Shabbat Table Topics – Parashat Emor/0/en

Shabbat Table Topics – Parashat Emor

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Sectarian Debates

The date of the Omer offering has been a source of fiery debate between different sects of Judaism and assorted commentators from time immemorial. The Torah gives no calendrical date, instead declaring that it should be brought "מִמׇּחֳרַת הַשַּׁבָּת".  While the Samaritan, Karaite and Qumran sects all understand "הַשַּׁבָּת" to refer to the seventh day of the week (setting the offering on a Sunday), Rabbinic Judaism maintains that it refers to the first day of Chag HaMatzot (and the Omer is brought on the 16th of Nisan).

• What is motivating the Rabbinic position to read the word "Shabbat" in this manner?  Is this a  valid understanding of the word?  What other textual or theological issues might lead them to disagree with the Sectarian readings?
• According to the Sectarians, the Torah uniquely dates the Omer to a day of the week, leaving the day of the month flexible.¹ What, though, is so significant about a Sunday that Hashem would decide that the Omer Offering (and thus Shavuot) need to fall out on that day of the week?  In addition, a flexible dating of Shavuot serves to sever any connection between it and the date of Revelation, making it a purely agricultural holiday.
• I. Kislev somewhat uniquely understands the phrase "" to mean "the morrow of the cessation" suggesting that the Omer was originally brought on the day after the cessation of the Manna, and that the whole offering was meant to commemorate that event.

¹ The Qumran sect is exceptional. Since they have a 364 day calendar which is evenly divisible by seven, the Omer offering was always brought not only on a set day of the week, but also on a set date of the month, the 26th of Nisan.