Each week we discuss one familiar halakhic practice and try to show its beauty and meaning. The columns are based on the commentary "Meaning in Mitzvot" on the Kitzur Shulchan Arukh, which is serialized on Yeshivat Har Etzion's "Virtual Beit Midrash", www.vbm-torah.org. Subscribers are currently learning about Shabbat. Our parsha includes the mitzva of counting omer: "And count unto yourselves from the day after the Shabbat, from the day you bring the omer of waving, seven complete weeks shall there be" (Vayikra 23:15). We continue this mitzva today (according to many views derabanan), even though we no longer bring the omer at Pesach. What is the continuing relevance of the commandment of sefirat haomer? The "Shtei HaLechem Jew" and the "Omer Jew" In the Torah, the counting of the Omer is primarily not the count from Pesach to Shavuot, but the counting from the bringing of the omer of barley at Pesach until the offering of the Shtei haLechem - the two wheat loaves brought at Shavuot. The bringing of the omer is in many ways parallel to the separation of trumah. Like trumah, the omer is called "reshit" - the first. (Vayikra 23:10) Like trumah, which permits the collected grain, the omer makes permissible the entire year's crop, which until that time is forbidden as "chadash". Trumah must also be brought from the best of the crop (Mishna Trumot 2:4), and we would likewise expect that the omer, which makes all grains of the wheat family permissible, should come from the choicest grain - namely wheat. But this is not so - actually, the omer comes from barley, which is generally animal food and (except for the offering of the Sotah and the omer itself) is never permitted for Temple offerings! What can we learn from this commandment? There are many fine punctilious Jews whom we could characterize as "shtei halechem" Jews. Every aspect of God's service must always be "lekhatchila", in the best possible way. Any other kind of service has no value in their eyes. According to this approach, we would never dare bring mere barley as a Temple offering. Yet what can we do - "first" also means the temporal first, and the barley just happens to ripen months before the wheat. The Torah seems to be telling us, don't be a "shtei halechem Jew". Of course God's service demands the best, but the best is determined in practice according to what is possible and practical. If the only grain available at Pesach is barley, then by all means bring barley to the altar! But does this mean that we should be "omer Jews" - settling for second best, reconciling ourselves to a bediavad situation? The Torah rejects this extreme also. We are allowed, and even commanded, to bring barley - on the condition that we immediately begin counting the days towards the time when we will be able to fulfill the mitzva of bringing the new grain crop to the Temple in its fullest glory - as the "first fruits" of the wheat crop represented by the two wheat loaves. God's forbearance towards us should never be an excuse for indolence. THE "SHAVUOT JEW" AND THE "PESACH JEW"These offerings stand in a direct relationship to the holidays they represent: Pesach, the holiday of redemption, and Shavuot, the holiday of Torah. The "shtei halechem Jew" also tends to be a "Shavuot Jew" - he sees the relationship of God to the Jewish people only through the prism of Mattan Torah. The connection of Israel to God is mediated sole9ly through our performance of the commandments, which we received at Mount Sinai at Shavuot. Judaism conceived in any other terms has no value in his eyes. Yet the Torah gives us another holiday - Pesach, commemorating our redemption from Egypt based solely on our family identity as the progeny of the Patriarchs. Were not the Jews at the time of the Exodus almost indistinguishable from their Egyptian neighbors, sunken in forty-nine gates of impurity? Even so, God saved them amidst wonders and signs! Does this then mean that we should become "Pesach Jews" - seeing the special nature of the Jewish people solely in terms of our national identity, our Israeli birthright, without regard to keeping the Torah? The Torah rejects this extreme too. God did save us from Egypt despite our lowly spiritual status, but only on the condition that we immediately start counting the days, looking forwards towards the ideal status of the Jewish people achieved when we accepted the Torah.
Rabbi Asher Meir is in the process of writing a monumental companion to Kitzur Shulchan Aruch which beautifully presents the meanings in our mitzvot and halacha. Rabbi Meir - who had given a series on Business Halacha at the Center, and has taught a series on the Meaning in Mitzvot. We hope to have him back at the Center some time in the future.
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