Page 8 - HaMizrachi YmYm 2020 FLIPv3

Rabbi Hershel Schachter

Keviut

of the Yom Tov of Shavuot

here are two parshiot in the weeks from Pesach until Shavuot. The final legal decision on any halachic
Torah that mention Sefirat purpose of this sefirah is to be kovea question. The Rav explained that Kid-
THaOmer, and there is a signifi- (establish) the correct day of the Yom dush haChodesh does not necessarily
cant difference between them. In Par- Tov of Shavuot. As such, it is part of involve a complicated psak halacha,
shat Emor, the Torah says םכל םתרפסו the more general mitzvah of keviat requiring the greatest legal minds of
םוי םישימח ורפסת ... תבשה תרחממ – “You haLuach (establishing the calendar), the Jewish nation. The necessity of
shall count for yourselves from the which is the responsibility of the San- the involvement of the Sanhedrin here
morrow of the Rest Day ... you shall hedrin. A second aspect of the mitz- is due to its second role – its decision
count 50 days” (Vayikra 23:15-16). In vah, reflected in its being repeated in represents the majority opinion of the
Parshat Re’eh, we read, תועובש העבש the plural form, is directed to each Jewish nation. In this sense, the San-
ךל רפסת – “Seven weeks you shall and every individual, who should hedrin fills a role akin to that of the
count for yourself” (Devarim 16:9). engage in a count of days during this Congress in the United States.
time.
Rav Soloveitchik noted an additional
distinction between these two par- Based on this analysis, the Rav The Sanhedrin fills
shiot, aside from whether the unit of explained why the Torah calls the “” a role akin to that
time to be counted is days or weeks. Yom Tov by the name תועובש – the
They also differ in terms of whether “Festival of Weeks” – and not גח of the Congress in
the mitzvah is directed to Bnei Yisrael םישימחה – the “Holiday of the 50th the United States
in the singular or in the plural form. Day.” It is because the component
We can understand this in light of a of sefirah that is kovea the Yom Tov
Beraita cited in the Gemara (Men- is not the counting of days by each The Rav elaborated by explaining
achot 65b), which appears more fully individual, but rather the counting of that the responsibility of keviat haLu-
both in the Sifra (Emor) and in the weeks, which Beit Din performs as ach ultimately rests upon the entity
Sifrei (Re’eh): “Seven weeks you shall part of their mandate to take respon- of Klal Yisrael. When there is a Beit
count for yourself” – in Beit Din sibility for keviat haLuach. Din HaGadol, it performs this task
[HaGadol]. And from where do we The Rambam (Hilchot Temidin as the representative of Klal Yisrael.
derive [the obligation of sefirah] on UMussafin 7:24) includes the count- Accordingly, we understand that
each individual? The Torah states, ing of days and weeks in the mitzvah when the Beit Din HaGadol ceases
“You shall count for yourselves” – [the d’oraita of sefirah, even nowadays. If, to exist, the responsibility of keviat
sefirah must be performed] by each as we have seen, the sefirah of weeks haLuach shifts back to Klal Yisrael.
and every individual. is a mitzvah on the Beit Din HaGadol, This is the basis of the d’oraita obli-
how could that sefirah be d’oraita gation, according to the Rambam, to
The basis of this drasha is a rule count days and weeks. The counting
quoted in the name of the Vilna Gaon nowadays, when we lack the presence of weeks by Klal Yisrael accomplishes
(Divrei Eliyahu, p. 94). Whenever of a Beit Din HaGadol? the keviat Yom Tov of Shavuot even in
a mitzvah is repeated in the Torah, Rav Soloveitchik explained (Shiurim the absence of a Beit Din HaGadol.
once in the singular and once in the LeZecher Abba Mari z”l I, pp. 129-131, [See Eretz HaTzvi, pp. 9-14, 231.]
plural, the singular form is addressed 137-139; Kovetz Chiddushei Torah, pp.
to Klal Yisrael as a whole, while the 52-56) that when the Rambam holds Adapted from Rav Schachter on the
plural form devolves upon the indi- that Kiddush haChodesh requires the Moadim.
vidual. In the case of Sefirat HaOmer, authorization of the Sanhedrin (Sefer
the Beit Din HaGadol, which rep- HaMitzvot, Aseh 153; Hilchot Kid- Rabbi Hershel Schachter is Rosh
resents Klal Yisrael as a whole, fulfills dush HaChodesh 5:1-2), it is not in Yeshiva and Rosh Kollel at Rabbi Isaac
the obligation upon the single unit of their capacity as the Supreme Court Elchanan Theological Seminary of Yeshiva
Klal Yisrael when it counts the seven of the Jewish people, rendering the University

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