This is Torah Talk for the week of April 25th, 2021
Lev. 23:10 When you enter the land that I am giving to you and you reap its harvest, you shall bring the first sheaf of your harvest to the priest.11 He shall elevate the sheaf before the Lord for acceptance in your behalf; the priest shall elevate it on the day after the sabbath [מִֽמָּחֳרַת֙ הַשַּׁבָּ֔ת].
What does this verse mean by the day after the sabbath? That question opens a Pandora’s box of trouble for Jewish history.
Click here and see §41 to find out what Abarbanel thought the explanation was.
Donate via Paypal!
Click here for more links or to contact me • Scan this to donate via Venmo:
Tags: Abraham ibn Ezra, Baruch Levine, Baruch Schwartz, Isaac Abarbanel, Jacob Milgrom, Joseph Bekhor Shor, Kuzari, Nili Wazana, Rashi
The Bible Guy 
April 28, 2021 at 6:56 AM |
I want to share Robert Alter’s comment on Lev. 23:11: “Whatever the reasons of the rabbis, their construction of shabbat as referring to ‘festival’ seems implausible. Baruch Levine and Jacob Milgrom have variously understood shabbat to mean ‘week’ in the present context. In verse 16, the phrase ‘seventh sabbath’ in fact seems to mean ‘seventh week.'” Alter, Robert. The Five Books of Moses: A Translation with Commentary. W. W. Norton & Company.
April 30, 2021 at 9:34 AM |
Michael,
One observation, which may be merely aesthetic. In addition to counting forward, we can count (and read) backward. Our passage says that a lamb is offered on the same day that the sheaf is waived (Leviticus 23:12). The immediately preceeding law, in 22:27, tells us that this animal must remain under its mother for seven days before it is acceptable as an offering. Many commentators point out that, during its seven days of life, this lamb will have, perforce, lived through at least one Sabbath; the day of the week on which the lamb becomes eight days old is a matter of indifference. If we read the day after the “Sabbath” in 23:11, on which this lamb is to be offered, as a Sunday, it seems to be adding to the law stated in 22:27, because the lamb likely will not have lived seven days on the first Sunday of its life. Also, because 22:27 is plainly concerned with counting the number of “days,” rather that “days of the week,” 22:27 and 23:12 sit more easily together if the whole idea of “Sunday” is tossed out.
Justin
April 30, 2021 at 12:13 PM |
I’m not following why you think the lamb of 23:12 has just been born. And 22:27 — which doesn’t say that a lamb MUST be offered on the 8th day, only that it can’t be offered UNTIL then — is not immediately preceding, but in a completely different context.
April 30, 2021 at 5:52 PM |
I knew that my comment wasn’t clear the moment I posted it. Yes, the lamb of 23:12 is unacceptable as an offering solely if it is less than 8 days old.