This week's parsha was the source of great controversy in the times of the Mikdash. While the Pharisees (keepers of the oral tradition) understood the mitzvah of Sefirat HaOmer as starting on the second day of Pesach, the Boethusians (Baitusim), who rejected the oral tradition, insisted that it starts on the Sunday which happens to coincide with Pesach.
Even though the Baitusim were mistaken, the Rav explains their thinking with three pieces of evidence:
1. The paragraph in this week's parsha which describes the mitzvah tells us to perform this mitzvah "when you harvest [the land's] grain." It does not link the mitzvah explicitly to Pesach. In fact, Pesach is not mentioned at all in that paragraph.
2. The phrase used is "mimachorat haShabbat" - literally, the day after Shabbos, which one could understandably interpret as referring to Sunday.
3. The command is to count seven "complete weeks" - perhaps a complete week means from Sunday to Shabbos.
While our mesorah has textual answers to all these proofs, the Rav felt that the Baitusim fundamentally misunderstood the Omer, Shavuot, and their connection to Pesach. Shavuot is not only an agricultural chag, as the Baitusim presented it. It is the final part of the redemptive process which began in Mitzrayim. We were not entirely redeemed until we received the Torah. While the first 3 leshonot geulah (vehotsaiti, vehitsalti, vegaalti) had been realized, the final one, velakachti - Hashem taking this nation as his own - did not happen until Matan Torah.
But, the Rav says, while Shavuot and Pesach are linked through the chain of the Omer, there is a difference. While on Sukkot and Pesach we celebrate the grand miraculous revelation of Hashem through His awesome manipulation of nature, Shavuot is our attempt to recognize and connect to Hashem in the course of our everyday lives. There are no big symbolic mitzvot of Shavuot, only limud Torah. On Shavuot we celebrate not the intense moments of inspiration and salvation, but the rest of the time. We need to create the connection with Hashem through our daily experiences, through tefillah, and through talmud Torah.
It is for this reason, says the Rav, that the Torah links Sefirat HaOmer and Shavuot to the agricultural cycle, to the natural units of weeks, and to the regular Shabbos - because the challenge and purpose of Shavuot is to build this organic connection to Hashem as we go through the days, weeks, and seasons of our regular lives. With the Sefirah we take it one day at a time, trying to rise to this challenge. And we ask ourselves as we approach Shavuot how we can find inspiration after the great miracles - mimachorat haShabbat - not on Shabbos but on Sunday, the day after.
Questions for the Shabbos table:
- What was your takeaway from the d'var Torah this morning?
- In what "unscripted" moments of your life do you find inspiration?
- What does it mean to only be redeemed once we have the Torah?
