Menachot

If Moses was a great lover of Israel, why then did he detain them in the wilderness for forty years’? ‘Master’, said the other, ‘is it thus that you would dismiss me’? ‘Fool’, he answered, ‘should not our perfect Torah be as convincing as your idle talk! Now one verse says. Ye shall number fifty days.1 while the other verse says, Seven weeks shall there be complete.2 How are they to be reconciled?3 The latter verse refers to the time when the [first day of the] Festival [of Passover] falls on the Sabbath,4 while the former to the time when the [first day of the] Festival falls on a weekday.5 (Mnemonic: R. Eliezer ‘numbers’; R. Joshua ‘counts’; R. Ishmael ‘from the ‘Omer’; R. Judah ‘below’.)6 R. Eliezer says, This is not necessary, for Scripture says, Thou shalt number unto thee,7 that is, the numbering depends upon the [decision of the] Beth din;8 accordingly the Sabbath of the creation cannot be intended,9 as the numbering would then be in the hands of all men.10 R. Joshua says. The Torah says. Count days11 and sanctify the new moon,12 count days and sanctify the Feast of Weeks.13 Just as in regard to the new moon there is something distinctive at the commencement [of the counting],14 so with the Feast of Weeks there is something distinctive at the commencement [of the counting].15 R. Ishmael says. The Torah says. Bring the ‘Omer-offering on the Passover, and the Two Loaves on the Feast of Weeks. Just as the latter are offered on the Festival, and indeed at the beginning of the Festival, so the former, too. Is offered on the Festival, and indeed at the beginning of the Festival.16 R. Judah b. Bathyra says. There is written ‘Sabbath’ below17 and also ‘Sabbath’ above;17 just as in the former case the Festival, and indeed the beginning of the Festival, is near [to the Sabbath].18 so in the latter case, too, the Festival, and indeed the beginning of the Festival, is near [to the ‘Omer].19 Our Rabbis taught: And ye shall count unto you.20 that is, the counting is a duty upon every one. On the morrow after the Sabbath,20 that is, on the morrow after the Festival. Perhaps it is not so but rather on the morrow after the Sabbath of Creation. R. Jose b. Judah says, Scripture says, Ye shall number fifty days,21 that is, every time that you number it shall not be more than fifty days. But should you say that the verse refers to the morrow after the Sabbath of Creation, then it might sometimes come to fifty-one and sometimes to fifty-two and fifty-three and fifty-four and fifty-five and fifty-six.22 R. Judah b. Bathyra says. This is not necessary. verse speaks of seven weeks complete, by which it is understood full weeks each commencing on a Sunday. motives underlying this controversy v. Lichtenstein HUCA VIII-IX. pp. 276ff and Finkelstein, The Pharisees, I. p. 115ff. which to commence counting the days of the ‘Omer. Cur. edd. insert here the following gloss: For they know to interpret ‘the morrow after the Sabbath’ as the morrow after the Festival. Sabbath of Creation, i.e., the ordinary Sabbath of the week. not always be evident, for sometimes the counting might commence on the seventeenth day of Nisan, and sometimes on the eighteenth, or on the nineteenth of that month. V. Tosaf. s.v.asj vn. Cur. edd. insert here the gloss: And should you say that the Feast of Weeks always falls on the day after Sabbath, how would there be anything distinctive at its commencement? the Festival. If, however, it was to be offered always on a Sunday it might happen sometimes that it is offered at the end of the Festival; v. prev. note. respect of the ‘Omer, On the morrow after the Sabbath, ibid. 11. Festival must be at the end of seven complete Sabbaths or weeks. Festival. Sunday, only fifty days are numbered from the second day of the Festival, so also in the other years when the Festival falls on a weekday only fifty days are to be numbered from the second day of the Festival. Now if it is held that the numbering must always begin on a Sunday, then as compared with the former year, the number of days from the second day of the Festival would be fifty-one, if the Festival fell on a Friday, or fifty-two if it fell on a Thursday, and so on.