Ari Levisohn: Welcome to Into the Verse, where we share new and unexpected insights about the parsha … diving deep into the verses to uncover the Torah’s own commentary on itself. This is Ari Levisohn.

Here we are in the middle of Sefirah, the time on the calendar when we count the days and weeks of the Omer. Day in and day out we keep mentioning this “Omer.” What is it, and why do we have to keep reminding ourselves about it? Alright, the “what” is an easy question – it refers to the Korban Omer, the Omer offering brought on the second day of Passover. But it’s the “why” that’s really bothering me – why is the Omer so important that we pause every single night to count how long it’s been since the day it would have been brought? And mind you we haven’t brought the Omer in the Temple for nearly 2000 years. What’s the big deal about this Omer, and why are we still so obsessed with it today? 

Well lucky for us, this week’s parsha actually talks about the Omer, so Rabbi Fohrman and Rivky Stern sat down to figure out just what is so important about this “Omer,” and they started by playing one of our favorite games here at Aleph Beta. Let’s listen in. 

Rivky Stern:. Emor contains Parashat Hamo'adim, the section which kind of runs through all of the holidays pretty quickly.

Rabbi David Fohrman: In the middle of that section, it has something which seems decidedly unholiday-like, and that's what I want to talk with you about today. We've got all the holidays we know and love. We've got Shabbat, we've got Pesach, we've got Shavuos, we've got Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkos. But, right there, if we play one of our favorite games, “Which one of the things is not like the other?” Rivky, what do we have right, slam, bang in the middle of this that just doesn't seem much like a holiday at all?

Rivky: I actually think this is a particularly apt time to be talking about it. We have the Omer offering that we bring right between Pesach and Shavuot.

Rabbi Fohrman: Exactly. We've got this Omer offering ceremony. We actually bring it on the day after the first day of Pesach.

Rivky: Mimacharat HaShabbat [on the morrow of the Sabbath].

Rabbi Fohrman: Mimacharat HaShabbat. You know, the whole Omer situation is a little bit odd. What is this doing in the middle of Parashat Hamo'adim? It's a regular offering. It should belong with the other offerings, and somehow, we get a whole bunch of verses devoted to this. And I want to talk with you about what it's doing here in this holiday section and exactly how it is that we understand it.

Now, this is a topic which we actually talked about in one of our really fantastic holiday courses. Well, we think it's fantastic. I'm allowed to say that. I have a personal affinity for this course. 

Ari: Rabbi Fohrman is talking about a course entitled “Why do we celebrate Shavuot?” The link is in the description. When you’re done with this episode, go check it out.

Rabbi Fohrman: I want to touch on some points which we began to sort of tease in that holiday course on Shavuot but didn't really get to, sort of, explore the tendrils all that much. So let me just jump in with you without any further ado. What I want to show you, Rivky, today, is that we've got a classic case of an intertextual triangle here going on.

Rivky: Whoa!

Rabbi Fohrman: I know, that sounds really scary and kind of intimidating. But let me ask you, Rivky, what could I possibly mean thinking about an intertextual triangle?

What Is an Intertextual Triangle?

Rivky: Well, we have something called intertextual parallels, which is where you have two different texts, and there seems to be a bunch of both thematic and linguistic parallels between those two texts. Those parallels kind of shed light not only on the second story that recalls us back to the first story, but sometimes also, when we go back to that first story, we can begin to think of it a little bit differently because of its parallels with the second story.

What seems pretty interesting about the idea of triangle is that now I think we're going to have three different stories, three different texts that the Torah is trying to tell us, Hey, when you look at this one, you have to look at it in the context of these other two, and they're all going to be shedding light on one another… I'm excited, but I'm nervous, Rabbi Fohrman. It seems like there's going to be a lot happening here.

Rabbi Fohrman: Exactly, there's a lot happening for one little modest podcast, but that's exactly what we're going to try to do. We're going to look at an intertextual triangle which is a trio of texts that seem to be intertextually related, where, as, Rivky, you so eloquently said, they all shed light on each other in a stereo kind of way. And center stage in that triangle is this Omer text, which seems so out of place here in the holiday section.

The Magical Laws of the Omer

Ari: Before we jump into that triangle, I just wanted to provide a little bit of background that Rabbi Fohrman will be building on. The verses in Leviticus 23 tell us about the laws of the Korban Omer – the Omer offering - what to bring, when to bring it, how to bring it, and all that. But they also tell us another set of important laws – the laws of what we call “chadash” and “yashan” – the new grain and old grain. Old grain, yashan, doesn’t mean that it’s stale and moldy. It refers to grains that took root before the second day of Passover, when the Omer offering was brought. New grain, or chadash, refers to grain that hasn’t been planted or hasn’t taken root by then.

So, here’s what we need to know…the Omer offering wasn’t just a regular old offering, it actually had a significant halachic function. It’s matir chadash - that means it permits you to eat from the new harvest of grains. Until the Omer offering is brought, it’s forbidden to eat from any grain that took root after the previous 16th of Nissan, that is the second day of Passover. It’s the Omer offering that magically transforms that new grain into old grain, and voila now you’re allowed to eat it. Let’s re-join Rabbi Fohrman who is just as puzzled as I am about this law and what it’s doing here. 

Rabbi Fohrman: When we look at this Omer text, the question is it just seems like a sort of magical hodgepodge of laws. There's this random law having to do with this Omer offering that once you bring it from the barley, it's going to allow you to eat this new grain. It just seems like – is there any logic behind it? So I think if we trace this intertextual triangle, we'll get a sense of the logic.

So I'm going to give you two or three aspects of Leviticus 23, and we're going to play a little game – one of our favorite games over here in Aleph Beta Land, “Where have we heard all this before?” We'll see if we can add up these different aspects of Omer, and you tell me if there's another parsha in the Torah, another section of Torah that this seems to remind you of.

Where Have We Heard All This Before?

So here we are… where have we heard all this before?.... The first thing is the Omer. The Omer is this unusual term. It's a measurement of grain, probably about as much grain as, like, a single-serve portion for a regular human being. It says over here in Leviticus 23, verse 10, when you come into the land that I'm going to give you, וּקְצַרְתֶּם אֶת־קְצִירָהּ – and when you harvest the grain, וַהֲבֵאתֶם אֶת־עֹמֶר – you should bring an Omer, this amount of grain, רֵאשִׁית קְצִירְכֶם אֶל־הַכֹּהֵן – you bring the beginning of your harvest to the kohen. So element number one is going to be just the designation “Omer” which is a very rare designation. So, where is the other time we have an Omer?

Just as a hint, the other time we have “Omer” in the Torah comes along with the very next idea we have in this Omer offering, which is the idea of the Sabbath, and specifically “tomorrow” associated with the Sabbath. Over here, you bring this Omer offering on the morrow of the Sabbath. Look at the very next verse, 23:11. וְהֵנִיף אֶת־הָעֹמֶר – the kohen waves this offering, the Omer offering, לִפְנֵי יְקוָה לִרְצֹנְכֶם – to be pleasing, מִמׇּחֳרַת הַשַּׁבָּת יְנִיפֶנּוּ הַכֹּהֵן – Of course, what this means over here is the word “Shabbat” in this context seems to refer to the first day of Passover. It's a very roundabout way of referring to the first day of Passover. The question is, where else do we have the word “Omer” mentioned in the Torah where Sabbath is also an issue, and particularly tomorrows associated with Sabbath? So that is going to be element number two.

Element number three will actually take us to the culmination of the Omer process. Because what happens when you bring this Omer is you're going to start counting, and the Omer is going to culminate, or the counting of the Omer, is going to culminate in the next holiday, which is Shavuot, where we bring two loaves of bread. But we bring two loaves of bread – לֶחֶם תְּנוּפָה שְׁתַּיִם (Leviticus 23:17). So where else do you have the notion of two loaves of bread? 

So, Rivky, I'm going to give you those three things together. Just to review element number one is Omer. Element number two is the morrow of Sabbath – that's Sabbath and morrow. Element number three is two loaves of bread. Where is the only other time you ever have all of these elements coming together in the Torah?

Where Else Do We See the Omer?

Rivky: Okay. So because I, you know, I’ve spent enough time with you that I actually, I would never know this on my own, but I actually do know this answer. Right after we left Mitzrayim [Egypt], the first set of laws that God really gave to us was about the manna. God commanded that we should be eating manna, and the measurement given to us for the manna was עֹמֶר לַגֻּלְגֹּלֶת – that it was going to be an Omer per person (Exodus 16:16). 

Then, of course, we have the laws of what happens on Shabbat. On Shabbat, we're not going to be gathering in manna, but instead, the day before the Sabbath, we're going to be given a double portion, which, of course, is reminiscent both of this idea of מִמׇּחֳרַת הַשַּׁבָּת [the day after Shabbat], and it's reminiscent of לֶחֶם תְּנוּפָה שְׁתַּיִם [two loaves of bread], that it's going to be this double portion of the manna/Omer.

Rabbi Fohrman: Okay. Good. Rivky is exactly right. The only other time you have this, the only other time you have Omer, is with the manna. The Omer was the amount of single-serve portion that everyone would get for the manna. You were supposed to just gather that. You weren't supposed to hog it and gather more.

By the way, Rivky, if you think about the notion of no hogging with the manna, if you go back into the Omer, isn't it interesting? Look at the laws that come right after the Omer. What does that remind you of with no hogging?

Rivky: Right. The laws right after the Omer, also seemingly completely random in these laws that relate to holidays, are the laws of Peah and Leket. They're agricultural laws about sharing your field with people who have less than you. People who don't have their own fields, you should leave a corner for them. You should make sure that when things fall, you leave it for them. You should leave it for the ani (poor) and the ger (convert), for people who aren't as fortunate as you are. In the same way, in the manna, you're not supposed to be greedy. You're not supposed to overtake, and if you do try to overtake, God doesn't even let you, doesn't give you that option.

Rabbi Fohrman: In a sense, though, what happens if you try and over take with the manna?

Rivky: It gets destroyed.

Rabbi Fohrman: Magically. If you would collect more than the Omer – if you actually look at the story of the manna – I'll take you now into Exodus 16, verse 16 and 17. So it says, זֶה הַדָּבָר אֲשֶׁר צִוָּה יְקוָה – this is what God commands, לִקְטוּ מִמֶּנּוּ אִישׁ לְפִי אׇכְלוֹ – you should gather just what you need to eat, עֹמֶר לַגֻּלְגֹּלֶת – an Omer per head. And then it says, וַיַּעֲשׂוּ־כֵן בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וַיִּלְקְטוּ הַמַּרְבֶּה וְהַמַּמְעִיט – and then everyone went collecting, and some people collected more than an Omer, and some people collected less. Guess what happened? וַיָּמֹדּוּ בָעֹמֶר – they then went home, and they measured it against their Omer measurements, וְלֹא הֶעְדִּיף הַמַּרְבֶּה וְהַמַּמְעִיט – it didn't matter how much you collected. If you collected more, you came home and you weighed it, it was exactly an Omer. If you collected less, you came home and you weighed it, it was exactly an Omer. God took care of us and actually made sure that everybody had enough to eat.

Isn't it fascinating, as you just pointed out, that immediately after the laws that sort of echo the manna, this Omer offering, we have a similar kind of argument that God is making to us – that when we go into the land, we have to be careful on our fields to make sure that everybody has enough to eat? By the way, Rivky, it's the same language. Look at the verb.

Rivky: Yeah. So it says (Leviticus 23:22), וְלֶקֶט קְצִירְךָ לֹא תְלַקֵּט [you should not collect the dropped stalks in your harvest], and if you go back to the manna, it says, לִקְטוּ מִמֶּנּוּ [collect from it] and then it says, וַיִּלְקְטוּ הַמַּרְבֶּה [those who collected a lot] (Exodus 16:16-17). It's clearly the same sort of idea. It's interesting not just linguistically but thematically. No one leaving over produce on the field is going to starve. They have enough. Maybe you want a little more, but you have plenty. The same thing – God is saying with the manna, אִישׁ לְפִי־אׇכְלוֹ לָקָטוּ – everyone will have enough for what they actually need (Exodus 16:18).

Rabbi Fohrman: So it really feels like, if you just look at this intertextual connection, that if you had to sum it up, the Omer offering seems to be connected to the manna, almost seems to be a way of remembering the manna.

Understanding the Omer’s Place in Parshat HaMo’adim

And now we might understand what it's doing in this holiday section. It just so happens that it's right between Passover and Shavuot. If you think about where this comes from, if what's happening is that this a law that's based upon our experience of the manna, well, when did we get the manna?

Rivky: Right, the manna is after the exodus itself, and it's before we received the laws on Sinai which is what we associated with Shavuot. It's interesting also,  מִמׇּחֳרַת הַשַּׁבָּת, which is the day after Passover, the day after the first day of Passover and also the manna is right after the exodus.

Rabbi Fohrman: Yes. So it's the food that we got to eat after we used up our matzah, so to speak. So you eat your matzah and then the next day, bang, you got this Omer offering, which is reminding you of the manna. So it just fits in chronologically. 

The Other Side of the Triangle

Okay. So now for the triangle, there's another section which seems to be intertextually connected to both of these. I want to take you, Rivky, into the Book of Joshua.

Rivky: Wow! We don't spend so much time there. I'm excited.

Rabbi Fohrman: So if you can just open your handy-dandy Tanach to Joshua, chapter 5. I just want to look and see what happened as the people of Israel come into the land. So they come into the land. It turns out that for the 40 years in the desert, there hasn't really been the opportunity for new babies being born – people to circumcise themselves. So what happens is that everyone circumcises themselves as they're coming into the land, and it seems to be Passover time of year.

So let's read chapter 5, verse 8: וַיְהִי כַּאֲשֶׁר־תַּמּוּ כׇל־הַגּוֹי לְהִמּוֹל וַיֵּשְׁבוּ תַחְתָּם בַּמַּחֲנֶה עַד חֲיוֹתָם – so they go, and they all are recovering from this circumcision operation. At that point, God says to Joshua, הַיּוֹם גַּלּוֹתִי אֶת־חֶרְפַּת מִצְרַיִם מֵעֲלֵיכֶם – today I have taken off from you the disgrace of Mitzrayim from upon you (Joshua 5:9). The idea is, now you've raised yourself up from the Egyptians. You've entered into the covenant. You've left behind Egypt for good. וַיִּקְרָא שֵׁם הַמָּקוֹם הַהוּא גִּלְגָּל עַד הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה – and they called the place Gilgal, a play off of גַּלּוֹתִי אֶת־חֶרְפַּת מִצְרַיִם [I have taken off the disgrace of Egypt]. וַיַּחֲנוּ בְנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל בַּגִּלְגָּל – and they then went and encamped in Gilgal (Joshua 5:9-10).

And now, Rivky, to play our little intertextual game… if we think about our other two pieces of the triangle here, the manna and the Omer, is there anything in either of them that reminds you, just a hair, of this place named Gilgal?

Rivky: Yes. So I don't see the connection explicitly with Omer, with the story in our parsha, but I do see a connection between the manna, because the manna is called עֹמֶר לַגֻּלְגֹּלֶת [an Omer per head].

Rabbi Fohrman: Yes. Also, Rivky, from your perusal of Biblical Hebrew, that Gimmel-Lamed, Gimmel-Lamed thing – that's not, like, an everyday occurrence.. It's not a common word. But over here, it seems to have this very strong echo in this place named Gilgal. 

Okay. So let's continue. So here they are in Gilgal, and what do they do, Rivky? וַיַּעֲשׂוּ אֶת־הַפֶּסַח [they did the Pesach offering] (Joshua 5:10).

Rivky: הַפֶּסַח [the Passover offering]. So we have that holiday connection.

Rabbi Fohrman: Look what time of year it is. We've got that holiday connection. So it's that first day of Pesach, which means what's going to be the next day, Rivky?

Rivky: מִמׇּחֳרַת הַשַּׁבָּת [the day after “Shabbat”]. מִמׇּחֳרַת הַפֶּסַח [the day of the Passover offering].

Rabbi Fohrman: That's going to be the next day. So, anyway, they do the Pesach [offering]  on the 14th day of the chodesh [month], בְּעַרְבוֹת יְרִיחוֹ – right on the outskirts of Jericho. Now, look what happens. וַיֹּאכְלוּ מֵעֲבוּר הָאָרֶץ –  they now eat for the very first time from produce from the Land of Israel (Joshua 5:10-11).

Rivky: Because they're not allowed to do it until after the Omer.

The Very First Chadash

Rabbi Fohrman: Look at the next words. וַיֹּאכְלוּ מֵעֲבוּר הָאָרֶץ מִמׇּחֳרַת הַפֶּסַח – on the next day, the day after Pesach, they're eating, Rivky, the very first chadash, the very first new grain. It's not just this year's new grain, it's the new grain in history. It's the first time they've ever tasted the grain of the Land of Israel.

Look at the next words. מַצּוֹת וְקָלוּי בְּעֶצֶם הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה – they eat it, matzah, and they eat kaluy, which means roasted grain, on that very day. Rivky, where else do you have those words, מַצּוֹת וְקָלוּי בְּעֶצֶם הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה?

Rivky: In our parsha, in Emor (Leviticus 23:14), we are told, וְלֶחֶם וְקָלִי – it's lechecm [bread] and not matzah, but that word קָלִי (kali) [roasted grain] is there as well, that you are not allowed to eat lechem and kaluy and here (Joshua 5:11), מִמׇּחֳרַת הַפֶּסַח [on the day after the Passover offering], they are eating matzot and kaluy.

Rabbi Fohrman: Exactly. Specifically, if you go back to this week's parsha, Emor, in Vayikra 23, you're going to hear what the Omer says is that you can't eat the new grain until that day, but the new grain, the words for the new grain are sort of evocative. וְלֶחֶם וְקָלִי וְכַרְמֶל לֹא תֹאכְלוּ –  you can't eat bread and you can't eat roasted grain, עַד־עֶצֶם הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה – until that very day. That was Leviticus 23.

Fast-forward into Joshua. What are the Israelites doing? They're eating from the grain of the land, מִמׇּחֳרַת הַפֶּסַח – on the day after Passover, that Omer-sounding day, מַצּוֹת וְקָלוּי – of course, it's Passover, so they're eating matzah and not bread, and they're eating that roasted grain, בְּעֶצֶם הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה – on that very day. They're tasting the very first fruits of the land. Look at the next verse, Rivky, verse 12 in Joshua 5.

Rivky: וַיִּשְׁבֹּת הַמָּן מִמׇּחֳרָת בְּאׇכְלָם מֵעֲבוּר הָאָרֶץ – it's that Shabbat language, מִמׇּחֳרָת [on the day after] again.

Rabbi Fohrman: There's that Sabbath language with the manna. The manna finally rested. The manna, which is how we learned about rest in the first place. The very beginning of Shabbat for us came when we understood that on Friday you took a double portion, and on the Sabbath, there wasn't going to be any more manna. Now the manna rested, and it rested forever. We never saw manna again, because now we had food from the land.

Making Meaning Out of Our Triangle

And so what happens, Rivky, is that you see the beautiful intertextual triangle here. You have Leviticus 23, which is telling you about Omer, and the Omer, in Leviticus 23, is reminding you of something in Exodus and foreshadowing something in Joshua. It's reminding you of the manna, and it's foreshadowing the moment that we will come into the land and we will taste from the very first fruits of the land.

Rivky: Let me just clarify this for myself for one second. What happens when the Omer is matir chadash, the Omer lets us suddenly eat this new food, that, in Joshua – 40 years later, when Joshua is actually entering the land with the people of Israel – that is the first time that we actually implement this. We actually eat this new grain, the first of the new grain of Israel.

Rabbi Fohrman: Exactly. I think what you're struggling with is, okay, so what does it all mean?

Rivky: Right, that's exactly where I'm at.

Rabbi Fohrman: What it sort of all means is that the Torah – so to speak, God, looking into the future – says, look, I know I'm going to bring you into the land. I know I'm going to give you this new grain. When I do, the manna is going to stop. But when the manna stops, it can't be forgotten. What is it that's matir chadash – this new grain? It's not that you snap your fingers, and you do some voodoo magic, and now you can eat the new grain. You've got to remember something to eat the new grain. You have to remember how I took care of you for 40 years. You have to understand that in the land, even though you're doing the planting, I'm doing the rain, and I'm giving you the land, and this grain is coming from Me, and I'm still taking care of you.

Therefore, the same way that I took care of you the first time, and when I took care of you, since I was giving you the food, God says, it was subject to the way I do things, which is, take care of the poor and make sure there's enough for everybody. So, you have to understand in the land, you're not the one in charge. You're not the one who makes this whole thing, and it's all capital that you've created, there to dispose of as you see fit, and the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer, and who cares about everybody. No, it's still coming from Me, which means you still take care of the poor, which is why, in the Omer laws…immediately after that, you hear about the laws of taking care of the poor: וְלֶקֶט קְצִירְךָ לֹא תְלַקֵּט – you got to leave some over for them on the fields (Leviticus 23:22), the same way I did it in the manna.

What allows you to eat the new grain is the memory of the manna. If you can't remember the time when I fed you and the idea that, as you go into the land, it's just a seamless extension of that when I'm taking care of you through the land – if you can't remember that – then you don't have a right to eat of the land.

Rivky: Rabbi Fohrman, I think that's a really, really beautiful idea. It's very easy for people, once they are in charge of providing for themselves, once they are planting their own crops, and making their own bread, to look at the bread that sits on their table and say, I made that. I did that. Look what I've created. The same way, it's easy for us today to go into a grocery store, buy some food, put it on a stove, make some elaborate meal, and say, Wow, look what I did. Let me put it on Instagram for everyone to admire my skills.

It's very easy, at that point, to forget about God…to say, Yeah, God provided for us in the midbar [desert], and that was awesome. He gave us that manna, and that was so thoughtful. But now, I do it. I think what you seem to be saying, Rabbi Fohrman, is that God is giving us this little nudge of…you're forgetting something, you forget that I'm still involved. You're forgetting that now…you're right, you're doing a little more. You had done nothing, and now you're doing something, but you're not doing it alone. We're a partnership, and if you're not remembering that we're a partnership, that's how you can say, Why would I give to that guy? That guy didn't work any land. Why would I give to him? I'm the one who worked my land. Why should I share? No, God says, you got stuff because I helped you. You have a responsibility to help everyone else now. I think that's a really beautiful message, Rabbi Fohrman.

Rabbi Fohrman: It's kind of the basis, I think, of regulation of unfettered capitalism. In other words, the logic behind the sort of Ayn Randian unfettered capitalism with no regulation whatsoever is, it's all mine. I did this all. Therefore, it's a level playing field, and I'm sorry if there's not enough for the other people, but on what moral grounds can you take away and redistribute wealth? Therefore, government involvement, so to speak, is prima facie illegitimate.

What God is doing is countering that and saying “No.” This is a capitalistic system, but it's regulated capitalism. There is a moral obligation to take care of the poor because I, God, retain a stake in this. I fed you the manna, and I'm feeding you from the land, and you're partners with me. It's not just something you're doing by yourself. And if we're a partnership, God says, then I set some of these rules too.

The same values that animated the manna… you make sure there's enough for everybody. Those are godly values. It says look, you know, I'm not coming to you from nowhere when I give you those values. I'm coming to you because I'm a stakeholder along with you, and that's what’s important to me.

Rivky: Rabbi Fohrman, that's really beautiful.

Ari: All of the holidays have lessons they are trying to teach. Once a year they provide a booster shot of sorts, to remind us of those lessons so we can carry them with us for the rest of the year. But there is something about the Omer and the lesson that it teaches that’s different. The challenge of seeing God’s partnership in our own work is so difficult that one day, or even a full week, wouldn’t be enough. It’s just one of the most basic human instincts to want to feel independent and in control. And life bombards us with evidence that the harder we work the more we get. So it’s no wonder that the Torah has to provide us a regiment of 49 days to make this point stick, to help us realize where our bread truly comes from. Each day, when we count Sefirah, we remind ourselves of the Omer, and we remind ourselves that the God who provided us manna in the wilderness is the same God who provides for us today.

Credits

This episode was recorded by Rabbi David Fohrman together with Rivky Stern.

When this episode originally aired on Aleph Beta, it was edited by Rivky Stern. 

Into the Verse editing was done by Evan Weiner.

Audio editing for this episode was done by Shifra Jacobs.

Additional audio editing was done by Hillary Guttman.

Our senior editor is, me, Ari Levisohn. 

Thank you so much for listening, and we’ll see you next week.