Vayikra 23:9-22 (Emor) – On the morrow: When is the korban omer brought?

Vayikra 23:9-14 records the law to bring the omer sacrifice on the morrow of the Shabbat. Afterwards, 23:15-22 records that the fiftieth day from the bringing of the omer was a mikrei kodesh (the holiday of Shavuot) and other special sacrifices, two loaves, were to be brought. One question that concerns both sections in when is the omer sacrifice offered? When is "the morrow of the Shabbat?" Which Shabbat?

There are at least six different approaches to understanding the term "morrow of the Shabbat." One, the traditional view is that it means the day after the first day of chag ha-matzot, the 16th of Nisan. (In the Diaspora, this is the second day of Yom Tov, and in Israel the first day of chol ha-moed of Pesach.)

Two, the view of the Karaites, and possibly of the Boethusians, a sect in the time of the second Bet ha-Mikdash, that it means, the Sunday after the Saturday within chag ha-matzot. (If Pesach started on Saturday, then the Karaites, held the day was the second day of Pesach just like the traditional view.) 

Three, Shmuel Sprecher (1993) has suggested that the Boethusians held that the omer was brought on the second day of chag ha-matzot like the traditional view, but the count started on the Sunday after the Saturday within chag ha-matzot. 

Four, the omer was brought on the day after the last day of chag ha-matzot. (Apparently, this was the practice of Ethiopian Jews. David Hoffmann, 1953, vol.2, pp. 124-127, quotes several scholars who hold this view and claims that this is the view of the Targum Peshitta. However, Yeshayahu Maori (1995, pp. 176-178) claims the Peshitta follows the traditional view.) 

Five, the book of Jubilees, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and possibly the view of the Boethusians, the omer was to be brought on the first Sunday after chag ha-matzot. 

Six, the omer was brought on the first Sunday after the first reaping with no connection with chag ha-matzot.

The Talmud (Menahot 65a-66a) quotes many arguments for the traditional approach, but perhaps the most convincing proof is not mentioned in the Talmud. Yehoshua 5:11 records that when the Jewish people first came into the land of Israel even before the battle of Jericho, they ate bread and wheat on the day after the pesach sacrifice (see Rambam, Laws of regular and extra sacrifices, 7:8-10, and Hoffmann, pp. 134-136). The proof is that Vayikra 23:14 only allows one to eat the new grains after the omer sacrifice was brought, and in Yehoshua 5:11 it appears that the people ate the new wheat on the day after the pesach sacrifice, which means the omer was brought on the day after the pesach sacrifice.

This proof has several problems and it is telling that the Talmud did not mention it. One, according to Yehoshua 5:10, the pesach sacrifice was brought on the 14th of Nisan, which means the day after the sacrifice was the 15th of Nisan, and this does not match up with the traditional view, which is that the omer is to be brought on the 16th of Nisan. Two, Yehoshua 5:11,12 does not state that the people ate new grains, rather that they ate grains from the land of Israel and not the mahn. Three, the book of Yehoshua makes no mention that the people celebrated chag ha-matzot that year, and hence maybe that year was a special circumstance since there was only the pesach sacrifice. (On the other hand, if one claims that pesach also means chag ha-matzot, as is the common language today, then the day after pesach could be the day after chag ha-matzot, which is the fourth view.) Four, the case is unique for another reason. Usually people have old grain stored up, but presumably when the people just came to the land of Israel, they had no supplies of grain, and hence maybe once the mahn stopped, they had to be allowed to eat even new grain immediately.

The order of the festivals in chapter 23 strongly implies that the omer offering was to be brought after chag ha-matzot.  In the chapter, the Torah first records the festival of chag ha-matzot and then the bringing of the omer sacrifice.

In addition, in chapter 23, each festival is separated in the chapter by the verse, "G-d spoke to Moshe." Yet, with regard to the holiday of Shavuot there appears to be anomaly since this phrase does not appear by 23:15, which apparently begins the discussion of the laws of the day of Shavuot. N. Leibowitz (1980, pp. 218-223) quotes the Talmud and the Hinukh that there is no separating verse for Shavuot since Shavuot is a continuation of the holiday of Matzot since the goal of the exodus from Egypt was to receive the Torah at Mount Sinai. Yet, chapter 23 never alludes to the fact that the Torah was given on Shavuot. Furthermore, the phrase “G-d spoke to Moshe” appears between the laws of Pesach and the laws of Shavuot as it occurs prior to the verses that record the law of bringing the omer, 23:9.

The phrase "G-d spoke to Moshe" in 23:9 signals the beginning of the holiday of Shavuot. The holiday is a fifty day holiday, and only the last day is a mikra kodesh that one is forbidden to work, 23:21. The holiday starts with the bringing of the omer and after seven full weeks, it ended with the bringing of the two loaves. Shemot 23:16 refers to the holiday as one of reaping, and this reaping is referred to in Vayikra 23:10 by the bringing of the omer, which is the beginning of the festival. This idea accords with the name Shavuot a feast of weeks, as the holiday was for seven weeks. Similarly, Bemidbar 28:26 and Devarim 16:9-12 when discussing the festival of Shavuot refers to weeks prior to the day of Shavuot, again because the holiday is for fifty days. This understanding nullifies the first three explanations of the term "on the morrow" since it cannot be that the fifty day holiday of Shavuot started in the middle of the holiday of matzot.

This same idea that the fifty days of Shavuot begins after chag ha-matzot is evident in Devarim 16. Devarim 16:1-8 records laws of the holiday of Pesach and of the chag ha-matzot, and it refers to the second mikrei kodesh of chag ha-matzot.  Afterwards, Devarim 16:9 records that one is to start counting the seven weeks. The implication is that the counting is only to begin after the chag ha-matzot ended.

I think the fourth view is correct that the phrase "on the morrow" refers to the day after chag ha-matzot. In the end of 23:15, the word shabbat means week, seven weeks. This suggests that the word shabbat in the beginning of 23:15 also means week, the morrow after the week. What week is being referred to? The week of chag ha-matzot. 23:11 then means that the omer is to be brought on the day after the end of the week of chag ha-matzot. Finally, the word shabbat in 23:16 also means week, "Until the morrow after the seventh week, you shall count fifty days."

Why did the Torah not then clearly state that that the omer is to be brought on the day after chag ha-matzot? One possibility is that really the word shabbat means a period of time when one is to rest, and while usually this is Saturday, really it can be a longer period of time, like a week. With this idea, the word shabbat does not necessarily refer to Saturday, and can just as equally refer to a festival. A second possibility is that the Torah did not want to connect Shavuot with chag ha-matzot. Chag ha-matzot is a historical holiday, while Shavuot is an agricultural holiday. If the bringing of the omer was recorded in reference to chag ha-matzot, this might have caused one to think that chag ha-matzot was an agricultural holiday, but really the holiday is only to recognize that G-d took the Jewish people out of Egypt. A third possibility is that the use of the word shabbat in conjunction with mimaharet is to re-enforce the sabbatical theme of the shabbatot of the weeks. 

My guess is that the traditional approach to understanding the term "on the morrow" as being the 16th of Nisan is because Chazal deliberately moved up the counting of the omer six days in order to make the holiday of Shavuot closer to the day of the Decalogue. In the Torah there is no connection at all between Shavuot and the Decalogue, but Chazal wanted to make this connection. (This connection occurs in the book of Jubilees.) If the counting of the omer starts after chag ha-matzot, the 22nd of Nisan, then Shavuot would be celebrated on the 12th of Sivan, but if the counting of the omer starts on the 16th of Nisan, then Shavuot is on the sixth day of Sivan.

It is not obvious in the Torah on which day the Decalogue occurred. Shemot 19:1 records that the Jewish people came to Mount Sinai on the third month (Sivan) and the verse seems to be referring to the first day of the month. Afterwards, there are several conversations between G-d and Moshe and it is not clear when they took place, on one day or spread out over several days. Shemot 19:10 records the next explicit reference to time that the Decalogue would take place three days later, which at a minimum was the third day of Sivan. However, in the Talmud (Shabbat 86b) the Rabbis maintained that each conversation between G-d and Moshe occurred on a separate day, and then the Decalogue was either on the sixth or seventh of Sivan.

The Tosefta, Erechin 1:4, and Talmud Rosh Hashanah 6b, note that in the time when the calendar was determined by sight, the holiday of Shavuot was celebrated on either the fifth, sixth or seventh of Sivan depending on the length of the months of Nisan and Iyar, see Henshke, 1992, pp. 441-444. This means that even if the omer was offered on the 16th of Nisan, still Shavuot was sometimes celebrated near the date of the Decalogue but not always on the day of the Decalogue,

My guess is that Chazal moved up the omer offering to have Shavuot be close to the day when they thought that the Decalogue occurred. They could not get it exact since the lengths of the months were not exact, but they could make the two events close. When the calendar and the months were fixed, then they could get them to be exact, but this also took to interpreting Shemot 19 to mean that the Decalogue was on the sixth of Sivan. The jump of moving the counting of the omer a week earlier was not so ground-breaking since according the fourth view, the day of the morrow was the day after the last day of chag ha-matzot, while now it would be the day after the first day of chag ha–matzot. Finally, according to the Mishnah (Rosh Hashanah 2:10) and the Talmud (Pesachim 117b and Berakhot 49a), Chazal have the power to decide when a holiday is celebrated, and hence they can decide to celebrate Shavuot a week earlier on the sixth of Sivan instead of the twelfth of Sivan.

Bibliography:

Henshke, David, 1992, The history of the counting of the omer, in Rabbi Mordechai Breuer Festchrift, edited by Moshe Bar-Asher, Jerusalem: Academon Press, pp. 417-448.

Hoffmann, David (1843-1921), 1953, Leviticus, Jerusalem: Mossad Harav Kook.

Leibowitz, Nehama (1905-1997), 1980, Studies in Vayikra, translated by Aryeh Newman, Jerusalem: The World Zionist Organization.

Maori, Yeshayahu, 1995, The Peshitta version of the Pentateuch and early Jewish exegesis, Jerusalem: Magnes Press.

Sprecher, Shmuel, 1993, "The offering of the omer and counting of the omer: The view of the Boethusians," Sidra, 9, pp. 105-116.

Shavuot: Tikkun leil Shavuot

One of the popular customs on Shavuot is to stay awake all night learning Torah, tikkun leil shavuot. This custom is not mentioned in the Mishnah, the Gemara, by the Gaonim, the Rambam, the Tur, in the Shulchan Arukh (though see below) and by the Rama. What is the basis for this custom and how did it develop?

The oldest source for this custom is from Philo who mentions that the Essenes (1st century) used to stay awake the night of Shavuot praying (see Hallamish, 2000, p.595). However, it is unlikely that their practice had any influence on our present custom since the Essenes were not part of mainstream Judaism, and this source is never referred to again.

The next mention of this custom is in the Zohar (on Vayikra 23), which records that a select group of people, Hasidim, used to stay awake the night of Shavuot learning Torah in order that the bride (the Shekhinah? the Jewish people?) would be adorned appropriately to meet the King (G-d) in the morning.

In Spain, in the 14th and 15th centuries it is possible that there were some individuals who stayed awake all night on Shavuot (Hallamish, pp. 596, 597), but it was definitely not a common practice. R. David Abudraham (Spain, late 13th, early 14th century) in his book on prayers and customs, makes no mention of the custom even though he records in detail the prayers and customs on Shavuot.

In the 16th century there was a new stage in the development of the custom. In the beginning of the 1530s, R. Yosef Caro (1488-1575), a refugee from Spain and the future author of the Shulchan Arukh, was living in Turkey. R. Caro was also a mystic, and he had trances where a "Maggid" would speak through his mouth. (R. J. Werblowksy, 1962, p.22, refers to this speaking as automatic speech. The collection of these speeches is recorded in the book Maggid Mesharim.

On one Shavuot night (in 1530 or 1534, Werblowksy, p.111), R. Caro studied with Shlomo Alkabetz (the composer of Lekhah Dodi.) Alkabetz's experience that night with R. Caro was very interesting, and he recorded his recollection of the events of the night, which was later incorporated into the book Shenei Luchot ha-Brit (the Shelah). Alkabetz relates that when he was learning with R. Caro on Shavuot night, he heard this unique speech from R. Caro's mouth, and one of the things said was that R. Caro should move to Israel. Apparently, R. Caro was one of the individuals who knew of this custom to stay awake on Shavuot night, but he did not want to impose this custom on everybody and hence he left it out of the Bet Yosef and the Shulchan Arukh.

After R. Yosef Caro moved to Sefat (1536? 37?), the custom of learning all night on Shavuot became widespread in the town. R. Avraham Galanti (d. 1589) recorded that all the congregations in Sefat would gather on the night of Shavuot to stay awake and learn Torah until the morning when everybody would go to the mikveh and pray (Hallamish, p.598). From Sefat, the custom spread to the Mediterranean basin, and from there northwards throughout Europe. Towards the end of the 17th century, the Magen Avraham (R. Avraham Gombiner, 1637-1683, Poland, Orah Chayyim 494) wrote that most scholars stayed up all night to study Torah. And, a little bit afterwards, R. Yaakov Reischer (1661, Prague -1733, Metz) in his commentary on the Shulchan Arukh (Chok Yaakov, Orah Chayyim 494) noted that the custom had also spread to the general population.

There are several reasons why the custom spread. First, not only was R. Caro such a great Rabbi, but also due to Alkabetz's testimony concerning his learning with R. Caro, knowledge of the custom became well-known. Secondly, in Sefat in the 16th century, it became popular to regularly arise at midnight to recite tikkun hazot, prayers to mourn the destruction of the Bet ha-Mikdash and to pray for its redemption. This custom was independent of staying awake on Shavuot night, but still if one regularly practiced the tikkun hazot, then one would naturally be more inclined to stay awake also on Shavuot night. Thirdly, there developed the claim, which was attributed to the Ari (for example, see Mishnah Brurah, Orah Chayyim, 494:1), that if a person stays awake the entire night and learns Torah throughout the night, then no harm will come upon the person in the following year. (The Ari was born in Jerusalem in 1534, came to Sefat to live in 1569 or early 1570, and died on July 15, 1572, see Encyclopedia Judaica, 11:572-574.)

In a fascinating article, Elliot Horowitz (1989) also credits the introduction of coffee for the spread of the custom of staying awake at night. In the 15th century, the drinking of coffee originated in Yemenite Sufi circles in order that they could stay awake for their nocturnal rituals, and by the end of the 16th century coffee had spread throughout the Muslim world. Horowitz points out that both coffee and the custom of tikkun hazot spread westward from Sefat to Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries.

There were two new developments with the spread of the custom to Europe. One, while the Magen Avraham's quotes the Zohar as the source for the custom, he suggested a new rationale for the custom. The Magen Avraham writes that the simple reason for the custom is to rectify a mistake of the generation who left Egypt who slept the night before G-d declared the Decalogue at Mount Sinai. This idea is based on the Midrash of Shir Hashirim (Chapter 1, 12:2, Simon, 1961, p.79), which records, "Israel slept all night, because the sleep of Shavuot is pleasant and the night is short. R. Judan said: Not a flea worried them. G-d came and found them sleeping, so He began to rouse them with trumpeters, as it says in Shemot 19:16, 'there were thunders and lightings'… It was for this that He taunted them through the mouth of Yeshayahu, in Isaiah 50:2." Meir Bar Ilan (1997, p.29) notes that this Midrash was known for generations, but prior to the Magen Avraham nobody had felt that there was a need to rectify this error by staying up all night. It seems that the Magen Avraham was looking for a new non-mystical reason for the custom in order to replace or complement the mystical reason of the Zohar.

This new reason also adds a new sin to the generation who were at Mount Sinai, which prompted Eliyahu Kitov (1978, Vol. 3 p.76) to defend the Jews who left Egypt. He writes, "This is not a condemnation of the Jews of that generation- all of whom eagerly awaited hearing the Divine Word. They were however, physically weak, and they feared that they might lack sufficient strength for hearing the Divine teaching without sufficient rest the previous night….It is for this reason that also today not all stay awake during the night."

A second development concerns what is to be studied during the night. R. Moshe Cordovero (1522-1570, Sefat, Shlomo Alkabetz's brother-in-law) recorded a specific order of study, first sections of the Torah, then Nevi'im (Yechezkel), Ketuvim (Shir Hashirim, Ruth and Tehillim chapter 68), Mishnah (usually Pirkei Avot), the poem Azharot, and in the end, and mostly, Kabbalah (see Hallamish, pp. 605.606). This order was considered the appropriate study to adorn the bride based on the rationale of the custom in the Zohar. R. Isaiah Horowitz (1565, Prague -1630, Sefat, in the Shelah) slightly changed this order to briefly include all the books of Tanakh and the Talmud and other small variations. This basic order has remained until today as the official tikkun leil shavuot. However, already by the end of the 17th century, R. Yaakov Reischer (Chok Yaakov 494) asserted that the official order was only for the "simple" people who did not know how to learn. This contention implies that people can learn what they choose. This explanation is incorrect historically since in Sefat everybody followed the official order, but it seems that for those of the non-kabbalistic bent, the official order was not sufficiently appreciated and they wanted to study other subjects.

Accordingly, the custom of staying awake on Shavuot night and studying Torah began as a kabbalistic practice, and started to become popular in the 16th century. The custom was quickly accepted even amongst the non-kabbalistic population, but for them a new non-mystical reason for the custom was proposed and the learning was changed from being a set order to being at each person's discretion.

Shavuot: To thank G-d

We celebrate Shavuot on the sixth of Sivan, which is the 50th day of the counting of the omer starting from the second day of Pesach (Passover). The common understanding of the holiday is that it is to celebrate the giving of the Torah, which I think most people understand to mean that Shavuot was the day when the Decalogue was told to the people at Mount Sinai. Thus, the Torah reading for the holiday is the Decalogue, Shemot chapters 19 and 20. Yet, this connection is not mentioned in the Torah. Was the sixth of Sivan the day when the Torah was given to the Jewish people? Was the Decalogue told to the people on that day?

Shemot 19:1 records that the Jewish people come to Mount Sinai in the third month, hodesh, (Sivan) without explicitly specifying which day in the month. However, Rashi (on 19:1) explains that 19:1 means that the people came to Mount Sinai on the 1st day of the month. Similarly, Cassuto (1967, p. 224) explains that the word hodesh, in ancient Hebrew means new moon, which is the 1st day of the month. After the Torah provides this date, no other date is given for when the revelation on Mount Sinai occurred, but we can try to calculate the day from the events recorded in Shemot chapter 19.

Shemot 19:3 records that Moshe went up the mountain to speak to G-d, and Rashi (on 19:3) writes that this happened on the second day of the month. The end of 19:8 records that Moshe went back to speak to G-d, and Rashi (on 19:8) explains that this was on the third day of the month. The end of 19:9 records that Moshe told G-d the response of the people, and Rashi (on 19:9) says this was on the fourth day of the month. As part of that conversation, 19:10 records that G-d told Moshe that the people were to prepare themselves today and the next day for on the third day there would be the revelation on Mount Sinai. Rashi (on 19:10,11) explains that this preparation was to be on the fourth and fifth days of the month and the revelation would be on the sixth day of the month. According to this chronology, the Torah was given to the people on the sixth of Sivan. This chronology makes sense, but still it is based on the assumptions that Moshe had one conversation a day with G-d and these conversations occurred on successive days. We cannot know for sure on what day was the Decalogue.

The Talmud (Shabbat 86b) quotes an opinion that the Torah was given on the seventh day of Sivan. The Rabbis maintain that the Decalogue was told to the people on the sixth day (the basis for Rashi’s opinion), but R. Jose says it occurred on the seventh day of Sivan. Why does R. Jose believe that it was given on the seventh day of the month? He believes that the people needed three full days to prepare for the Decalogue, yet the Talmud asks that Shemot 19:10,11 records that they were only supposed to have two days, so R. Jose answers that Moshe added a day on his own. (Note this opinion of R. Jose is not really rejected, as we follow this opinion by the laws of niddah, see Magen Avraham, Orah Chayyim, 494.) Thus, from the Talmud we cannot be sure on what day the Torah was given.

A different way to understand Shavuot is that it is an agricultural holiday as Shemot 23:16, 34:22, and Bemidbar 28:26, all refer to the holiday as the time of the first harvest of the crops of the year. In conjunction with this theme, when the Bet ha-Mikdash existed, on Shavuot there was a special offering of two loaves, Vayikra 23:17.

Why do we bring the two loaves? The loaves are made from the first crops that are harvested. What is the significance of bringing the first crops as a sacrifice? The answer can be seen by the declaration that each person made when he/ she brought his/ her personal first fruits to the Bet ha-Mikdash. Devarim 26:5-10 records that the person recites a brief review of the exodus and mentions that G-d gave the Jewish people the land of Israel. The person then bows before G-d. This short prayer and bowing indicates that the giving the first fruits shows one’s acceptance of G-d, and being thankful to G-d for the exodus and for the land of Israel. Correspondingly by the sacrifice of the two loaves on Shavuot, this demonstrates a communal acceptance and thankfulness of G-d, and this could be the rationale of the holiday of Shavuot independent of the historical day when the Decalogue was said.

Bibliography:

Cassuto, Umberto (1883-1951), 1967, A commentary on the book of Exodus, Jerusalem: The Magnes Press.