In a sabbatical year, Jews are not allowed to plant produce. But the Torah mandates that the omer offering be brought nonetheless. So where does that barley come from?
The Mishnah imagines that, during the sabbatical year, people were on the lookout for wild barley. If they found some, they would notify the Temple administration, who would send guards to watch over it and make sure that no animals got into it, and no people took it for themselves. The Talmud today explores a crucial piece of this process — paying the guards.
We learned elsewhere (Shekalim 4:1): The guards of the produce that grew without being purposely planted during the sabbatical year collect their wages from the collection of the Temple treasury chamber.
Let’s make the implicit logic here explicit. The omer must be brought on behalf of the community. If an individual paid these guards, they would be taking a greater degree of ownership than everyone else, which would make it no longer an egalitarian communal offering. So the guards were paid not by individuals but with the communal funds.
The Talmud next recounts a fascinating exchange about this mishnah between Rami bar Hama and his teacher Rav Hisda.
Rami bar Hama raises a contradiction to Rav Hisda: We learned the guards of wild produce during the sabbatical year collect their wages from the collection of the chamber. And one can raise a contradiction: “And the sabbatical year of the land shall be for you for eating,” (Leviticus 25:6) but not for burning.
Rav Hisda said to him: The Merciful One said to you: “It is a statute forever throughout your generations,” (Leviticus 23:14) and you say the omer should be canceled in a sabbatical year?
Although planting is forbidden, Leviticus permits one to take what they need to eat from any plants that grow spontaneously during the sabbatical year. But the omer isn’t eaten, it’s burned on the altar. So Rami bar Hama asks if perhaps we cannot actually harvest even wild barley for the omer in a sabbatical year, citing a verse that underlines the import of eating what is reaped in that year. Rav Hisda responds with his own biblical verse, in which God commands that the omer be done forever — meaning seven out of every seven years.
Rami bar Hama said to him: But am I saying it should be canceled? Let one bring the omer from the previous year. Rav Hisda said: I require that it be “fresh ear,” (Leviticus 2:14) and this is not.
Rami bar Hama suggests that the omer can still be brought during sabbatical year, but from last year’s grains. Rav Hisda again corrects his student, explaining that the omer offering must be fresh and new, not something that has been stored in a warehouse for a year. Despite both corrections, Rami bar Hama persists:
But let one bring it from the young grain of the previous year.
Perhaps the grain only has to have been fresh and new at the time of harvesting, and we can offer it a year later? Once again, Rav Hisda has a rebuttal:
Rav Hisda said: The verse states: “Fresh ear, you shall bring” (Leviticus 2:14): I need it to be young grain at the time of offering, and this is not.
Rav Hisda insists that the grain needs to be fresh when it is offered as the omer offering, not just when it is harvested. And the Talmud gives Rav Hisda the last word: Wild grain can indeed be harvested in a sabbatical year in order to be burned on the altar as the communal omer offering. The teacher has, well, remained the teacher.
Ultimately, this exchange highlights for us the inevitable conflicts that come into play when trying to carefully observe all of the mitzvot. Sometimes, as in the case of the omer offering on a sabbatical year, doing one mitzvah might mean acting in a way that is inconsistent with another mitzvah. This discussion offers us some principles to guide our thinking in these cases. They require a careful reading of the biblical text, a deep knowledge of rabbinic tradition, logic and reason, and a dialogue partner who is smarter than we are.
Read all of Menachot 84 on Sefaria.
This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on April 5, 2026. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.
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