TORAH PORTION

Lesson In The Omer
On Jewish Knowledge

RABBI MARTIN BERMAN

Special to The Jewish News

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he command to count
the Omer is found in
this week's Torah por-
tion. "From the day on which
you bring the sheaf of wheat
offering — the day after the
Sabbath — you shall count off
seven weeks. They must be
complete. You must count un-
til the day after the seventh
week — fifty days."
The word "Sabbath" nor-
mally means the seventh day
of the week. Indeed, we know
from both rabbinic and exter-
nal sources that some Jews,
the Boethusians, understood
the word "Sabbath" in this
verse to mean the first Sab-
bath after Passover began.
They insisted that the coun-
ting of the Omer must always
begin on Sunday.
Thus Shavuot could fall on
any day from the Sixth of
Sivan to the Twelfth of Sivan.
However, their method of
counting insured that
Shavuot would always fall on
Sunday.
This is not the only possible
interpretation of this passage.
The Pharisees who lived at
the same time as the Boethu-
sians, said that in this context
"the Sabbath" means the first
day of the holiday. By coun-
ting seven full weeks from the
beginning of Passover we
celebrate the holiday of
Shavuot on the 50th day,
which may be any day of the
week, but it is always the
Sixth of Sivan. This inter-
pretation is supported by the
Septuagint, the Greek trans-
lation of the Torah.
The Jewish historian Jose-
phus, who lived at the time of
the destruction of the Second
Temple also supports this
view as does the earlier
Jewish philosopher Philo.
Those who are familiar
with the practice of counting
the Omer know that today we
begin counting the Omer on
the second night of Passover.
As heirs to the rabbinic tradi-
tion which was a continua-
tion of the Pharisaic, we
modern Jews accept their
determination of when to
start counting the Omer and
when Shavuot falls. By rejec-
ting the rabbinic tradition the
Boethusians cut themselves
off from the mainstream of
the Jewish people.
In a later period of history,
the early Middle Ages,
another group of Jews, the

Martin J. Berman is rabbi at
Congregation Beth Achim.

Karaites, rejected the rab-
binic tradition. They wanted
to substitute their interpreta-
tion of the Torah and its com-
mandments for the inter-
pretations of the rabbis.
Again they cut themselves off
from the bulk of the Jewish
people. Today, there are no
Boethusians and the Karaites
remain but a small sect.
The rabbinic tradition has
been the determining factor
in how Jews have understood
the Torah. Whether one
believes that tradition was
part of the revelation at Sinai
as the "Oral TDrah" alongside
the "Written Torah" or only
sees it as the result of the cen-
turies of interpretive ac-
tivities of the Jewish sages, it

Shabbat Emor:
Leviticus
21:1-24:23.
Ezekiel 44:15-31.

is clear that historical
Judaism is that tradition.
Judaism cannot be under-
stood without this tradition.
The details of Kashrut, the
laws of the Sabbath, the
structure of our prayers, the
ethical norms of Judaism are
found not in pages of the
Written Torah but in the
record of the Oral Drah found
in the Mishnah and the
Talmud and codified in the
works of scholars such as
Moses Maimonides, Joseph
Karo and Moses Isserles.

Unfortunately, many in to-
day's Jewish community can-
not identify the Mishnah and
the Talmud. While many
recognize Maimonides, the
names Karo and Isserles are
unknown.
An ignorant Jewish com-
munity is a community
destined for destruction.
Perhaps not physical destruc-
tion, but certainly spiritual.
Education on both a youth
and adult level is important
not only for mere intellectual
curiosity but for basic Jewish
survival.
It makes no difference if one
is an Orthodox, Conservative,
Reconstructionist or Reform
ignoramus. Ignorance is the
enemy of every stream in
Jewish life.
It is said about civil law
that "ignorance of the law is
no excuse." It is also true that
as regards Judaism there is
no excuse for ignorance.
It is vital that today's
Jewish community reconnect
with the traditional sources of
Jewish life. 0

