Study Menachot folio 68B with parallel Hebrew-English text, traditional commentary, and modern study tools. Free access to Babylonian Talmud online.
The Talmud questions the claim that the purpose of waiting until the sacrifice of the omer is only in order to fulfill the mitzva in the most optimal fashion. The Mishnah teaches: From the time that the Temple was destroyed, Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai instituted that partaking from the new crop on th
And they would not know that last year, when there was no Temple, the illuminating of the eastern horizon permitted one to eat the new grain immediately, but now that the Temple has been rebuilt and there is an omer offering, it is the omer that permits the consumption of the new grain. When the Tem
Rav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak said: Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai stated his ordinance in accordance with the opinion of R' Yehuda, who says that it is prohibited by Torah law to eat of the new grain until the 17th of Nisan, as it is stated: “And you shall eat neither bread nor parched grain, nor fresh stalks
This does not mean that it is permitted to eat the new grain on the morning of the 16th, when the eastern horizon is illuminated. Rather, it is prohibited until the essence [itzumo] of the day. And R' Yehuda holds that when the verse says “until,” it means until and including, meaning that the gra
The Talmud asks: And does Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai hold in accordance with the opinion of R' Yehuda? But he disagrees with him, as we learned in the Mishnah: From the time that the Temple was destroyed, Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai instituted that partaking from the new crop on the day of waving the o