40

Where in the Torah do you find the barley harvest defining Pesach? Let's look at some key passages.

"You shall count seven weeks for yourselves; from when the sickle is first put to the standing crop shall you begin counting seven weeks. Then you shall observe the festival of Shavuot for Yahweh, your God." Devarim (Deuteronomy) 16:9-10

We start counting from when the sickle is first put to the standing crop. When can we start the harvest?

"Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the Children of Israel and say to them: When you shall enter the Land that I give you and you reap its harvest, you shall bring an Omer from your first harvest to the Kohen. He shall wave the Omer before Yahweh to gain favour for you; on the morrow of the rest day the Kohen shall wave it...You shall not eat bread or roasted kernels or plump kernels until this very day, until you bring the offering of your God; it is an eternal decree for your generations in all your dwelling places. You shall count for yourselves - from the morrow of the rest day, from the day when you bring the Omer of the waving - seven weeks, they shall be complete. Until the morrow of the seventh week you shall count, fifty days; and you shall offer a new meal-offering to Yahweh." Vayikra (Leviticus) 23:9-11,14-16

We can start to harvest on the the morrow of the rest day. But which rest day? We learn earlier in Vayikra 23 that both the first and seventh days of Unleavened Bread are to be observed as rest days. Which one is it? Additionally, some claim that the rest day in question is merely the regular weekly Shabbat that falls during the week of Unleavened Bread. What day did they wave the Omer during the days of Yeshua? My friend Terry Fehr has done much research on this subject, and here is some information that he found from historical sources:

"In the month of Xanthicus, which is by us called Nisan, and is the beginning of our year, on the fourteenth day of the lunar month, when the sun is in Aries (for in this month it was that we were delivered from bondage under the Egyptians), and law ordained that we should every year slay that sacrifice which I before told you we slew when we came out of Egypt, and which was called the Passover; and so we do celebrate this Passover in companies, leaving nothing of what we sacrifice till the day following. The feast of Unleavened Bread succeeds that of Passover, and falls on the fifteenth day of the month, and continues seven days, wherein they feed on unleavened bread; on every one of which days two bulls are killed, and one ram, and seven lambs. Now these lambs are entirely burnt, besides the kid of the goats which is added to all the rest, for sins; for it is intended as a feast for the priest on every one of those days. But on the second day of Unleavened Bread, which is the sixteenth day of the month, they first partake of the fruits of the earth, for before that day they do not touch them. And while they suppose it proper to honor God, from whom they obtain this plentiful provision, in the first place, they offer the first fruits of their barley, and that in the manner following: They take a handful of ears, and dry them, then beat them small, and purge the barley from the bran; they then bring one tenth deal to the altar, to God; and, casting one handful of it upon the fire, they leave the rest for the use of the priest; and after this it is that they may publicly or privately reap their harvest. They also at this participation of the Firstfruits of the earth, sacrifice a lamb, as a burnt offering to God. When a week of weeks has passed over after this sacrifice (which weeks contain forty and nine days), on the fiftieth day, which is Pentecost, but is called by the Hebrews Asartha, which signifies Pentecost, they bring to God a loaf, made of wheat flour, of two tenth deals, with leaven; and for sacrifices they bring two lambs; and when they have only presented them to God, they are made ready for supper for the priests; nor is it permitted to leave anything of them till the day following. They also slay three bullocks for a burnt offering and two rams; and fourteen lambs, with two kids of the goats, for sins; nor is there any one of the festivals but in it they offer burnt offerings; they also allow themselves to rest on every one of them. Accordingly, the law prescribes in them all what kinds they are to sacrifice, and how they are to rest entirely, and must slay sacrifices, in order to feast upon them." Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews – Chapter 10 – Sections 5 & 6

“The Morrow after the Sabbath” The expression, “the morrow after the Sabbath” (Leviticus 23:11), has sometimes been misunderstood as implying that the presentation of the so-called “first sheaf” was to be always made on the day following the weekly Sabbath of the Passover-week. This view, adopted by the “Boethusians” and the Sadducees in the time of Christ, and by the Karaite Jews and certain modern interpreters, rests on a mis-interpretation of the word “Sabbath” (Leviticus 23:24, 32, 39). As in analogous allusions to other feasts in the same chapter, it means not the weekly Sabbath, but the day of the festival. The testimony of Josephus, of Philo, and of Jewish tradition, leaves no room to doubt that in this instance we are to understand by the “Sabbath” the 15th of Nisan, on whatever day of the week it might fall. Already, on the 14th of Nisan, the spot whence the first sheaf was to be reaped had been marked out by delegates from the Sanhedrin, by tying together in bundles, while still standing, the barley that was to be cut down. Though, for obvious reasons, it was customary to choose for this purpose the sheltered Ashes valley across Kidron, there was no restriction on that point, provided the barley had grown in an ordinary field - of course in Palestine itself - and not in garden or orchard land, and that the soil had not been manured nor yet artificially watered. When the time for cutting the sheaf had arrived, that is, on the evening of the 15th of Nisan (even though it were a Sabbath), just as the sun went down, three men, each with a sickle and basket, formally set to work. But in order clearly to bring out all that was distinctive in the ceremony, they first asked of the bystanders three times each of these questions: “Has the sun gone down?” “With this sickle?” “Into this basket?” “On this Sabbath (or first Passover-day)?” - and, lastly, “Shall I reap?” Having each time been answered in the affirmative, they cut down barley to the amount of one ephah, or ten omers, or three seahs, which is equal to about 29 liters (7 gallons 5 pints US measure). The ears were brought into the Court of the Temple, and thrashed out with canes or stalks, so as not to injure the corn; then “parched” on a pan perforated with holes, so that each grain might be touched by the fire, and finally exposed to the wind. The corn thus prepared was ground in a barley-mill, which left the hulls whole. According to some, the flour was always successfully passed through thirteen sieves, each closer than the other. The statement of a rival authority, however, seems more rational - that it was only done till the flour was sufficiently fine, which was ascertained by one of the “Gizbarim” (treasurers) plunging his hands into it, the sifting process being continued so long as any of the flour adhered to the hands. Though one ephah, or ten omers, of barley was cut down, only one omer of flour, or about 2.9 liters (6 US pints), was offered in the Temple on the second Paschal, or 16th day of Nisan. The rest of the flour might be redeemed, and used for any purpose. The omer of flour was mixed with a “log,” or nearly 0.4 liter (0.7 US pint) of oil, and a handful of frankincense put upon it, then waved before the Lord, and a handful taken out and burned on the altar. The remainder belonged to the priest. This was what is popularly, though not very correctly, called “the presentation of the first or wave sheaf” on the second day of the Passover-feast, or the 16th of Nisan." Alfred Edersheim, The Temple – Chapter 13

So there you have it. We start counting the forty-nine days to Shavuot from when the sickle is first put to the standing crop. The day that we can start the barley harvest has been shown to be the 16th of the first month, Nisan, which is the morrow of the first day of Unleavened Bread, the 15th of Nisan, which directly follows the Pesach meal. Thus the date of Pesach is directly connected to the barley harvest.