Hello chevre and thank you for joining me on learning together along with me. Today's mishna is Masechtas Menachos, perek yud, mishna gimmel. As we've discussed, the tenth perek of Menachos focuses on the harvesting of the Korban Omer, the first barley Korban Mincha brought in the Beis Hamikdash, and it was always brought on the sixteenth of Nisan, the day after the first day of Pesach. So you brought the Korban Pesach on yud daled Nisan, you then spent the first day of yom tov, and then that evening on the eve of the sixteenth of Nisan they would harvest the barley to bring the Korban Omer. As we've already spoken about, the Baisusim, a sect of Jews that lived during that period of time, read the Torah a little bit more literally, and the Torah says that the Korban Omer is brought mimochoras hashabbos, on the day after Shabbos, and they understood that literally as being the first Sunday following the first day of Pesach. So if Pesach was on a Tuesday, you would bring the Omer the following Sunday. And at times there was machlokes over this, serious machlokes, disputes between the Baisusim and the Chachamim, to the point where the Baisusim tried to ensure that the sixteenth of Nisan always fell on a Sunday so that the Korban Omer would be brought in accordance with their thinking, which was always on a Sunday. So our mishna here, mishna gimmel, is actually very fascinating because first of all it is one of the more descriptive mishnayos throughout shisha sidrei mishna about a ceremony taking place related to the Beis Hamikdash. We have masechtos built around that as well like there's Masechtas Tamid, there's Yuma, parts of Shekalim, and other masechtos that have small parts of the ceremony, but this is a very descriptive one. But more importantly we'll see that the entire ceremony was built around the idea of challenging the Baisusi viewpoint. So let's see, you'll see what I mean as we learn the mishna. So the mishna begins like this: Keitzad hayu osim? How was it that they went about harvesting the barley for the Korban Omer? So first of all שלוחי בית דין יוצאים מערב יום טוב. First of all the agents of the emissaries of the Beis Din of Yerushalayim would go out into the fields but when did they do this? They went erev Pesach. Erev Pesach they would be busying themselves to go out into the fields ועושים אותו כריכות במחובר לקרקע. They would go and they would tie together the barley into bundles but they wouldn't detach it, it would remain attached because the harvest had to be on the eve of the sixteenth, but this way it would be easier to harvest because it would already be bundled or tied together כדי שיהא נוח לקצור so that it will be easier to harvest. It's easier to take the sickle and to cut it when it's all together rather than grabbing it at that time. So now after they did that the shluchei beis din would go back I guess and they would bring their Korban Pesach, they would enjoy their eating their matzah and their maror and their Korban Pesach in the night, saying Hallel, spend the next day with their family, and then the following evening they would get ready to harvest. Now the mishna continues: וכל העיירות הסמוכות לשם מתכנסות לשם. And all of the residents of the cities that were near the place where they would harvest gather in that field כדי שיהא נקצר בעסק גדול so that when it came to harvesting the barley it would be done with great fanfare. Now we had seen in mishna beis of this perek that the mitzvah really was to harvest as much as you could as close to Yerushalayim as possible and presumably with all the Jews being up in Yerushalayim for Korban Pesach and Aliyah l'Regel it would probably be very packed with people. So some mefarshim understand that when our mishna says that the people in the surrounding cities would come and gather, it could be when they needed to go beyond Yerushalayim or the environs nearby Yerushalayim but further out in order for the harvest, so it could be that that's when you needed to get people from the local municipalities to join in to make it into a bigger deal, into a big fanfare. But be it as it may, keivan shechasheicha as soon as it would become dark omer lahem the person who was about to harvest or one of the kohanim or one of the people from the beis din would say Ba hashemesh? Did the sun set? V'omrim hen yes! Ba hashemesh? did the sun set? Omrim hen and they would scream yes. It's interesting that we see this also when it came to the Korban Tamid in the morning also the kohanim would ask has the first light shown so there was always this kind of focus on did the light is it starting to be is it daybreak or now is it chasheicha is it night time so that it's now permitted it's no longer yom tov and therefore we can start to harvest. Now even if it's Shabbos they would harvest but you weren't supposed to harvest it on yom tov but only after yom tov went away. Okay, so we continue and the mishna says: Magal zu? So the person about to harvest would say should I be using this... this sickle and and omrin hen they would say yes. Magal zu, should I use this sickle? Omrin hen, they would say yes. So again, building, building up the and the enthusiasm and the excitement of the process. Kupa zu, should I use this container to put it in? Omrin hen, they said yes. Kupa zu, should I use this container? Omrin hen, they said yes. Now bashabbos, if it was shabbos, amru lahen, shabbos zu? If it was shabbos they would scream out is today still shabbos, meaning motzei yomtov is Friday night so it's shabbos, is it shabbos? Omrin hen, they'd say yes. Shabbos zu, is it shabbos? Omrin hen, they would say yes. And even so he would go and cut. Ekzor, should I cut? והם אומרין לו קצור. They would say, ktzor, cut. Ekzor, should I cut? I will cut. והם אומרין לו קצור. They still go and cut. Now the mishnah repeats each of these stages in twos but then the mishnah concludes by saying שלוש פעמים על כל דבר ודבר. Really they didn't do it twice, they would really say it three times. והם אומרין לו הן הן הן. And each time they would repeat going yes, yes, yes. This type of responsiveness in three or that's really not pairs of three but in cycles of three is well known in the chachamim's, you know when the chachamim have these ceremonies we find it by the sotah, by in the chalitza, by parah aduma and by when they're mekadesh, when they sanctify the new moon and rosh chodesh. There was always this three repeats of back and forth between the crowd and the person leading the ceremony itself and that's in order to build enthusiasm and to kind of drill in the idea that we're going to take each of these steps. Vekol kach lama? So the mishnah asks the obvious question, why did they need such a elaborate ceremony? Mipnei habaitusim, because the baitusim, shehayu omrim, because the baitusim held, they would say אין קצירת העומר במוצאי יום טוב. That typically speaking you did not harvest the barley on motzei yomtov unless of course it fell on Sunday. Otherwise it would always fall on motzei shabbos of the shabbos following the first day of pesach. So this whole idea is, and we do find this a lot, that when the chachamim were fighting with the different sects, so whether it's the baitusim or the tzedukim, they didn't very much necessarily engage in dialogue and try to convince the other side, but rather they would do these public ceremonies that would enshrine and establish the way the chachamim wanted the ceremony to be done and we find that throughout mishnayos as well. Anyway, so as I said this mishnah is quite descriptive of the process itself and more importantly it's making a point that the chachamim were trying to make against the baitusim and with that I wish you continued hatzlacha.