![]() Many mitzvot pursue just one goal to sustain our awareness of hte past, and to protect our feeling of closeness to events that transpired long ago. History to the Jew is not just knowledge of the past it is reexperiencing, reliving the events that occurred a long time ago. The Jew not only knows history he lives history. The halachic approach to time is the experiential memory that reaches out for the future. Judaism requirers of the Jew that he experience time in its two dimensions simultaneously. What we call "present" is nothing but the vantage position for which we look either forward or backward. ![]() And what is "future?" Future is anticipation, expectation. The point of time we call "present" lies either in the past or in the future.What is "past?" It's retrospection, recollection. However, experientially the present can never be isolated and perceived as such. In grammar we operate with three tenses: past, present and future. Soloveitchik on Pesach, Sefirat ha-Omer and Shavu'ot Transcription of Rav Soloveitchik's speech delivered to the Chevrah Shas in Boston on from the book Rabbi Joseph B. ![]() With every day that passes, the farmer gives thanks to Hashem for having sustained and blessed him in the inheritance that was promised to his forefathers. Just as a bride is not satisfied with her engagement to her groom, but awaits their marriage, so too the farmer awaits the time when his grain will enter the House of God - symbolic of the close relationship between man his Maker. Furthermore, the barley offering permits the current year's grain to be eaten only outside of the Temple whereas the wheat offering permits it to be used in the Temple itself as part of the sacrificial service. A barley offering (korban omer) is brought in the Temple on the second day of Pesach, expressing our recognition that it is God who causes the rains to fall and the grain to grow, just as it is He who redeemed us from bondage.īarley is used primarily as animal fodder it is the superior wheat that will serve as food for him and his family. Thus, the two freedoms - agricultural and historical - go hand-in-hand. This new-found freedom commences on Pesach when the barley harvest begins, as beforehand one is not permitted to benefit from the current year's grain. The farmer is transformed from one who "sows in tears" to one who "reaps in joy." He is now master of his land and earns his daily bread from it. However, when the middle of Nissan comes, a dramatic change takes place. He must clear the fields of stones, plough, sow and water without seeing the fruits of his labor. Sukkot commemorates the wanderings of Israel in the wilderness and marks the season when the produce is gathered in from the fields.įor the six months from Sukkot until Pesach, the farmer is a slave to his land. ![]() Shavuot commemorates Matan Torah (the Giving of the Torah) and marks the beginning of the wheat harvest. Pesach commemorates Yetzi'at Mitzrayim (the Exodus) and marks the beginning of the barley harvest. "The Agricultural and Historical Significance of Sefirat HaOmer"-Ĭorrespondingly, each holiday has both a historical and an agricultural significance. (14) And ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor fresh ears, until this selfsame day, until ye have brought the offering of your God it is a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. (13) And the meal-offering thereof shall be two tenth parts of an ephah of fine flour mingled with oil, an offering made by fire unto the LORD for a sweet savour and the drink-offering thereof shall be of wine, the fourth part of a hin. (12) And in the day when ye wave the sheaf, ye shall offer a he-lamb without blemish of the first year for a burnt-offering unto the LORD. (11) And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it. (9) And the LORD spoke unto Moses saying: (10) Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them: When ye are come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring the sheaf of the first-fruits of your harvest unto the priest.
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