Every year, on the day after the first day of Pesaḥ – the 16th of Nisan – there is a mitzva to offer the first of the new grain as a meal offering to God, so that the first of each year’s harvest is dedicated to Him. In addition, one may not eat from the new grain before the Omer offering has been brought, and one may not harvest the new grain before the barley for the Omer offering has been harvested. The Torah states (Vayikra 23:9–14):
The Lord spoke to Moshe, saying: Speak to the children of Israel and say to them: When you come into the land that I am giving you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the Omer, the first of your harvest, to the kohen. He shall wave the Omer before the Lord, that it may be accepted on your behalf; on the day after the “Shabbat” the kohen shall wave it. On the day you wave the Omer, you shall offer an unblemished yearling lamb as an olah to the Lord. Its meal offering shall be two-tenths of an eifa of fine flour mixed with oil, a fire offering to the Lord, a pleasing aroma; and its libation shall be a quarter of a hin of wine. You shall eat neither bread, nor parched grain, nor fresh grain until this very day, until you have brought the offering of your God – an everlasting statute throughout your generations in all your dwellings.
The Omer offering is brought on the day after the first festival day of Pesaḥ. This is the Sages’ received tradition in interpreting the verse’s phrase, “the day after the Shabbat”: the day after the rest of the first Yom Tov of Pesaḥ. The rest of that day is meant to strengthen our faith through the memory of the Exodus and the mitzva of eating matza on the Seder night. Having deepened that faith, we are then commanded to offer the new grain, so that all our eating throughout the coming year is shaped by that intention. Since the day of the Omer offering is fixed, its harvesting, preparation, and offering override Shabbat even when it falls on Shabbat.
Although wheat is the finest of the five species of grain, the Omer offering is brought from barley. This is the tradition transmitted from Moshe at Sinai, and it also reflects agricultural reality: in Eretz Yisrael, barley ripens before Pesaḥ, while wheat ripens only later. This choice is also significant. Barley is animal feed, and it represents the basic, lower side of human life. Precisely because this side of life emerges first, it too must be connected to holiness. From the night of the Omer harvest, we count seven weeks — forty-nine days — during which we prepare ourselves to receive the Torah on Shavu’ot, when we are commanded to bring the shtei ha-leḥem, the “two loaves,” the first offering brought from that year’s new wheat.
The Omer permits all Israel to eat from the new crop; the shtei ha-leḥem permits meal offerings from the new crop to be brought in the Temple. (Menaḥot 68b; see Peninei Halakha: Mo’adim 13:7).
The mitzva of harvesting the Omer is performed on the night of the 16th of Nisan, and the harvest may be done at any point during the night. Ideally, the barley should be grown near Jerusalem. If the nearby barley had not yet ripened, it could be brought from farther away, provided it was grown in Eretz Yisrael. The Omer was customarily harvested and brought to the Temple courtyard in a dignified ceremony, before a large public gathering, in order to reinforce the Sages’ tradition regarding this mitzva. Once it was brought to the courtyard, the kernels were removed from the ears, lightly roasted, and ground. The resulting flour was then sifted through thirteen sieves.
The next day, after the daily offering and the additional festival offering were brought, one-tenth of an eifa was taken from that flour, mixed with one log of oil, and a handful of frankincense was placed upon it. The kohen waved it before God, took a handful from it, and burned it on the altar. Once this handful was burned, all Israel was permitted to eat from the new grain (Menaḥot 63–68; MT, Laws of Temidin u-Musafin 7:3–12).
