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The Omer Controversy

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The Omer Controversy Rav Kook mentioned in the verse is the seventh Torah day of the week; so the Omer must be by Rabbi offered on the day after Shabbat, i.e., Chanan Morrison • www.ravkooktorah.com the first Sunday after Pesach. (This dispute also determines the date for The Omer Controversy Shavuot, since the Shavuot holiday is When to Bring the Omer? celebrated seven weeks after the Omer offering.) During the Second Temple Period, a fierce controversy raged concerning The objection of the BAITOSIM the date for bringing the springtime cannot be ignored out of hand. Why offering of barley, called the Omer. indeed does the Torah speak of (An omer is a measure of volume, offering the Omer on the day “after between 2 and 4 liters; this was the the Shabbat”? If the verse had just amount of barley flour baked and used the word “Pesach” or “holiday”, then brought in the Temple as a meal the whole controversy could have offering.) been avoided! “When you come to the land that I am The National Holiness of Israel giving you, and you reap its harvest, What is the source of the argument you must bring an omer of your first between the BAITOSIM and the reaping... The kohen shall perform this Sages? The Talmud in Menachot 65a wave-offering on the day after the records that the BAITOSIM disagreed Sabbath.” (Vayikra 23:10-11) with another accepted halacha. The The verse says the Omer is to be Sages taught that the daily Temple offered “on the day after the offering (the Tamid) must be Shabbat” — but which Shabbat? purchased with public funds. The According to the Oral Tradition, this BAITOSIM - many of whom were “Shabbat” is the first day of the wealthy - argued that any individual Pesach holiday. could cover the cost for the daily offering. Why did they disagree with But the BAITOSIM, a heretical Jewish the Sages? sect during the Second Temple period, rejected this tradition. In These three disagreements - accept- general, the BAITOSIM did not accept ance of the Oral Law, recognizing the the Oral Law, and favored a more first day of Pesach as the “Shabbat” literal understanding of the text. mentioned in the verse, and requiring They argued that the Shabbat that the Tamid be purchased from public funds - are all connected to individual members. For this reason, one fundamental question: what is the Sages insisted that public the nature of the Jewish people? Is offerings be purchased through the nation merely the combined public funds, for only then will these contribution of each individual Jew? offerings represent the entire nation. Or are the Jewish people as a whole a The BAITOSIM rejected this idea of national collective with its own national sanctity. Thus they held that special holiness? any individual may donate the daily The BAITOSIM did not recognize the Tamid offering, even though this is a concept of Knesset Yisrael, the korban tzibur of the entire people. collective soul of Israel, as an entity In general, the BAITOSIM did not with its own intrinsic holiness. accept the authority of the Oral Rather, they viewed the Jewish Torah. This stance was similarly people as any other people. For them, based on their view of the Jewish a nation is in essence a partnership, people. Unlike the Written Torah, formed in order to benefit its which came directly from God, the members by way of social contract. Oral Torah is transmitted through the The primary goal of this partnership sages of Israel. The Oral Torah thus is to help the individual - to provide reflects the holiness of the Jewish the civil rights and benefits that each people. As Rav Kook wrote in the member gains from the overall opening paragraph of Orot HaTorah: partnership. “One can sense the spirit of the Halacha in fact distinguishes nation - bound to the Torah’s light between two concepts: tzibur (the like a flame is bound to a glowing coal collective) and shutafut (partner- - that shaped the unique form of the ship). We find the Talmud in Temura Oral Torah.” 13a rules that a korban tzibur, a public Temple offering, belongs to But how does this relate to the the entire Jewish people. Such an disagreement over when to bring the offering may not be substituted by an Omer offering? offering of partners, no matter how The relationship between Shabbat many people join in. Why not? and the holidays parallels the Clearly, the collective of the Jewish relationship between the Written and people contains its own intrinsic the Oral Torah. Shabbat has a quality of holiness, beyond the Divinely assigned, permanent combined portions of all of its holiness - KEVIYA VEKIYMA - always Shabbat. set on the seventh day. The holidays, The BAITOSIM wanted to be like all on the other hand, are bound to the other nations, with a national identity holiness of the Jewish people. Their based on the rights of the individual dates are established according to and social contract. Therefore they the Jewish court’s declaration of the could not accept the binding nature start of each month, and its decision of the Oral Law, and they refused to to add a leap month. For this reason, acknowledge that the holidays are the holiday prayers conclude with the based on the intrinsic sanctity of the words, “Who sanctifies Israel and the Sabbath. But with Divine assistance, holidays.” Why is Israel mentioned the Sages were victorious. They here? As the Talmud in B'rachot 49a succeeded in establishing for all explains: God sanctifies the Jewish times the halacha regarding the people, who in turn sanctify the public funding of the korban Tamid, holidays. as well as the date for offering the Rooted in the Shabbat Omer and the holiday of Shavuot. In truth, the holiness of the nation is Sapphire from the Land of Israel rooted in the holiness of the Torah. Adapted from Mishpat Kohen, pp. 273-274 Similarly, the holiness of the holidays is rooted in the permanent holiness of Shabbat. Thus the kiddush blessing refers to Shabbat as “the first of the holy convocations.” The holiness of the holidays originates from Shabbat, the first instance of holiness within the dimension of time, sanctified by God immediately following the Six Days of Creation. Now we can understand why the verse refers to the first day of Yom Tov as the “Shabbat”. The first day of Pesach is the very first holiday of the year, and the Torah wanted to teach us that the holiness of the holidays is based on the eternal holiness of.
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