Decoding the Battle Over the Omer: What's 'The Day After Shabbat'?

How are the Counting of the Omer days treating you so far? We hope everything is going well. No haircuts or music, but otherwise, life is smooth sailing...

There were times when the days of Sefirat HaOmer stirred significant controversy among the people of Israel, a dispute between the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

In this week's Torah portion, it is stated: "And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the sabbath, from the day when you bring the Omer of the wave offering, seven complete weeks."

Sounds straightforward enough: count fifty days from the offering of the Omer, and after seven complete weeks, Shavuot arrives.

So when is "The day after Shabbat"? In Jewish tradition, as taught by the sages, it always referred to the first day of Passover, also called a "shabbaton" in the Torah.

However, due to various historical situations, the Sadducees formed within Israel, rejecting the sage's traditions. The Sadducees boldly challenged the elders and Torah scholars, demanding proof that the traditional interpretation was correct. Who said so? Maybe "the day after Shabbat" means the Shabbat of the intermediate days of Passover?

Their argument seemed peculiar: the Shabbat during the festival could fall on any day, so why should Shavuot and the Counting of the Omer be determined by the weekly Shabbat? Holidays are always tied to dates!

The Sadducees didn't stop at debates and questions. They worked tirelessly to align Passover's first day with Shabbat, so the Omer offering in the Temple on the following day would fit their interpretation, following the seventh day of the week.

To achieve this, they arranged false witnesses to testify about the appearance of the new moon, aiming to set Rosh Chodesh Nisan on a Sunday, making the 15th fall on Shabbat.

The sages, on their end, scrutinized and investigated fervently to avoid being deceived by false witnesses, making the Omer days tense.

However, the battle was also ideological. There were times when authorities backed the Sadducees or partially supported them, forcing sages into debates. One such debate is recorded in the Talmud, where Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai argued with the Boethusians (a group close to Sadducee beliefs), countering their peculiar reasoning with, "Our complete Torah shouldn't be like your idle chatter..."