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prepared by Rabbi Eliezer Chrysler
Kollel Iyun Hadaf, Jerusalem

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Menachos 68



(a) The Mishnah later permits cutting the corn in a Sadeh Beis ha'Shalachin that lies in a valley (and that requires constant watering manually) - provided one does not build a haystack with the cut corn (see Tosfos DH 'Aval').

(b) The Chachamim permit this - either because, , if one leaves the crops too long in the field, due to their dryness, they will wither, or more likely because, due to the inferior quality of the crops, they cannot be brought for the Omer (and we will learn later, that any particular location whose crops are not eligible to be used for the Omer, may be harvested before the Omer.

(c) This poses a Kashya on Rabah - inasmuch as the Mishnah permits cutting a Sadeh Beis ha'Shalachin in a valley, even using a scythe, and Rebbi Yehudah does not seem to object. Why is he not concerned that one might come to eat Chadash before the Omer has been brought (like he is by Chametz)?

(d) Abaye therefore attributes Rebbi Yehudah's stringent ruling by Chametz to the fact - that one eats Chametz all the year round, which is why he is afraid that if one searches for it on Pesach, one might forget and come to eat what one finds. Chadash, on the other hand, has been forbidden until now, and one is unlikely to forget and eat it, after cutting it.

(a) Rava asks why Abaye only resolves the discrepancy in Rebbi Yehudah, and not in the Rabbanan - who permit searching for Chametz on Pesach (unconcerne d that one might eat the Chametz that one finds), yet (in the form of Rebbi Meir) they are concerned that one might eat the Chadash before the Omer has been brought?

(b) He resolves it - with the S'vara that Chametz is different, in that a person who is searching for Chametz in order to burn it, is unlikely to eat it.

(c) Rav Ashi tries to resolve the discrepancy in Rebbi Yehudah by confining his lenient opinion in our Mishnah to flour made from roasted kernels - which is inedible in its current form.

(d) We consider Rav Ashi's answer a joke however - because it ignores the fact that one might eat them prior to that stage whilst they are still in grain form, and all nice and tasty.

(e) Nor will it even help to confine our Mishnah to where one cuts the corn with one's hands, as we learned earlier (as a reminder that it is Chadash) - because the Mishnah 'Kotzrin es ha'Shalachin ... ' remains difficult, as we asked there.

(a) Our Mishnah discusses the duration of Isur Chadash. The Tana permits it - from the moment the Omer has been brought.

(b) Those who live far from Yerushalayim (who have no way of knowing when the that occurs) - may eat Chadash from midday of the sixteenth ...

(c) ... because they can be sure that the Yerushalayim Beis-Din will have brought the Omer by then.

(a) 'Yom Henef' is - a name given to the sixteenth of Nisan (the day the Omer is waved).

(b) After the destruction of the Beis-Hamikdash, Raban Yochanan ben Zakai instituted - that the Isur Chadash should extend to the entire day of 'Yom Henef'.

(c) Rebbi Yehudah objects to the Tana Kama's (previous) statement - on the grounds that it is forbidden min ha'Torah (and not just a decree of Raban Yochanan ben Zakai), since, based on the principle 'ad ve'ad bi'Chelal' (the word "ad" is always inclusive) "ad Etzem ha'Yom ha'Zeh" (the Pasuk forbidding Chadash) means until the end of the day on which the Omer is brought.

(a) When Rav and Shmuel rule that when there is no Beis-Hamikdash, sunrise permits the Isur Chadash - they are coming to preclude the whole night, during which Chadash remains Asur.

(b) They derive this ruling from the Pesukim - "ad Havi'achem es Omer ha'Tenufah" and "ad Etzem ha'Yom ha'Zeh", which (based on the principle 'ad ve'Lo ad bi'Chelal' [the word "ad" is always exclusive]) they interpret to mean until the beginning of the day on which the Omer is brought).

(c) Rebbi Yochanan and Resh Lakish are even more lenient than Rav and Shmuel. According to them - Chadash becomes permitted at sunrise of the sixteenth, even when the Beis-Hamikdash is standing.

(d) Rebbi Yochanan and Resh Lakish will explain ...

1. ... the Pasuk "ad Havi'achem" - as a Mitzvah Lechatchilah (rather than as an absolute Isur) ...
2. ... and that is how they will explain our Mishnah 'mi'she'Karav ha'Omer, Hutar Chadash Miyad' (implying but not before) ...
3. ... and the following Mishnah 'ha'Omer Hayah Matir ba'Medinah, u'Shetei ha'Lechem ba'Mikdash' (all Lechatchilah).



(a) After the Churban Beis-Hamikdash, Raban Yochanan ben Zakai forbade Chadash until the seventeenth of Nisan - for fear that, once the Beis-Hamikdash was rebuilt, people would begin to eat Chadash in the morning of the sixteenth, on the basis of their having done so in previous years (without realizing that this was because there was no Beis-Hamikdash, but now there was, they had to wait for the Omer).

(b) This poses a Kashya on Rebbi Yochanan and Resh Lakish - because if in the time of the Beis-Hamikdash, eating Chadash in the morning of the sixteenth had only been Lechatchilah, Raban Yochanan ben Zakai would never have issued such a decree.

(a) Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak answers that Raban Yochanan ben Zakai holds like Rebbi Yehudah - meaning that in fact, Raban Yochanan ben Zakai agrees with Rebbi Yehudah in that Chadash is forbidden until the seventeenth min ha'Torah (because he too, holds 'ad ve'ad bi'Chelal').

(b) Nevertheless, Rebbi Yehudah retorted 've'ha'Lo min ha'Torah Hu Asur - because he misunderstood Raban Yochanan ben Zakai (thinking that he decreed mi'de'Rabbanan).

(c) Our Mishnah nevertheless said 'Hiskin' (even though he really Darshened it from the Pasuk, but did not institute it) - because in fact, the D'rashah had been forgotten, and he re instituted it.

(a) Rav Papa and Rav Huna b'rei de'Rav Yehoshua held that Chadash be'Chutz la'Aretz is Asur mi'de'Rabbanan (like Rebbi Yehudah). They would therefore eat Chadash - after nightfall following the sixteenth.

(b) They did not even wait until morning - because they also maintained that the Rabbanan did not include this Takanah in the S'feika de'Yoma of the second day Yom-Tov.

(c) The Rabbanan of Rav Ashi held that Chadash be'Chutz la'Aretz is Asur mi'd'Oraysa, and they only ate Chadash in the morning of the seventeenth. Nevertheless, they did not wait until nightfall - because even if it was really the sixteenth, Chadash would have been permitted already in the morning, and they maintained that it was enough to forbid the entire Yom Henef itself, but not the whole S'feika de'Yoma.

(d) Ravina's nurse told him that his father used to wait until nightfall after the seventeenth, before eating Chadash - because he held that the whole Yom Henef is Asur d'Oraysa (like Rebbi Yehudah), Chadash Chutz la'Aretz is Asur mi'd'Oraysa, and that they decreed on the entire S'feika de'Yoma.

(a) Our Mishnah now discusses the respective functions of the Omer - which permits Chadash in the Medinah (outside the Beis-Hamikdash) and the Sh'tei ha'Lechem, in the Beis-Hamikdash.

(b) Menachos, Bikurim and the Minchas Nesachim that are brought from the new crops before the Omer, are Pasul - whereas although bringing them before the Sh'tei ha'Lechem is forbidden Lechatchilah, Bedi'eved, the Korban is valid.

(c) Rebbi Yehudah ben Nechemyah explained to Rebbi Tarfon - that before the Sh'tei ha'Lechem is more lenient than before the Omer in this regard, because Chadash already became permitted to a Hedyot (after the Omer).

(d) To merit the punishment that Rebbi Akiva predicted he would receive (i.e. to die not long afterwards), Rebbi Yehudah ben Nechemyah - gloated over having enlightened Rebbi Tarfon.

(e) According to the testimonial of Rebbi Yehudah - when he (Rebbi Yehudah) arrived in Yerushalayim within two weeks of Pesach, Rebbi Yehudah bar Nechemyah was still alive, but when he returned on Shavu'os, they informed him that he had died.

(a) Nesachim are not included in the Isur of Chadash - because Chadash is confined to the five kinds of grain.

(b) Nevertheless, Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak found it necessary to state that according to Rebbi Yehudah bar Nechemyah (who permits Menachos before the Sh'tei ha'Lechem), if Niskei Bikurim are brought before the Omer, they are Kasher - because, unlike Menachos before the Sh'tei ha'Lechem, they lack the advantage of the Omer having already permitted Chadash for a Hedyot, which is Rebbi Yehudah bar Nechemyah's criterion.

(c) In fact, Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak is coming to teach us - that if Menachos are permitted before the Sh'tei ha'Lechem, how much more so Niskei Nesachim, which was never forbidden to begin with.

(a) Rami bar Chama asks whether the Sh'tei ha'Lechem will permit Chadash in the Beis-Hamikdash 'she'Lo ke'Sidran' - by which he means to ask whether crops that were planted between the Omer and the Sh'tei ha'Lechem, and which are therefore not yet permitted to a Hedyot, will nevertheless be permitted to be brought in the Beis-Hamikdash by the Sh'tei ha'Lechem.

(b) Rabah cites a Beraisa, which discusses the Pasuk "ve'Im Takriv Minchas Bikurim", which the Tana defines as - the Minchas ha'Omer.

(c) Rebbi Eliezer there, learns from the 'Gezeirah-Shavah' "Aviv" (in this Parshah) "Aviv" ('ki ha'Se'orah Aviv' [in Va'eira]) - that the Minchas ha'Omer consists of barley.

(a) Rebbi Akiva learns the same Halachah from the fact that both a Yachid and the Tzibur bring their Chovah sometimes from wheat and sometimes from barley. The Chovah that a Yachid brings from ...
1. ... wheat is - the Minchas Chotei (the Korban Oleh ve'Yored).
2. ... barley is - the Minchas Kena'os of a Sotah.
(b) And he goes on to prove from there - that the Minchas ha'Omer must consist of barley, because otherwise, which Korban Tzibur of a Yachid does?
(a) Alternatively, what Rebbi Akiva said was that if the Korban Omer consists of wheat, then the Sh'tei ha'Lechem would not be considered "Bikurim" - which implies 'the first fruits to ripen' (and the Sh'tei ha'Lechem will always be preceded by the Omer [which ripened first]).

(b) This appears to resolve Rami bar Chama's She'eilah, because if the Sh'tei ha'Lechem were to permit Chadash to the Beis-Hamikdash she'Lo ke'Sidran, the Sh'tei ha'Lechem could still be called "Bikurim" - in a case where the Omer was brought from wheat that ripened in the previous Iyar, and the Sh'tei ha'Lechem from wheat that ripened two months later, in Tamuz. In that case, the wheat of Iyar becomes permitted to a Hedyot via the Sh'tei ha'Lechem (she'Lo ke'Sidran) of the same year, yet when, in the following year, they bring the first wheat of last year's Tamuz crops as the Sh'tei ha'Lechem, it is Bikurim and permits that entire crop to be brought on the Mizbe'ach.

(c) Rami bar Chama refutes the proof by explaining 'Bikurim' differently. He explains - that when the Torah refers to the Sh'tei ha'Lechem as 'Bikurim', it is referring (not to the first of its own wheat-harvest, but) - to the first of that year's wheat harvest to go on the Mizbe'ach. Consequently, in which case one cannot prove from Rebbi Akiva's words, that she'Lo ke'Sidran, does not permit the wheat harvest to be brought on the Mizbe'ach.

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