Emor
דבר אל בני ישראל ואמרת אלהם כי תבאו אל הארץ אשר אני נתן לכם וקצרתם את קצירה והבאתם את עמר ראשית קצירכם אל הכהן (כג,) י
וספרתם לכם ממחרת השבת מיום הביאכם את עמר התנופה שבע שבתות תמימת תהיינה. עד ממחרת השבת השביעת תספרו חמשים יום והקרבתם מנחה חדשה לה'.ממושבתיכם תביאו לחם תנופה שתים שני עשרנים סלת
תהיינה חמץ תאפינה בכורים לה' (כג, טו-יז)
Speak to the Children of Israel and say to them, “When you will come to the land that I am giving to you, you shall harvest its harvest and bring the omer of the first of your harvest to the Kohen.”
“You shall count for yourselves from the morrow of the Shabbos, from the day of your bringing the omer of the waving-service; seven weeks – they shall be complete. Until the morrow of the seventh Shabbos shall you count – until fifty days, and you shall offer a new minchah-offering to Hashem. From your dwelling places shall you bring bread for a waving-service – two, of two esronim; they shall be of fine flour; they shall be unleavened, a first-produce offering unto Hashem.”
In these verses, the Torah describes three commandments: the Omer offering, to be tendered from the new crop of barley on the day following Pesach; the Shtei ha-Lechem offering, from the new crop of wheat on Shavuos; and to count the seven weeks, one day shy of fifty days, bridging the two events. As is our wont, we raise the question as to how these mitzvos are of practical relevance in our day and age.*
Let us take apart the verses in question. 1) אשר אני נתן לכם is superfluous – obviously the subject, the Land of Israel, is the territory being given to the Jews; 2) וקצרתם את קצירה seems non-sequitur – if it is already harvested, how does one harvest it? 3) Why specifically an omer measure of flour? 4) לכם, what does this add? 5)Why is the Omer dated from the morrow of the Shabbos and ממחרת השבת not accurately from the morrow of the holiday? 6) The same can be asked of 2?Why fifty days )8 ?תמימות Why the insistence on )7 ;השביעית
Let us also treat two verses in Shir ha-Shirim*** אפריון עשה לו המלך שלמה מעצי הלבנון. עמודיו עשה כסף
רפידתו זהב מרכבו ארגמן תוכו רצוף אהבה מבנות ירושלים The king Shlomo made a palanquin for himself .רפידתוv זהב מרכבו ארגמן תוכו רצוף אהבה מבנות ירושלים from wood of the Lebanon. He made its columns silver, its flooring gold, its curtains red wool; its interior was bedecked with love from the daughters of Jerusalem.
Let us refer to an exposition that I provided in Behar. It says there**** שש שנים תזרע שדך ושש שנים Six years shall you sow your ,תזמר כרמך ואספת את תבואתה. ובשנה השביעת שבת שבתון יהיה לארץ וגו' field and six years shall you prune your vineyard and you shall gather its produce. And in the seventh year, there shall be a complete cessation for the land.
I explained this in light of a well-known dispute***** between R. Yishmael and R. Shimon as to how one should balance – or not balance – one’s occupation and Torah study. According to R. Yishmael, we are bidden to conduct ourselves in the way of the world, cultivating agriculture and other forms of occupation so as to earn a livelihood, while incorporating Torah study into our routine. R. Shimon demurs – such a lifestyle provides precious little time for Torah; rather one should be solely focused on his studies, and his sustenance will somehow be provided for him.
It would seem that this dispute parallels another between Shammai and Hillel as to how one ought best prepare for Shabbos.****** The former would purchase an item for Shabbos; if he later encountered a superior one, he purchased it and consumed the original item during the week. This process would continue throughout the week, and thus Shammai “ate all week in preparation for Shabbos,” so to speak. Hillel, in contrast, also purchased an item for Shabbos – but stopped there.
Shammai’s philosophy seems to parallel that of R. Shimon: both validate life if and when it is spent focused on the ultimate spiritual goal, whether Shabbos at the conclusion of the week or Olam ha-Ba at the end of one’s life. Peripheral, mundane activity is time better spent. Hillel and R. Yishmael saw things differently. They validated the everyday activity, the engagement with the secular world as part and parcel of the holistic religious lifestyle. As such, lunch on Tuesday for Hillel could be just that – lunch on Tuesday; it need not masquerade as a Seudas Shabbos to achieve meaning. And a day’s work for R. Yishmael could be just that – a day at the office; it need not be spent in the beis midrash to achieve meaning. So long as the mundane services the ultimate goal of spiritual advancement, it too has its place.
Thus, the above verse from Behar can be read in accordance with both of these approaches. According to Shammai, שש שנים תזרע שדך, you shall preoccupy yourself with toiling for your lot, that is, your lot in the World to Come, ובשנה השביעת שבת שבתון יהיה לארץ, so that at the end of that “week” you can enjoy your spiritual repose. According to Hillel, the verse can be taken in its straightforward sense, as R. Yishmael would take it: that the land should literally be labored upon, providing that it facilitates a spiritual engagement in the seventh year.
The common denominator is that this world is a preparation for the next. How does one go about this preparation?
One way is to fashion a “garment” composed of one’s life’s accomplishments, the garment that will accompany him to the Next World. (As the verse says, מדת ימי מה היא, what is the measure of my days?******* which can be taken as “the garment of my days.”) This entails making the most of each day. Each one that goes by untapped for personal growth – or worse, is sullied with sin – creates an imperfection in one’s garment. Being that one’s primary period of activity is from the age of twenty (when one is susceptible to heavenly judgement) to seventy (the mean lifespan), the material of one’s garment consists of fifty years of fabric.
The nature of this garment varies – and, proportionately, how far it will take you. Some spin it out of a lifetime of mitzvah performance and Torah study on their most superficial level. This will get them access to a baseline paradise, one relatively closer to this world. Another produces a superior product, composed of a more profound spiritual understanding. It is his ticket to the more exclusive parlors of spiritual bliss. Some go so far as to fashion a crown from yichudim, mystical intentions that accompany one’s avodas Hashem – this will gain them entry to the august company of “the righteous sitting with crowns upon their heads.”******** At the other end, there are those who produce no garment whatsoever, or worse, create a filthy, unbecoming one through their misdeeds.
Along these lines, of relevance is the analogy of a king who lost a precious stone in a yard. In order to encourage people to search the area, he scattered coins throughout it.********* How did people react? Each in accordance with his level of intelligence. A child searched until he found a copper coin, and was content with that. A young man continued searching until he uncovered a silver coin. An adult continued until he came upon a gold coin. The wise man, however, persisted until he located the precious gem – the cause of the search in the first place.
Similarly, the destiny of our world depends upon the elevation of sparks of holiness strewn throughout it. The Jewish People were tasked with this challenge – through the study of Torah and the performance of mitzvos. Here too, all Torah and mitzvos are not created equal. While the study of the more exoteric layers of the Torah – Peshat, Remez, and Derush – is valuable, focusing on them to the exclusion of Sod, the mystical dimension, is akin to collecting coins while ignoring the precious gem. However, before one is able to reach that point he must secure himself in his this-worldly existence, as advocated by Hillel and R. Yishmael.
This may be the meaning of the aforementioned verse in Shir ha-Shirim. Man’s palanquin may be bedecked with gold and silver and expensive fabrics – there is a great deal to accrue in one’s lifetime – but the primary objective is the תוכו רצוף אהבה, the engagement with the inner, mystical soul of the Torah, through which one clings lovingly to his Creator.
Let us return to our sidra. כי תבואו אל הארץ אשר אני נותן לכם, that which is truly yours is the Land, ,וקצרתם את קצירה .i.e., the World to Come, for one’s share there, once earned, is inviolable harvesting is used in the Zohar as a metaphor for Torah study. When one arrives in the afterlife, he no longer has the opportunity to study afresh, only that which he learned in his mortal lifetime. Hence, you shall harvest its harvest. And, והבאתם את עמר ראשית קצירכם אל הכהן, while there are many gradations of Torah, the ראשית, the most lucrative, is to present to the heavenly Kohen the עמ"ר, which has the same numerical value as ש"י עולמות, the 310 worlds that the tzaddik earns – alluding to the Sod that he studied. Hence, it is also the equivalent of יק"ר, as in if you extract the precious from the debased,********** as the study of Sod is the ,אם תוציא יקר מזולל ultimate extraction of the sparks of holiness from within the garbage heaps of our world.
Then ,וספרתם לכם .וספרתם לכם ממחרת השבת מיום הביאכם את עמר התנופה שבע שבתות תמימת תהיינה engage in life productively for your sake, for your ultimate benefit, ממחרת השבת, immediately upon arriving in this world from Heaven, which is known as Shabbos. תספרו חמשים יום, When? During the fifty primary years of one’s life, which should be שבע שבתות תמימות, seven complete weeks, with no day gone to waste. By doing, והניף, one raises up, elevates ראשית קצירכם, his youth as well, when he was not as focused on his ultimate goal.
How long should this go on for? תספרו חמשים until the very end, so that יום תספרו חמשים not one day is lost, allowing for a whole garment.
How does one go about this? By converting one’s baser instincts – chief amongst them חמץ ושאור pride and false modesty – into tools for holiness. Hence על שתי לחם חמץ one’s journey to perfection is the offering of one’s elevated ego.
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* [Although the counting of the seven weeks is practiced today, according to most authorities it is only a rabbinic remembrance of the biblical commandment to connect the actual offerings.] ** [Another question that will be addressed is why the Shtei ha-Lechem is made of chametz.] .*** 3:9-10 3
**** Vayikra 25:3-4.
***** Berachos 35b. ****** Beitzah 16a. ******* Tehillim 39:5.
******** Berachos 17a.
********* Precedent to this is the legend of Suleiman the Magnificent doing as such in the waste heap that covered Har ha- Bayis as a means of clearing it; see Eileh Masei of Rav Moshe Hagiz (Jerusalem, 1959), p. 19. ********** Yirmiyah 15:19.