Menachot 72

Today’s daf continues our discussion of the omer, the first sheaves of the barley harvest presented to God at the Temple on the second day of Passover. 

According to the Talmud, the barley for the omer should be reaped on the second night of Passover. Remember that in the land of Israel, there is only one Passover seder and one day of chag during which ritual work restrictions apply, so there was no fear of overlap or competing Jewish rituals on that night. Until the reaping of the omer, no other grain could be reaped in the new harvest season. The mishnah on yesterday’s daf laid out a few exceptions to this rule: 

And one may reap crops prior to the omer due to saplings; and due to the place of mourning; and due to the study hall. 

One may not fashion them into sheaves, but he leaves them unbound.

The mishnah states that there are a number of specific reasons one may harvest grain ahead of the omer offering — though the reasons for these exceptions are not explained. And it also states that the harvesting must be done minimally — not fully — when it is done early.

This cries out for explanation. And indeed, on today’s daf, the Talmud asks: 

What is the reason (for these exceptions)? The Merciful One states: “You shall bring the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest,” (Leviticus 23:10) but not reaping for a mitzvah.

Why is it permitted to reap grain, for any reason, before the offering of the omer? The anonymous voice of the Talmud turns to Leviticus 23:10 to explain that reaping for the purposes of harvesting the grain is forbidden, but reaping to fulfill another mitzvah is permitted. 

But what are the mitzvot for which we might need to harvest early due to saplings, or a place of mourning, or a study hall? For this answer, we turn to the medieval talmudic commentator Rashi who explains that in a field with vulnerable saplings, grain growing too long might damage the young trees — so special permission is given to harvest it early. Alternatively, Rashi offers, the concern might be one of kilayim, mixed species. The Bible prohibits sowing one’s fields with seeds of different kinds (Deuteronomy 22:9–11). If mixed grains start spontaneously growing too close to one another, one may cut one kind down before the omer to save the other from this prohibition. 

The next two reasons one may harvest early have more to do with alternative needs for the space. When a mourner leaves the cemetery, the community gathers to comfort the mourner by offering the traditional mourner’s blessing (Ketubot 8b). And when Torah scholars and their students gather to engage in Torah study, they need a place to do it. If no existing space is available, says Rashi, one can reap the grain early to create room. 

Let’s go back to the Talmud. The mishnah concludes this part of its discussion with one final rule about grain harvested early: It should not be gathered into sheaves. The Talmud furnishes an explanation here too:

What is the reason? As much as possible, we do not exert effort.

We might have thought that the grain must remain ungathered so that everyone could see that the grain was not reaped as part of a regular harvesting process. But here, the prohibition against gathering is not about public perception but private effort. If the point of reaping early is really to fulfill a different mitzvah, then the effort should be expended on that mitzvah, not continuing the harvesting process.

There’s a lot going on in this short discussion. We’ve seen the Talmud (and Rashi) expend considerable effort to explain a law that is not superficially obvious — always assuming there is a good reason for earlier rulings. And we now have several examples of circumstances in which one mitzvah can move aside for another.

But I want to leave us with how the Talmud interprets the end of the teaching: that when we harvest early we are to do the minimum required to fulfill the other mitzvah that is the reason for our early harvest. Where we spend our time clarifies who we are, and what our motivations are, not only for others but also for ourselves. If we want to be the kind of people who are committed to comforting the grieving or observing the mitzvah of Torah study, for example, we need to actually spend our time supporting mourners and studying Torah. We are not what we eat, but what we do.

Read all of Menachot 72 on Sefaria.

This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on March 24, 2026. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.