were
rescued and went forth out of Egypt - so that they would
accept the Torah at Sinai and fulfill it....Now, for this
reason - because it is the main core of the Israelites'
life, and for its sake they were redeemed and rose to all
the distinction that they attained - we were commanded to
count [the days] from the morrow after the festival day
of Passover till the day the Torah was given - to show
our great yearning for that distinguished day, for which
our heart longs and constantly counts [and reckons] when
the longed-for time will come when we will go out to
freedom. For counting shows about a person that all his
hope of deliverance and all his desire is to reach that
time."
Each of the holidays has both agricultural as well as
historical significance. Passover is the time of ripening and
also commemorates our exodus from Egypt. Shavuot is both the
harvest festival and the time of the giving of the Torah.
Sukkot is the festival of the ingathering of the produce from
the field and a commemoration of our travels in the desert
during the exodus from Egypt. In contrast to the Sforno who
stresses the agricultural theme of the holidays, the Sefer
Hachinukh emphasizes their historical component. Passover and
Shavuot represent a historical continuum from the salvation in
Egypt to the giving of the Torah. The counting of the omer
stresses the link between the two. It is an expression of our
excitement and eager anticipation of the giving of the Torah.
It manifests our deep love for God's law. During the holidays
we not only commemorate but we also re-live - we attempt to
experience past events. After we undergo the exodus from Egypt
in the Passover 'Seder,' we count the days till Shavuot, in
anticipation of the giving of the Torah.
Rabbi Hirsch (Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, Germany, 1808-
1888) expounds on this line of explanation for the counting of
the omer:
"'After the Shabbat,' when you have not only celebrated
the Festival of your having attained freedom, but you
have also brought to your mind before God the fact of
your independence gained by possession and enjoyment of
one's own land, so that you are conscious of both those
possessions, freedom and prosperity which in general, are
the aims which all national desires and all national
efforts are directed to attain, then you are to consider
yourself not at the goal, but only at the beginning of
your national destiny and only then begin to count for
the acquisition of another goal. Thus this command to
count is expressed in Deut. 16:9, in these terms: 'When
the sickle begins at the standing corn, begin thou to
count etc.' Where others leave off their counting, you
begin your counting."
Rabbi Hirsch combines the historical and agricultural
components of the holidays. The offering of the omer is
intricately connected to the entrance to the land of Israel.
The Torah states: "WHEN YOU ENTER THE LAND that I am giving
you and you reap its harvest you shall bring the first omer of
your harvest to the priest" (23:10). After expressing our
ownership over the land of Israel and feeling a sense of
freedom through the enjoyment of the fruits of our own labor
we begin counting the days towards the giving of the Torah.
Although living as a free and prosperous nation on our own
land is of tremendous importance, it is not the ultimate
national achievement. While other nations may satisfy
themselves with physical material accomplishments, the goal of
the People of Israel lies in the spiritual domain, in the
establishment of a nation which lives according to the
precepts of the Torah.
Rabbi Hirsch points out a certain peculiarity with regard
to the date of the festival of Shavuot:
"The fact that the day which is elevated to a Festival
should be NOT the day of the revelation on Sinai, but the
final day of the counting which leads up to that, the
greatest event in our history; that it should be,
according to the generally accepted reckoning, the day
before the Lawgiving, which did not occur on the fiftieth
but on the fifty first, that fact should surely have a
deep and important meaning for us.
It is not the fact of the revelation of the Torah, but
our making ourselves worthy to receive it, that our
festival celebrates. It is the day before the Lawgiving,
the day on which the nation finally presented itself as
ready and worthy for the great mission to the world, to
be the receivers and bearers of the Law of God, it is
that day which the fiftieth day of the counting of the
Omer represents. As we have remarked elsewhere, this
Festival, differently to all the others, is not called
after that which characteristically has to be done on it,
but Shavuot, after the counting of the weeks which
PREPARATORILY lead up to it."
The sixth of Sivan, the festival of Shavuot, is not the
day of the giving of the Torah but the day immediately
preceding it. Why then do we celebrate the day before the
giving of the Torah? Rabbi Hirsch explains that Shavuot was
the final day of preparation, the day when the people of
Israel were ready to receive the Torah. This invests the
period of the counting of the omer with additional
significance. The forty-nine days between the exodus from
Egypt and the day before the reception of the Torah are not
just days of anticipation. They are days of preparation, of
moral and spiritual growth. As we count the days of the omer
we must evaluate our spiritual state. We must use this period
to improve ourselves and correct our flaws and deficiencies.
It is this period of preparation which makes us worthy of
receiving the Torah.
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