Today’s daf is largely devoted to a sprawling interpretive battle between the rabbis and rival Jewish groups. The question is: When do we count the omer? Leviticus 23:15–16 contains the biblical instructions, which are difficult to interpret: “And you shall count for yourselves from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that you brought the omer of the wave offering; seven complete sabbaths shall there be: to the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall you number 50 days and you shall offer a new grain offering to God.”
The confusion arises because in the Hebrew Bible the word sabbath has several possible meanings: Shabbat, day of rest and week. Rabbinic tradition holds that Levitius here enjoins us to offer the omer sacrifice on the second day of Passover (right after the first festival day, which is a “sabbath”). As we explored on yesterday’s daf, this means that the omer is sometimes brought on Shabbat, and it means that Shavuot will be 50 days (since “seven complete sabbaths” means seven weeks) from whenever the second day of Passover falls.
That this was not the universal understanding of these verses in the Second Temple and early rabbinic period. Rival Jewish groups like the Sadducees and Boethusians interpreted “from the morrow after the sabbath” to mean the day after the Shabbat that falls during the week of Passover. Following this interpretation, the Sadducees and Boethusians always brought the omer on a Sunday.
With this debate in the background, the mishnah recounts a theatrical performance of the omer ritual according to the rabbis:
How would they perform (the harvest of the omer)? Emissaries of the court would emerge on the eve of the festival (of Passover) and fashion the barley into sheaves while still attached to the ground, so that it would be convenient to harvest. The residents of all the towns nearby would assemble there, so that it would be harvested with great fanfare.
The mishnah sets the scene for this very public spectacle meant to add honor and excitement to the harvest part of the omer ritual. It continues with a description of a scripted call-and-response between the court emissaries and the audience:
Once it grew dark, (the court emissary) says to them: “Did the sun set?”
They answer: “Yes.”
“Did the sun set?”
They answer: “Yes.”
“With this sickle?”
They answer: “Yes.”
“With this sickle?”
They answer: “Yes.”
“Into this basket?”
They answer: “Yes.”
“Into this basket?”
They answer: “Yes.”
On Shabbat, he says to them: “On this Shabbat?”
They answer: “Yes.”
“On this Shabbat?”
They answer: “Yes.”
“Shall I harvest?”
And they answer him: “Harvest!”
“Shall I harvest?”
And they answer him: “Harvest!”
Three times with regard to each and every matter, and they answer him: Yes, yes, yes.
Why do I need all this? Because of the Boethusians, as they would say: There is no harvest of the omer at the conclusion of the first festival day (of Passover).
The mishnah tells us explicitly that the point of all this fanfare was to emphasize and publicize the validity of the rabbis’ interpretation of the omer verses, in particular the permissibility of harvesting the omer on Shabbat when needed. Everyone was called upon to witness and affirm the rabbinic calendrical calculation.
The Gemara on this mishnah dives further into the details of this (and related) disputes between the rabbis and other Jewish sects, bringing a lengthy set of textual proofs for the rabbis’ positions. To give a small taste of of these proofs, let’s look at one from Rabbi Yishmael:
The Torah said: Bring the omer offering on Passover and the two loaves on Shavuot. Just as there, for the festival of Shavuot, the two loaves are brought at the beginning of the festival, so too here, for the festival of Passover, the omer must be brought at the beginning of the festival.
Rabbi Yishmael makes an argument from the Torah’s juxtaposition of the offerings tied to Passover and Shavuot. Everyone, including the Sadducees and Boethusians, agrees that the Shavuot loaves offering is done at the beginning of the holiday. After all, it’s a short holiday, so there’s no choice. He argues that if the offerings are presented as parallel, then the Passover omer offering is also meant to be done consistently at the beginning of the holiday, as per rabbinic interpretation.
As we can see, the question of how the omer offering should interact with Shabbat observance was not just a site of disagreement within rabbinic circles, as in the first mishnah of the chapter. It was also reflective of broader negotiations of identity and law between different Jewish sects in a time before rabbinic Judaism gained ascendancy.
Read all of Menachot 65 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on March 17, 2026. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
Keep My Jewish Learning free. Passover may be over, but your chance to support Jewish connection isn't. Help make sure that anyone seeking Jewish wisdom can find it here, without needing to cross the red sea (or a paywall).
