intended to increase the knowledge, interest, and anticipation of the reader, thereby hastening the realization of our hopes and prayers for the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the Beit HaMikdash.

Welcome Sweet Springtime! (part 1)
Springtime was a busy period in the Beit Hamikdash. Between the multi-Mitzvot Pesach festivities celebrated by the myriads of Olei Regel in Jerusalem, and the advent of the harvest season climaxed by Shavu'ot, another pilgrimage festival, there was an abundance of colorful Avodot in the Mikdash. Before the 15th of Nisan, all circumcised Israelite males above the age of 13 and females above the age of 12 were required to join a Chavura - a "pre-registered company" of people united to offer and eat the Korban Pesach as a group. Every participant had to eat a minimum of one Kazayit of the meat accompanied by Matza and Maror (Shemot 12:8). (Today, eating Maror in the absence of the Korban Pesach is D'Rabbanan, an enactment of the Sages.) In addition, the Olei Regel observed two other Mitzvot D'oraita (as we do today): Magid and Achilat Matza. Magid - They discussed in depth the story of Yetziat Mitzrayim - the Exodus from Egypt (Shemot 13:3). "And whoever enlarges on the tale of the exodus from Egypt, that one merits praise." Achilat Matza - the eating of a Kazayit (olive's bulk) of Matza (Shemot 12:18). When the members of the Chavura were eating the meat of the Korban Pesach, they had to be careful not to break a bone that had a Kazayit of meat still on it. To minimize that possibility, if there were many people in the Chavura, and the meat of one small lamb would not satiate them, the Sages ruled that the members of the Chavura should bring another Korban. This special festival sacrifice was called Chagigat Arbaa Asar. No one should be so hungry, that, in their haste to eat, they would inadvertently break a bone of the Korban Pesach. Chagigat Arbaa Asar was not brought on Shabbat. Remnants were burnt on the morning of the first day of Chol Hamo'ed.

"And you shall count unto you Mi'macharat HaShabbat - from after the Sabbath - the day of rest - from the day when you bring the sheaf of the waving (Omer HaTenufa); seven weeks, they shall be complete. Until the morrow of the seventh week you shall number fifty days…" (Vayikra 23:15,16). The cutting of the grain - "the day after the Shabbat" - needed for the Omer meal-offering inaugurated the seven-week period of Sefirat HaOmer - the "counting of the Omer". Beginning on the second day of Pesach, the counting culminated on the fiftieth day with the Festival of Shavu'ot. The date of Shavu'ot was dependent on when the Omer was cut and offered in the Beit HaMikdash. The Omer offering was by tradition not a sheaf but rather an Omer's measure of early ripened barley (Note Rashi on Vayikrah 23:10). As soon as the Kohanim finished offering the Omer in the Beit HaMikdash on the second day of Pesach, the people in Jerusalem were permitted to eat Chadash - the year's newly ripened grain. Elsewhere in Eretz Yisrael, Chadash could be eaten only after the noon of the second day of Pesach, the 16th of Nisan. By then, they could be certain that the Omer in the Mikdash had already been offered. After the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash, R. Yohanan Ben Zakkai ordained that Chadash could not be eaten during the entire 16th of Nisan. Chazal considered the Omer offering of supreme importance. The Omer was conceived as Israel's "repayment" for G-d's bounty in providing Manna for the generation of the wilderness after the Exodus from Egypt, when every Israelite gathered an Omer - a measure - of Manna. Chazal taught that because of the merit of the Omer offering, G-d promised Eretz Yisrael to Avraham Avinu, delivered Am Yisrael in the days of Gideon, Chezkiyahu HaMelech and in the days of Mordecai and Esther.

It is written in the Torah, "…Until the morrow of the seventh week shall you count, fifty days; and you shall offer a Mincha Chadasha - a new meal offering before G-d. From your dwelling places, you shall bring bread that shall be waved, two loaves… they shall be fine Solet flour, they shall be baked Chameitz, leavened, first offerings to G-d" (Vayikra 23:16,17). The Mishna comments, "The Omer, the barley offering brought on the 16th of Nisan, permitted Chadash, the new produce, to be eaten throughout the land; the Shtei HaLechem - the "Two Loaves" brought fifty days later on Shavu'ot - rendered Chadash permissible in the Mikdash" (Menachot 68b).

When the Omer, which was barley, was offered in the Beit HaMikdash, the grain from the new harvest - barley, wheat, spelt, oats, and rye - was permitted to be eaten by K'lal Yisrael but still could not to be used for Menachot, meal offerings in the Mikdash. However, once the Shtei HaLechem, which was wheat, were brought into the Mikdash and "waved", Chadash wheat (and new wine and olive oil) could be used in the Beit HaMikdash as well. The Shtei Halechem were "kneaded and formed" outside of the Azara, but were baked, one at a time, in a special iron stove in the Azara. "The preparation of the Shtei HaLechem does not override Yom Tov and certainly not Shabbat. Instead they were baked before Yom Tov - i.e. Shavu'ot. And if Erev Yom Tov fell on a Shabbat, the Shtei HaLechem were baked before Shabbat…" and eaten on Shavu'ot (Rambam, Hilchot Temidin U'musafin 8). The Shtei HaLechem had another unique feature that differentiated them from other Menachot; they were Chameitz. Furthermore, Rashi postulates that the bakers placed dough on the four corners of each loaf, thereby shaping Keranot ("horns") that projected upward giving them a configuration reminiscent of the Mizbei'ach.

After the Korbanot Musaf of Shavu'ot were sacrificed, a Kohein took two lambs, the Kivsei Atzeret ("Shavu'ot Lambs"), and together with the Shtei HaLechem, did the first Tenufa - "waving". He lifted them forward and backward and upward and downward. 'Forward and backwards' - i.e. in all four directions - that is unto Him to Whom the four directions belong and to Him to Whom heaven and earth belong. The two lambs were then slaughtered and offered on the Mizbei'ach as Shalmei Tzibur, the only communal peace offerings sacrificed in the Beit HaMikdash during the entire year. Since the Kevsei Atzeret were congregational Korbanot, they had the status of Kodshei Kedoshim, sacrifices of a higher level of sanctity, and were therefore slaughtered north of the Mizbei'ach. After dismembering the lambs, a Kohein took the two chests (Chazeh) and the two right hind legs (Shok), placed them together with the Shtei HaLechem, lifted them up and performed a second Tenufa. Like all Shlamim, the Kivsei Atzeret were also accompanied by Nesachim, Solet mixed with olive oil to be burnt on the Mizbei'ach and wine for a libation. After the Zerikat HaDam, the blood application on the Mizbei'ach of the two Kivsei Atzeret, the Kohanim were permitted to eat of the Shtei HaLechem. Interestingly enough, no part of the Shtei HaLechem was burnt on the Mizbei'ach; all of it was eaten by the Kohanim. Similar to the Shtei HaLechem, the portions of the Kivsei Atzeret allocated to the Kohanim could be eaten only in the Azara by male Kohanim, in a state of Tahara - ritual purity - during the day of Shavu'ot until midnight. <to be continued>

Catriel is in the process of writing a book: The Temple of Jerusalem, A Pilgrims Prospective; A Guided Tour through the Temple and the Divine Service.

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