📜 Daily Chumash & Rashi Parshas Emor Revi’i: The Moadim-Jewish Holidays

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Revi’i

  1. The Moadim-Jewish Holidays:
  • Hashem spoke to Moshe saying, tell the Jewish people that these are my festivals which are to be a calling of holiness:
  • Shabbos: One is to work for six days and on the seventh day it is a complete day of rest. It is a calling of Holiness; one is not to do any work in all your settled places.
  • Pesach: On the 14th of Nissan, it is a Pesach for Hashem [and a Karban is to be brought]. On the 15th of the month, it is Chag Hamatzos for Hashem. Matzos are to be eaten for seven days. One may not do any laborous work on the first day and seventh day. Karbanos are to be brought throughout the seven days.
  • Karban Omer: After entering Eretz Yisrael and harvesting the land, the Omer, which is the first of the harvest season, is to be brought to the Kohen. The Omer is to be waved before Hashem on the 16th of Nissan. On that day of the waving, an unblemished sheep is to be offered to G-d as an Olah. Its Mincha of two tenth-ephahs of fine flour mixed with oil and its Nesachim [i.e. poured-offering] of ¼ of a Hin of wine is to accompany the Karban.
  • Chadash: One may not eat the new bread, parched grain, and plumped grain, until the Omer offering is brought.
  • Sefiras Haomer: Count for yourselves seven weeks starting from when the Omer is offered. Count for 50 days.
  • Shavuos Karbanos: On the 50th day of count, a new Mincha is to be offered. From your settlements you are to bring two breads of elevation, made from Chametz, each bread is made of two tenth-ephahs of flour. It is a Bikurim to Hashem. It is to be accompanied by seven unblemished lambs in their first year, one young male calf, and two rams as an Olah. A single goat is to be brought as a Chatas, as well as two lambs of a year old as a Shelamim. The Kohen is to waive the two sheep upon the bread Bikurim, a waving before Hashem. That day is to be a day of Holiness. No laborious work may be done as a law for all generations.
  • Mitzvah of Leket, Shichicha, Peia: Upon harvesting the field, one is not to completely remove the corner of the field and the Leket of your harvest is not to be gathered. It is to be left to the poor and the converts.

📘 Rashi Q&A — Vayikra 23:1–22

 

23:2 — God’s Appointed Times

Q1. What does “מוֹעֲדֵי ה‘” teach according to Rashi?

A: The festivals are called God’s appointed times only insofar as the court designates them, meaning Israel determines their timing.

 

Q2. How is this designation practically expressed?

A: Through intercalating a leap year for the benefit of pilgrims who have already set out from the Diaspora.

 

23:3 — Sabbath and Festivals

Q3. Why is the Sabbath mentioned in a passage about festivals?

A: To teach that one who desecrates the festivals is considered to have desecrated the Sabbaths, and one who observes the festivals is considered as if he observed the Sabbaths.

 

23:4 — Sanctifying the Month

Q4. What is the distinction between verses 2 and 4?

A:

  • Verse 2 deals with intercalating the year
  • Verse 4 deals with sanctifying the new month

 

23:5 — Passover

Q5. What does “בֵּין הָעַרְבָּיִם” mean?

A: From after six seasonal hours of the day onward.

 

Q6. What is meant by “פֶּסַח לה‘”?

A: The offering called the Passover sacrifice.

 

 

 

23:6–8 — Festival of Matzos

Q7. What additional offerings are referred to in verse 8?

A: The musaf offerings listed in Parashat Pinchas.

 

Q8. Why are these offerings mentioned here?

A: To teach that the animals for the musaf offerings do not depend on one another; even a partial offering must be brought if possible.

 

Q9. What does “מְלֶאכֶת עֲבֹדָה” refer to?

A: Work involving toil or financial loss, even necessary labor.

 

23:9–10 — The Omer

Q10. What does “רֵאשִׁית קְצִירְכֶם” mean?

A: The omer must be the first portion harvested.

 

Q11. What is an “עֹמֶר”?

A: A measure equal to one‑tenth of an ephah.

 

23:11 — Waving the Omer

Q12. How is “וְהֵנִיף” (waving) performed?

A: Moving the offering forward and backward, then up and down.

 

Q13. What is the purpose of these motions?

A:

  • Forward/backward: to prevent harmful winds
  • Up/down: to prevent harmful dews

 

Q14. What does “מִמָּחֳרַת הַשַּׁבָּת” mean?

A: The day after the first day of Passover, not the weekly Sabbath.

 

23:12–13 — Accompanying Offerings

Q15. Why is the lamb brought on the same day as the omer?

A: Its obligation exists because of the omer.

 

Q16. What is unusual about this grain‑offering?

A: It is double the usual measure, yet its libation is not increased.

 

23:14 — Prohibition of New Grain

Q17. What are “קָלִי” and “כַּרְמֶל”?

A:

  • קָלִי: oven‑parched kernels
  • כַּרְמֶל: fresh kernels

 

Q18. What does “בְּכֹל מוֹשְׁבֹתֵיכֶם” imply?

A:

  • Some say: the prohibition applies even outside the Land
  • Others say: it applies only after the land was conquered and settled

 

23:15–16 — Counting the Omer

Q19. What does “תְּמִימֹת” (complete) teach?

A: The counting must begin at night, otherwise the weeks are incomplete.

 

Q20. How many days are counted?

A: Forty‑nine days; the fiftieth is the festival itself.

 

Q21. Why is there apparent redundancy in the wording?

A: Because the verse is inverted, and its plain meaning must be reordered.

 

23:16 — A New Grain‑Offering

Q22. Why is the Shavuot offering called “חֲדָשָׁה”?

A: It is the first grain‑offering of wheat from the new crop; the omer was barley.

 

23:17 — Two Loaves

Q23. From where must the two loaves come?

A: Only from the Land of Israel, not from outside it.

 

Q24. Why are they baked leavened?

A: Scripture states this explicitly; they represent first‑ripening offerings.

 

23:18 — Accompanying Animals

Q25. What does “עַל־הַלֶּחֶם” mean?

A: The offerings are brought on account of the bread.

 

Q26. How are their grain‑offerings and libations determined?

A: According to the fixed rules for each animal:

  • Bull: three‑tenths & half a hin
  • Ram: two‑tenths & one‑third hin
  • Lamb: one‑tenth & one‑quarter hin

 

23:19 — Additional Offerings

Q27. Why are these offerings distinct from those in Numbers?

A: Because the bulls and rams differ, proving these are separate sacrifices brought because of the bread.

 

 

 

23:20 — Waving the Lambs

Q28. Which offerings are waved together?

A: The two lambs with the two loaves.

 

Q29. What novelty is taught by this waving?

A: The lambs must be waved while alive.

 

Q30. What level of sanctity do these offerings have?

A: They are sacrifices of superior holiness, unlike individual peace‑offerings.

 

23:21 — Sanctity of the Day

Q31. What is commanded about this day?

A: It must be proclaimed a holy occasion, with a prohibition of mundane labor.

 

23:22 — Gifts to the Poor

Q32. Why are pe’ah and leket repeated here?

A: To teach that neglecting them violates two prohibitions.

 

Q33. Why are they mentioned among the festivals?

A: To teach that one who gives these gifts properly is considered as if he built the Temple and brought sacrifices.

 

Q34. What does “תַּעֲזֹב” imply here?

A: Absolute relinquishment — leave the produce for the poor to take themselves.

 

Q35. What is emphasized by “אֲנִי ה’ אֱלֹהֵיכֶם”?

A: God is trustworthy to reward proper fulfillment.

 

📜 Daily Chumash & Rashi Emor Shishi: Sukkos-Karbanos and Melacha

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About The Author

Rabbi Yaakov Goldstein is a 6th generation descendent of the famous Chief Rabbi of Izhmir, Rav Yehoshua Avraham Krispin, who authored a number of Sefarim, and was a colleague of Rav Chaim Falagi, and father in-law of the Pesach Hadvir. He currently lives with his wife Shayna, and twelve children K”H, in Tzfas, Israel. Rabbi Goldstein received Semicha from Rabbi Schneur Zalman Labkowski of the Tomchei Temimim headquarters in 2005 and served as a chaplain in the Lotar/Kalatz and K9 unit of the IDF from years 2005-2008. He is also a certified Shochet, and has performed Hashgacha work in slaughterhouses. Rabbi Goldstein is the director of Shulchanaruchharav.com, the world’s leading web-based Halacha database, and is the director of the Home Study Semicha Program, a self-study web-based Semicha program. He is a prolific author of over 50 Sefarim studied by a wide range of readers throughout the world, which is used regularly in Semicha programs around the globe. He is a world renowned Posek, answering questions to a web-based market, and serves as a local Posek, Rav, and Lecturer, in the Tzemach Tzedek community Shul in Tzefas, Israel. His many classes can be heard both from his website, Vimeo and YouTube channel. Students can join live to classes given in the Tzemach Tzedek Shul, through the “בית חבד צפת Chabad Tsfat” YouTube channel.

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