[Avodah] sefirah perushim and zadukim

[Zev Sero]

rabbirichwolpoe at gmail.com wrote:
> Eli T.:
>> According to the Zadokim the meaning is trivial - Shavuot starts after
>> the 7th shabbat.
> 
> This past shabbos we were learning sefira and we looked at the humash.
> 
> Eureka! I was dumbounded! How did Zadokim know WHEN to cut the omer?
> 
> The Hanafa and Sefira follows the shabbas AFTER the ketzira. But the
> time of ketzira is not pinned down!
> 
> Why not 2-3 weeks after hag hamatzos!? It never identifies when to cut
> only hanaf-sefira after Shabbos!

1. Lo ba hakasuv listom elo lefaresh.  Therefore it stands to reason
that yom hanef ha'omer is during Chag Hamatzot; the only question is
when.  We say it's always on the second day, they say it's on the first
Sunday.

2. Pashtus hakesuvim in Yehoshua is like them, that the omer was brought
on the first day of Chag Hamatzos, not on the second day.  Leshitasam
this makes sense; they need merely suppose that that day happened to be
a Sunday.  Leshitasenu it's a difficult pasuk to explain, though the
meforshim try.

3. The pasuk says "ki savo'u el ha'aretz"; they entered the Land on
the 10th of Nissan.  It makes sense that they brought the omer on the
first available day, which leshitasam was the first Sunday, which
happened to be the 15th of Nissan.  And it's not unreasonable to read
the pasuk that every year we are to bring the omer at the time that
we entered the land, i.e. the day after the first Shabbat after the
10th of Nissan.

4. Now one could read the pasuk to mean that every year we bring the
omer whenever we start the harvest, unrelated to a particular date;
but let's analyse that: the harvest cannot start later than Chag
Hamatzos, because we make sure it's chodesh ha'aviv, and if the barley
isn't ready then we declare an extra Adar.  So the only alternative
to starting during Chag Hamatzos is to start earlier, and that goes
against the order of the pesukim, which tell us about the omer after
the Korban Pesach and the beginning of the Chag.  So the omer is not
brought before the Korban Pesach, but it can be brought on the first
day of the Chag, if it happens to be a Sunday.


-- 
Zev Sero                      The trouble with socialism is that you
zev at sero.name                 eventually run out of other people’s money
                                                     - Margaret Thatcher