[Avodah] omer - Rihal

[Micha Berger]

On Sat, May 24, 2008 at 08:52:13PM +0300, Michael Makovi wrote:
: The Kuzari [3:41] says one other thing: Since the Torah set no exact date,
: and it was only Chazal who hard-set it to count from the second day of
: Pesach, the Kuzari says that the drash by the Tzadukim really has
: nothing inherently wrong with it; in theory, the Tzadukim were as
: correct as Chazal, and there was nothing wrong with the former. The
: only thing the Tzadukim did wrong was go against a decision that had
: already been codified by Chazal.

Except that evidence of calendars of the period show that the machloqes
was proably not as taught when learning gemara.

Many of the sectarians of the time had calendars with an even number
of weeks. This is true of the Qumran calendar (Miqtzas Ma'aseh haTorah,
4Q394), and is pointed to by those who believe the Qumranim were Tzeduqim
(or a breakaway) as evidence of their theory. Thus, Pesach would start on
the same day every year. This difference in basic calendar would explain
why the Tzeduqim had different desired dates for Rosh Chodesh, and Mes'
RH is full of stories of false witnesses send to adjust the calendar.

More accessibly, the Notzri mythos tells of a dispute the year of their
guy's death in which the Perushim were bringing the qorban Pesach on
Thurs, while the Tzeduqim thought it should be done on Friday. (Probably
has something to do with their tying their one lunar-dated holiday to
a day of the week as well.)

This also explains why it took Hillel to pasqen what to do on Shabbos
erev Pesach. For many years, the Saducees prevented a qiddush hachodesh
that would allow erev Pesach on any day but Friday.

So, bottom line, the machloqes ends up not being about whether the qorban
omer was on the second day of Pesach, but whether the second day of Pesach
had to be "mimacharas haShabbos" in the day-of-the-week sense of the word.

The date for Shavuos is still not necessarily in common. I don't know
how long Nissan and Iyyar were in the Sadducee calendar. But the number
of days after the seder was a shared belief. Even if the proper day for
the seder was not.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Today is the 39th day, which is
micha at aishdas.org        5 weeks and 4 days in/toward the omer.
http://www.aishdas.org   Netzach sheb'Yesod: What is imposing about a
Fax: (270) 514-1507                          reliable person?