Menachot 66a (סו.) — the Talmud in English

Rather,

it says: “You shall count for yourself”:

the counting is dependent upon the court; this excludes the primordial Shabbat, whose counting is incumbent upon every individual—

as explained above in the name of Rabbi Eliezer.

Rabbi Yosei says:

The meaning of the verse

“from the day after the Shabbat”

is

“from the day after the Festival”

of the first day of Pesaḥ—

You say that it means the day after the Festival, or does it mean the day after the primordial Shabbat

that follows the first day of the Festival of Pesaḥ

? You can say:

Was it stated

“the day after the Shabbat that occurs during Pesaḥ”?

Surely it was stated only

“the day after the Shabbat”

without qualification,

and

the entire year is filled with Shabbatot.

If so,

go out and investigate

for

which Shabbat

the Torah intended!?

That is, the verse did not come to leave the matter obscure, but rather to clarify it. If the intention is the day after the Festival, this is reasonable, since the verse has clarified for you when you are to count. But if the verse intended the day after the primordial Shabbat, it has not clarified which Shabbat the verse intended.

Furthermore,

there is another proof:

The term

Shabbat

is stated below—

“until the day after the seventh Shabbat, you shall count fifty days, and you shall offer a new meal-offering to the Lord”—

and the term Shabbat is stated above—

“You shall count for yourselves from the day after the Shabbat.” They should be derived from one another:

Just as there,

below, the “Shabbat” on the eve of Shavuot is the Shabbat preceding Shavuot, which is

a Festival, the beginning of a Festival, and another Festival follows it,

after that Shabbat,

so too here, the “Shabbat” on the eve of the counting is

the

day after which a Festival begins.

But if one follows the view of the Boethusians,

that the counting of the omer begins on the day after the Shabbat following the first day of the Festival of Pesaḥ,

there are times when no Festival follows it,

after that Shabbat.

And,

on the contrary,

the

“day after that Shabbat”

would be

after the Festival.

That is,

when the first day of the Festival

of Pesaḥ

falls on the first day

of the week,

and the seventh day of Pesaḥ

is

on Shabbat,

the “day after this Shabbat” is already after the Festival.

Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar says

there is another proof that the omer and the counting that follows it begin on the second day of Pesaḥ:

One verse

in Deuteronomy 16

says:

“You may not slaughter the Pesaḥ-offering within any of your gates. Rather, only at the place that the Lord your God will choose to establish His Name shall you slaughter the Pesaḥ-offering, in the evening. You shall cook and eat it at the place that the Lord your God will choose, and you shall turn away in the morning [toward the morning of the second day; this teaches that one must lodge there on the night following the Festival].

For six days you shall eat matza,

and on the seventh day there shall be an assembly for the Lord your God; you shall perform no labor. You shall count seven weeks for yourself; from the time the sickle is first put to the standing grain, you shall begin to count seven weeks”—thus, there is an obligation to eat matza for only six days—

And one verse

in Exodus 12 appears to contradict it, and

says:

“For seven days you shall eat matza.”

How

are these two verses to be reconciled?

Matza that you cannot eat for seven

days of Pesaḥ

from the new grain,

since on the first day the omer has not yet been offered, and therefore the new grain has not yet been permitted,

you can eat for six

final days of Pesaḥ

from the new grain—

That is, this is what the first verse said: after the first day of Pesaḥ, on which you are required to lodge, you shall go in the morning to your tents. Then, after the offering of the omer, you shall eat matza for six days from the new grain. From that time, you shall count seven weeks for yourself—from the time when the sickle is first put to the standing grain, which is on the day when you go to your tents and begin eating from the new grain—

whereas the verse “For seven days you shall eat matza” refers to matza that need not specifically be from the new grain, which you can eat throughout all seven days of Pesaḥ—

We have thus learned that the omer is offered on the second day of Pesaḥ.

Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar adds an explanation of the verses:

It is written [Leviticus 23:15]: “You shall count for yourselves from the day after the Shabbat, from the day when you bring the omer of the waving; seven complete Shabbatot they shall be. Until the day after the seventh Shabbat, you shall count fifty days, and you shall offer a new meal-offering to the Lord”—

And it is further written [Deuteronomy 16:9]: “You shall count seven weeks for yourself; from the time the sickle is first put to the standing grain [once the omer has been harvested, for it is the beginning of the harvest], you shall begin to count seven weeks”—

And Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar explains:

Since the verse says

“from the day when you bring it you shall count,”

one might

understand that the verse did not intend to say that you begin counting immediately upon bringing it, but rather that one

may harvest

the omer on the day after the first Festival day of Pesaḥ

and bring

it on that same day,

and count whenever he wishes,

for the verse said only that from the day when you bring it, counting is fit to begin; it does not require one to begin counting immediately —

“From the time the sickle is first put to the standing grain,

you shall begin to count.”

If

“from the time the sickle is first put to the standing grain you shall begin to count,”

that is, the plain meaning of the verse is that counting begins after the harvesting of the omer but before it is brought, then

one might say: he may harvest

the omer,

and count

after it,

and bring it whenever he wishes,

but the omer need not be brought on the sixteenth of Nisan, as implied by the verse, according to which on the day of counting it had not yet been brought —

The verse therefore says:

“From the day when you bring it

you shall count,” teaching that counting is not only on the day of harvesting but also on the day of bringing, and we learn that all of these take place on the same day.

If

“from the day when you bring it,”

that is, since we have learned from all the verses cited that the harvesting, counting, and bringing of the omer all occur at the same time, then

one might say that he may harvest, count, and bring it during the day

[perform all three together during the day]—

The verse therefore says, concerning counting,

“

Seven complete Shabbatot

[complete]

shall they be.”

When do you

find “seven complete Shabbatot”?

When you count from the evening,

and not during the day, since they are not complete then, as the night of the first day is lacking.

And still,

one might say: he may harvest, bring, and count at night

[perform all three together at night]—

The verse therefore says:

“From the day when you bring it,”

and we have thus learned that the bringing takes place during the day—

How so? The harvesting and counting take place at night,

for counting must necessarily be at night in order to fulfill “complete,” and it follows the harvesting, as the verse says, “from the time the sickle is first put to the standing grain.” Therefore, the harvesting too takes place at night,

while

if the

bringing

takes place only

during the day,

this is because it says, “from the day when you bring it.”

Rava said concerning the proofs presented in the two beraitot that Shavuot is not the day after the primordial Shabbat:

All of them are subject to an objection, except for the last two tannaim, both in the first beraita and in the second beraita, whose proofs are not subject to an objection

[all the proofs in the two beraitot can be challenged, except for the proofs of the final two tannaim in each beraita]. For—

As for

the proof of

Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai,

based on the fact that one verse says, “you shall count fifty days,” while another says, “seven complete Shabbatot”—how can they be reconciled? Here it refers to a Festival that falls on Shabbat, and there it refers to a Festival that falls in the middle of the week—this can be refuted:

Perhaps

the reason the verse says “you shall count fifty days” and also says “seven complete Shabbatot” is to teach us

the principle stated by Abaye, for Abaye said: It is a mitzva to count the days, and it is a mitzva to count the weeks

[it is a mitzva to count days, and it is a mitzva to count weeks].

And

as for

the proof of

Rabbi Eliezer,

from the verse “you shall count for yourself,” teaching that the counting is dependent upon the court,

and Rabbi Yehoshua

[or, alternatively, the proof of Rabbi Yehoshua], based on the comparison: Just as the beginning of the reckoning of the month is recognizable, so too the beginning of the count of fifty must be recognizable by a fixed day of the month—both proofs can be refuted, for

from where do we know that the verse “You shall count for yourselves from the day after the Shabbat”

refers to the first Festival day, saying that counting begins on the day after it, which is a day determined by the court and is a fixed marker near the beginning of the counting?

Perhaps it refers to the final Festival day,

saying that counting begins on the day after it; in that case too, the counting is dependent upon the court, and a fixed day is recognizable near its beginning.

As for the proofs of the final two tannaim in the first beraita—namely, the proofs of

Rabbi Yishmael and Rabbi Yehuda ben Beteira,

there is no objection to them

[there is nothing with which to challenge them].

The same is found in the second beraita. For,

as for

the proof of

Rabbi Yosei son of Rabbi Yehuda,

that counting consists of fifty days from a fixed day of the month, and if the beginning of the counting depends upon Shabbat, then relative to the fixed day of the month the counting is sometimes as though it were fifty days plus one day, up to six additional days—

one might say

[I would say], that is, one might argue:

Perhaps the verse did not say to count

fifty

days except

apart from six

[apart from the six days, or fewer, that are added beyond the counting itself]. That is, the counting itself is in every case only fifty days, and the verse refers only to the counting itself, not to the additional days that distance the end of the counting from the fixed day of the month.

And

as for

the proof of

Rabbi Yehuda ben Beteira,

based on “you shall count for yourself,” which teaches that the counting is dependent upon the court, this can be refuted:

From where

does the verse

refer to the first Festival day?

Perhaps it refers to the final Festival day—

as was explained above concerning the identical proof of Rabbi Eliezer in the first beraita.

And if the proof is Rabbi Yosei’s, that the verse did not leave obscure which Shabbat it intended, then

Rabbi Yosei too saw that it was subject to an objection

[Rabbi Yosei himself also saw that this proof could be challenged], namely: From where do we know that the counting begins on the day after the first Festival day? Perhaps it begins on the day after the final Festival day .

And this is what Rabbi Yosei himself said:

“

Furthermore,

the term Shabbat is stated below,” for he required an additional proof only because his first proof was subject to an objection.

Rabbi Yosei’s second proof and Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar’s proof are not subject to an objection.

The Gemara returns to the matter itself. Abaye said: It is a mitzva to count the days, and it is a mitzva to count the weeks:

The Sages of the academy of Rav Ashi

indeed

counted the days and counted the weeks

[they counted days and weeks].

But Ameimar counted the days and did not count the weeks,

because

he said:

Counting at a time when the Temple is not standing and the omer is not offered

is merely a remembrance of the Temple,

and counting the days without the weeks is sufficient.

Mishna:

The Mishna continues to explain the procedure for preparing the omer:

They reaped it

for the omer in the manner explained in the previous Mishna,

and they placed it

in the field, at the place where it had been reaped,

in baskets.

They brought it to the Temple courtyard,

and they singed it

the barley as it was

with fire

with flame,

in order to fulfill through it the mitzva of "

kali",

as it is stated: "You shall offer barley in its first stage, roasted in fire, as the offering of your first fruits",

the statement of Rabbi Meir.

And the Sages say:

The mitzva of kali was not fulfilled immediately upon bringing the barley stalks to the Temple courtyard, nor was it fulfilled with them in this manner. Rather: Once they had brought it to the Temple courtyard, first

with soft reeds

soft ones

and with cabbage stalks

cabbage stalks

they beat it,

not in the usual manner, with a stick,

so that it would not be crushed.

B. The mitzva of kali was performed in the following manner:

They placed it in an avuv

a copper vessel designated for this purpose, and while the barley was inside it, they passed it through fire,

and

it

the avuv was perforated, so that the fire would reach all of it.

Here the Mishna returns to explain the procedure for preparing the omer:

They spread it out

the barley of the omer

in the Temple courtyard, and the wind blew through it.

They placed it

all the se'a-measures that they had reaped

in coarse mills

mills customarily used for grinding groats, which grind neither finely nor coarsely, but rather thickly, for if they ground it finely, the bran of the husk would pass through the sieve together with the fine flour, and this is what the verse means by "coarse flour from fresh grain"

And they removed from it —

from all the flour that had been ground —

one tenth-measure,

only one, after

it had been sifted through thirteen sieves,

as the procedure for sifting the omer will be explained below, on 76b; and this law is a halakha given to Moses from Sinai.

And the remainder

of everything they had reaped and ground

was redeemed

like other consecrated property, since all the barley had been consecrated,

and it was eaten

the remainder after its redemption

by anyone

like other consecrated property that had been redeemed.

And the remainder was obligated

the flour that remained, when they made dough from it

in ḥalla,

because the kneading of the dough, which is what renders the dough obligated in ḥalla, had already taken place in the possession of an ordinary person

and

however

it was exempt

it

from tithes,

because the smoothing — which renders grain obligated in tithes — had taken place in the possession of consecrated property, as the Gemara will explain.

Rabbi Akiva

disagrees and

obligates

it

in ḥalla and

both

in tithes,

as the reason for his position will be explained in the Gemara.

Gemara:

The Sages taught:

It is written: "Barley in its first stage, roasted in fire; coarse flour from fresh grain; you shall offer the offering of your first fruits," and the beraita interprets the entire verse: "

First stage" —

this means first stage,

the beginning of the barley's ripening. "

Roasted in fire"

teaches

that the verse

that Israel would singe it with fire, in order to fulfill through it the mitzva of kali, the statement of Rabbi Meir.