The most amazing thing about the omer (“sheaf”) is not the counting of the days from Passover to Shavuot, but rather the ritual of “elevating the sheaf” that precedes it. Right after our parasha mentions Passover, every farmer is commanded to bring the first sheaf of the barley harvest to the priest, on the day following the first day of the Passover festival. In other words, in the midst of this holiday for which we have so meticulously removed every morsel of leaven, we are commanded to bring sheaves of barley to our holiest place, to the Temple where we sacrificed the paschal lamb.

Of course, the grain itself is not actually hametz, unless it is mixed with water. But can any of us imagine bringing grain into our homes after Passover cleaning? How, then, can we be asked to bring sheaves of grain to Israel’s most central religious institution, and to do so in a festive public ritual?  It is more than surprising that God would require such a ritual in the midst of Passover.

The sages were of the opinion that the reason that this ritual was commanded on Passover was because the destiny of Israel’s grain harvests is decided at this time, as the Mishna says: “At four times in the year is the world judged: at Passover, through the grain; at Pentecost, through the fruits of the tree; on New Year’s Day all that come into the world pass before him like a column of soldiers, for it is written, He that fashions the hearts of them all, that considers all their works [Psalms 33]; and on the Feast [of Tabernacles] they are judged through water” (Rosh Hashanah 1:2). The Talmud cites a baraitha that states: “We have learned: R. Yehudah taught in the name of R. Akiba. Why does the Torah command [Lev. 23:10] a sheaf of the first fruits to be brought on Passover? Because Passover is the period of judgment in respect to grain, and the Holy One, blessed be He, said: Offer before Me the first sheaf of produce on Passover, so that the standing grain may be blessed unto you” (TB Rosh Hashanah 16a).

Indeed, Passover marks the beginning of a period of uncertainty for farmers. The wheat that has been nourished by the winter rains must dry before the harvest, and abundant rainfall in the period between Passover and Shavuot can ruin the crop. This is a critical period in an agrarian society, and the ritual associated with the success of the harvest is of particular significance at Passover.

But the ritual of elevating the sheaf could be performed immediately following Passover and still remain within the agricultural timeframe and retain all of its meaning. Perhaps, then, there is some purpose other than the agricultural significance.

This act that God requires of us emphasizes our ability to assimilate dissonance. It is even set up as an ideal. Here, in the holiest place, amongst the holiest congregation – as we are told at the beginning of the parasha – this harmonization is commanded. The term “holy” that it repeated throughout the parasha and throughout Leviticus, the term that signifies the separateness demanded of the priests, may be misinterpreted by us to mean that holiness requires religious fanaticism, a one dimensional approach and seclusion, and that true holiness defines a single “right” way. But God tells the priests and the people: On Passover, when we strive to remove any suggestion of hametz, I want you to bring sheaves of barley into the holiest place, and wave them in public view. That is what I demand, so that all will see and understand that the House of God is a place that can incorporate the contradiction between hametz and Passover, between a murderer clinging to the horns of the altar and Divine worship, between the holiness of the Sabbath and the blowing of the shofar on Rosh Hashanah.

All of these contradictions, and others that we find in the Temple service, were lost with the destruction. May it by God’s will that we succeed in building such a Temple in our hearts, and that the State of Israel – whose sixtieth year of independence we proudly celebrate – will be such a Third Temple.

Happy Independence Day!

Torah Roundtable
Rabbi Dr. Alexander Even-Chen, Senior Lecturer in Jewish Thought at the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the Israelite people and say to them: These are My fixed times, the fixed times of the Lord, which you shall proclaim as sacred occasions. (Leviticus 23:1-2)

These verses bear special significance, as one can understand them as granting tremendous responsibility to man. We decide the times, and God declares them to be His festivals. But not all the sages agreed with this view. The new month was determined upon the testimony of two witnesses who saw the new moon. One of the best-known stories in this regard is told in the Mishna:

Rabban Gamaliel had pictures of the shapes of the moon on a tablet and on the wall of his upper chamber. These he used to show the unskilled and say, “Did you see it like this or like that?”

It once happened that two came and said, “We saw it in the east in the morning and in the west in the evening.”

R. Yohanan ben Nuri said: “They are false witnesses!”

But when they came to Yavne, Rabban Gamaliel accepted their evidence.

And two others came and said, “We saw it at its expected time, yet in the night of the added day it did not appear”; and Rabban Gamaliel accepted their evidence.

R. Dosa ben Harkinas said: “They are false witnesses! How can they say of a woman that she has given birth if the next day her belly is between her teeth?”

R. Yehoshua said to him: “I approve your words.”

Rabban Gamaliel sent to him, “I charge you to come to me with your staff and your money on the Day of Atonement as it falls according to your reckoning!”

R. Akiba went to R. Yehoshua and found him sore and perplexed. He said to him, “I can teach you that whatever Rabban Gamaliel has done is done, for it is written, ‘These are My fixed times, the fixed times of the Lord, which you shall proclaim as sacred occasions.’ Whether in their proper season or not in their proper season, I know no other fixed times but these.”

R. Yehoshua then went to R. Dosa ben Harkinas and said to him, “If we come to inquire into the court of Rabban Gamaliel, we shall need to inquire into every court which has arisen since the days of Moses until now, for it is written, ‘Then went up Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel.’ And why are the names of the elders not expressly set forth if not to teach that every three that have risen up as a court over Israel are like the court of Moses!”

He took his staff and his money in his hand and went to Yavne to Rabban Gamaliel on the day that fell according to his reckoning of the Day of Atonement.

Rabban Gamaliel stood up and kissed him on the head and said to him, “Come in peace, my master and disciple! My master in wisdom and my disciple in that you have accepted my words.”
(Rosh Hashana 2:8-9)

1. Why did Rabban Gamaliel rely upon the testimony of simple people? Would it not have been better for the court to turn to a group of experts in order to fix the new moon? Does this express an inclusive ideology intended to appeal to the common folk?

2. R. Yohanan ben Nuri declares that the testimony accepted by Rabban Gamaliel was false. Who was he speaking to? Was he addressing this serious accusation to Rabban Gamaliel? Was his comment addressed to other scholars in an attempt to question Rabban Gamaliel’s authority?

3. Two more “false” witnesses testify about the new moon. Again Rabban Gamaliel accepts their testimony and declares the new month. Another scholar, R. Dosa, challenges Rabban Gamaliel. If the matter is as simple as he claims, why was it not apparent to Rabban Gamaliel? Is it possible that Rabban Gamaliel weighed considerations other than the purely halakhic rules that grounded R. Dosa’s criticism? Is it possible that economic factors or other considerations led Rabban Gamaliel to decide that it was best to accept the testimony of the witnesses, even though he knew that they were lying?

4. R. Yehoshua tells R. Dosa that he accepts his criticism of Rabban Gamaliel. It would appear that R. Yehoshua has a relationship with both of the sages. Rabban Gamaliel hears of R. Yehoshua’s acceptance of R. Dosa’s view, and immediately takes extreme action. He orders R. Yehoshua to appear before him on what would be Yom Kippur by R. Yehoshua’s calculation. R. Yehoshua is called upon to prove his loyalty by performing what would be a sin according to R. Dosa’s calculation. What should he have done?

5. How should we understand R. Akiba’s suggestion? Is it R. Akiba’s explanation that causes R. Yehoshua to submit?

6. What does R. Yehoshua mean when he says that if they question the decision of Rabban Gamaliel’s court, as R. Dosa proposes, then they open the possibility for questioning the decisions of every court? Why does he believe that this could undermine the entire judicial system? Is this not a demagogic argument?

7. How are we to understand Rabban Gamaliel’s statement?