[Avodah] How much is an Omer?

[T613K at aol.com]

From: "kennethgmiller at juno.com" _kennethgmiller at juno.com_ 
(mailto:kennethgmiller at juno.com) 



>>The last pasuk in Parshas haMan tells us that "An omer is  one-tenth of 
an eifah." ....

a) Why was this information included in  Torah Sheb'ksav? Isn't this 
exactly the sort of thing which is usually relegated  to Torah Sheb'al Peh?

b) Are there any other examples of where the Torah  goes out of its way to 
define a word? We have lots of places where the Torah  explains why a person 
was given a certain name, but that's not quite the same  thing.<<


Akiva Miller






>>>>>
There is a certain pattern seen in several places in Torah where things  
that are weighed or measured are specified/defined, and the omer that you  
cite is just one example.  Here are some others:
 
1.  Avraham pays 400 shekels for Me'aras Hamachpela and the shekels  are 
defined as "over lasocher." (Ber. 23:16).   The pasuk doesn't just  say 
Avraham "paid" 400 shekels, it says he "weighed out" 400 shekels, so you  know he 
paid top dollar.
 
2.  Eliezer gave Rivka a nose-ring and two bracelets, and their value  is 
spelled out:  the weight of the nezem is a beka and the weight of the  
bracelets is a total of asarah zahav. (Ber. 24:22)
 
3.  Bnei Yisrael were counted by giving a machtzis hashekel each, and  the 
shekel is defined there as "beshekel hakodesh" and further defined as "esrim 
 gerah hashekel." (Shmos 30:13).   Although we don't know what weight  that 
is (at least, I don't), it seems clear that the shekel hakodesh had a  
specific defined weight and that was twenty gerah, and of course, a gerah also  
had a specific defined weight.
 
4.  The shemen hamishchah had several ingredients, each a specific  measure 
(500 shekel-weights of myrhh, 250 cinnamon, etc) and the measure is  
defined as "shekel hakodesh." (Shmos 30:23-24)  
 
5.  Each person gave a beka to the mishkan, a beka defined in the same  
pasuk as a half-shekel (Shmos 38:26)
 
6. If a person vowed to donate the value of a man, that value was  defined 
as fifty silver shekel "beshekel hakodesh" (Vayikra 27:3).  A  woman's value 
is set at 30 silver shekel, a child's at 20 or 10 and so on.   The value of 
the shekel hakodesh is defined once again, as twenty gerah.  ((Vayikra 
27:25).
 
7.  The "extra" first-borns are redeemed by kohanim ((Bamidbar 3:47)  in 
the desert and the general law of pidyon haben for all time is set (Bamidbar  
18:16) and in both places the amount is specified as five shekalim "beshekel 
 hakodesh" which once again is defined as "esrim gerah."  The definition of 
 the shekel hakodesh appears repeatedly, as you see.
 
8.  My final example for the night, and quite appropriate as I think  
sleepily that it is time for me to go to bed already:  Moshe recounts  the 
victories that B'Y have already experienced, even before entering E'Y, and  he 
speaks of the slaying of the giant, Og Melech Habashan, whose  bed  -- still on 
display in Rabbat Bnei Amon -- was nine amos long and four  amos wide 
"be'amas ish."  It is our loss that we don't know how long this  amah is (at 
least, I don't) but Moshe's audience did!  
 
We do know it was BIG.  (I think 13 1/2 feet long and six feet  wide.)  
Some say it was bigger because it was measured not by the ordinary  amah -- 
arm's-length of an average man, maybe 18 inches -- but by the amah of  Og, but 
that kind of measurement is circular because without knowing how long  his 
arm was we can't know how long his amah was and so such a measure is  
meaningless.  So I personally think that "be'amas ish" means "by the amah  of an 
average man" which gives the enormous dimensions I gave above.
 
So we arrive by stream of consciousness some distance from where we  
started, but to sum up, the Torah does often define things that can be weighed  or 
measured with numbers, whether mannah, money, jewelry, ingredients or  King 
Og's bed.  
 
 
 

--Toby  Katz
==========

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