MiMachorat HaShabbat/2

MiMachorat HaShabbat

Exegetical Approaches

Shabbat Bereshit

Within Chag HaMatzot

Sources:Baytusim, Samaritans, Karaites - Daniel Alkumsi the Karaite,Solomon b. Yerucham the KaraiteSolomon b. Yerucham the Karaite, Milchamot Hashem Shaar 10, Yefet (commentary), Levi b,. Yefet, R. Aharon b. Yosef (Hamuvchar) Keter Torah, opponents in R. Saadia GaonSefer HaHavchanahAbout R. Saadia Gaon, Karaites in Kuzari3:41About R. Yehuda HaLevi

What must be within Chag MaMatzot?

• ממחרת השבת – According to the Karaites, the "day following the Shabbat" (rather than Shabbat itself) must fall within the week of Chag Hamatzot.  Thus, one could conceivably bring the Omer offering and start counting as early as the 15th of Nissan.¹
• השבת – The Samaritans, in contrast, maintain that the Shabbat itself (not the "day following the Shabbat") must fall within the holiday.  As such, one would never bring the Omer offering before the fifteenth, but depending on when Shabbat were to fal, one might bring it as late as the 22nd, after the conclusion of teh festival.

Shabbat – The understanding of Shabbat as the seventh day of the week would seem to be the simple meaning of the word as supported by multiple verses in Torah.  See, for example, Shemot 20:7,10, Shemot 31:14-15 and Devarim 5:12-15.²

Various mentions of Shabbat

Lack of date

Yehoshua

After Chag HaMatzot

After the First Harvest

Yom Shabbaton (Yom Tov)

A Day of Ceasement

Week

¹ This would happen any year in which the fourteenth of Nissan coincided with Shabbat.

² It should be noted, though, that in many of its appearances in Torah the word "" does not necessarily need to be understood as a proper noun, connoting the name of a day of teh week, but rather more simply as a day in which something ceased.