The Morrow After the Sabbath

and the Feast of Shavuot [Pentecost]

by Hacham Mordecai Alfandari

The Scripture says: "And you shall count for yourselves from the morrow after the Sabbath from the day you bring the Omer [Sheaf] of Waving; they will be seven complete Sabbaths. Until the morrow after the seventh Sabbath you will count fifty days and bring the offering of new grain to Hashem." Leviticus 23,15-16

What is the meaning of the word "Sabbath" in these verses? The Sages of the Talmud [=Rabbanites] distinguished between the word "Sabbath" which appears at the beginning of the verse and between the "Seven Sabbaths" at the end of the very same verse. They argued that the first Sabbath mentioned is none other than the 15th of Nissan,1 the first Holy Day of Hag HaMatzot [Feast of Unleavened Bread], and that the word "Sabbath" means Holy Day [on which work is forbidden]. Indeed, in their view, the meaning of "Seven Sabbaths" is Seven Weeks and the word "Sabbath" in this context means Seven Days! According to this theory, "the morrow of the Seventh Sabbath" in the second verse means the morrow of the 7th week counted from the 16th of Nissan, and therefore Shavuot does not fall on a fixed day of the week.

In contrast, the Sages of Truth [=Karaites] argued that it is impossible to take a given word which appears twice in a single verse and interpret it in two different opposing manners without the Torah indicating this itself in a clear incontrovertible way. They further said that there is no "Sabbath" except the Sabbathitself, the Seventh Day of the week. The Torah never called any other day by the name "Sabbath".2 The Holy Day, on which it is permissible to cook and kindle a fire, is certainly not a Sabbath, and since when is a week called a Sabbath!? Therefore the Sages of the Scripture [=Karaites] maintained that "the morrow after the Sabbath" is unquestionably on a Sunday! "Seven Sabbaths" is seven weekends,3 actual Sabbaths, seventh-days, which Hashem blessed and sanctified. Thus, the morrow after the Seventh Sabbath is also a Sunday, the seventh from the beginning of the counting [of the Omer].

Of course, the question arises on the morrow of which Sabbath did the Kohen [Priest] wave the Omer [Sheaf] of Waving before Hashem? When do we begin counting the Seven Sabbaths? The answer appears in verse 10 of the same chapter [Lev 23]! The Torah says: "When you come into the Land which I give you" etc. The Sabbath, on the morrow of which the countdown [to Shavuot] begins, is the Sabbath adjacent to the entrance of the Children of Israel into the Land of Israel! A perusal of Joshua chapter 4, verse 19 reveals that the Children of Israel entered the Land on the 10th of Nissan. A further perusal of chapter 5, verse 11 reveals that on the 15th of Nissan, on the morrow after the Passover Sacrifice (which is brought on the 14th at twilight) they waved the Omer and ate of the produce of the Land. The night of the [Passover] sacrifice, therefore, was Saturday night and on Sunday, which in that year coincided with the first day of Hag HaMatzot (and not the following day, as the theory of the Sages of the Talmud requires) they began to count [the Omer].

The conclusion is: "Sabbath" means an actual Sabbath. The Sabbath, on the morrow of which we begin to count [50 days to Shavuot] is the Sabbath closest to the day of the Children of Israel's entry into the Land in days of Joshua. In the time of Joshua this Sabbath was on the 14th of Nissan. Therefore, if the first day of Hag HaMatzot falls out on a Sunday, we begin to count on the very same day which is the morrow of the "Sabbath of the entry of Israel into the Land". Otherwise, we must take the Sabbath closest to the day of Israel's entry into the Land, which is always during the days of Hag HaMatzot, (unless it falls out on the 14th of Nissan), and begin to count on the morrow. Therefore, Shavuot must always fall out on the morrow of the seventh Sabbath from Israel's entry into the Land in the time of Joshua and, of course, the "morrow after the Sabbath" is a Sunday. And know how to answers those who err!

Notes:

Note 1: This tract has only survived in 1 original copy. In the photocopy in my possession, the words which I have rendered "the 15th of Nissan" were crossed out by a previous owner of the tract, possibly Hacham Alfandari himself. From a close examination of the crossed out text, it seems that the words read "the 16th of Nissan" [Shisha Asar beNissan]. However, from the context this must be a misprint and the text should read "the 15th of Nissan" [Hamisha Asar beNissan] and apparently because of this misprint the words were crossed out. My thanks to Dr. Avraham Qanaï who provided me with a photocopy of the last remaining original of this and many other tracts which were missing from Hacham Alfandari's (z"tzl) personal archive at the time of his passing [NG]. Back

Note 2: But see Lev 23,32 which calls Yom Kippur a "Shabbat Shabbaton" and Lev 23,24 which calls Yom Teruah a "Shabbaton" [NG]. Back

Note 3: It should be remembered that this article was written in Israel where people work 6 days a week (including Sunday) and only have off on Saturday. Thus in modern Israel a "weekend" is synonymous with the Seventh Day of the week, the Biblical Sabbath [NG]. Back

This article was originally published in Hebrew as an independent tract in the late 1950s/ early 1960s under the title "Inyan Moharat HaShabbat VeHag HaShavuot". Translated from the Hebrew by Nehemia Gordon (May 2000).