Who shall lift up the shed before the Lord, the next day after the sabbath, that it may be acceptable for you, and shall sanctify it.

“והניף AND HE SHALL WAVE [THE OMER] — Every form of the root נוף used in connection with sacrifices signifies that one moves the latter about both horizontally (מוליך ומביא) and upwards and downwards (מעלה ומוריד); he moves it about horizontally to prevent (i. e. the act was symbolical of preventing) destructive winds, he moves it about upwards and downwards to keep away injurious dews (cf. Rashi on Exodus 29:24) (Menachot 62a). לרצנכם TO BE ACCEPTED FOR YOU — If you offer it according to this precept it shall effect favourable acceptance for you. ממחרת השבת ON THE MORROW AFTER THE DAY OF REST [THE PRIEST SHALL WAVE IT] — This must mean on the morrow of the first day of the Passover festival (on the 16th of Nisan); for if you say that it means on the morrow of the weekly Sabbath (i. e. on a Sunday) you do not know which particular Sabbath Scripture is referring to (Menachot 66a).”

“ON THE MORROW AFTER ‘HA’SHABBATH’ THE PRIEST SHALL WAVE IT. “That is, the morrow after the first day of the Festival of Passover. For if you are to say it means [on the morrow of] the Sabbath of Creation [i.e., the weekly Sabbath], you have no indication which Sabbath is meant.” This is Rashi’s language. And indeed, this is the greatest of the proofs mentioned in the Gemara [to show that ha’shabbath here is not to be interpreted literally as meaning the weekly Sabbath, but refers to the first day of Passover]; for what sense is there for Scripture to state that “when ye are to come into the Land … and shall reap the harvest thereof ye shall bring the sheaf on the morrow of the weekly Sabbath,” which would mean that at any time of the year when we come into the Land and reap its harvest, the priest shall wave the sheaf on the morrow of the first Sabbath after we have come into the Land! In that case the Festival of Weeks would have no [definite] starting point from which we are to count [the forty-nine days, so that on the fiftieth day we should celebrate that festival]! Moreover, according to this way we would not know even in the years following [our entrance into the Land] when we are to begin counting [the forty-nine days], but only from the day that we first put the sickle to the standing grain at our will. But these are meaningless words! If, however, the expression on the morrow after ‘ha’shabbath’ means “on the morrow after [the first day of] the festival,” in accordance with the tradition of our Rabbis, then the matter appears correctly. For at first Scripture commanded that we should observe in the first month the Festival of Unleavened Bread for seven days, and that on the first day there should be a solemn rest and on the seventh day a solemn rest, and we are not to do thereon any manner of servile work. Afterwards He stated that when we come into the Land we are to bring on the morrow of this rest-day [previously] mentioned, the sheaf of the waving, this being the first rest-day here mentioned. And He also taught that the [bringing of the] sheaf was not obligatory in the desert, nor outside the Land [since the section begins, When ye are come into the Land …]. However, the expressions, even unto the morrow after ‘ha’shabbath’ the seventh and seven ‘shabbathoth’ cannot possibly be interpreted as referring to a festival [as does the expression on the morrow after ‘ha’shabbath’ here in Verse 11 and also further in Verse 15.] Onkelos, however, rendered them as meaning “week”, but if so, there are two different usages of the same word in one verse!. According to Onkelos the first ha’shabbath means “the festival,” while the second shabbathoth means “weeks.” And the commentators have written that this is a literary expression [Scripture using one term in the same instance with two different meanings], such as: they rode on thirty ‘a’yarim’ (ass colts) and they had thirty ‘a’yarim’ (cities). And in another place Scripture clearly states, Seven weeks shalt thou number. Similarly, those that were to come in on ‘ha’shabbath,’ with those that were to go out on ‘ha’shabbath,’ [where both ha’shabbath mean] “week.” Likewise, Saying: ‘When will the New Moon be gone, that we may sell grain, ‘v’ha’shabbath,’ that we may set forth corn?’ [also means “and the week”], for since every seven days contain one Sabbath, and the enumeration of the days is with reference to it [the Sabbath], therefore one week is called “one shabbath”, this usage being well-known and common in the words of our Rabbis, such as: “for twice b’shabbath (in the week) the court sits in towns [on Mondays and on Thursdays].” It is possible that every shabbath mentioned [here] in the section means “week.” And the meaning of the expression on the morrow after ‘ha’shabbath’ is that on the day of the waving of the sheaf they should begin counting the week, and if so, that day will be “on the morrow after the week” which has passed, it being as if He had said: “The day of the waving of the sheaf shall be on the morrow after the week with relation to the days that have passed by, and the first with reference to the weeks which he is to count until he finishes seven weeks.” And since He mentioned the expression, and on the fifteenth day, He thus states that [the priest] should wave the sheaf on the morrow after the week mentioned, and count therefrom seven weeks. One cannot mistake the expression [ha’shabbath] as referring to the fourteenth day [of Nisan, thus making the offering of the omer, brought on the morrow, to be on the fifteenth day of Nisan, the first day of Passover], for of that fourteenth day He has said that only at dusk [is the Eternal’s Passover]. of the festival is the next day, i.e., the fifteenth. Hence on the morrow after ‘ha’shabbath’ must refer to the expression and on the fifteenth day etc. (in Verse 6), thus establishing that it is on the sixteenth day of Nisan that we are to begin a new week — the first of the seven complete weeks. And the meaning of they shall be complete is that a Sabbath together with its six days is called “a whole” Sabbath. And the meaning of the expression mimachorath ha’shabbath [literally: “from the morrow of the shabbath”] is like b’machorath ha’shabbath (“on the morrow of the shabbath”). Similarly, Even unto ‘mimachorath ha’shabbath’ the seventh, shall ye number [fifty days] the morrow after the seventh week …” This cannot be understood literally, for it would mean that the festival day of Shevuoth is to be observed on the day “from the morrow after the seventh week, i.e., on the following day after the morrow of the seven weeks.” Instead, it must mean: “Even unto on the morrow …” [is like b’machorath ha’shabbath (“on the morrow of the shabbath”)] So also: It shall be eaten the same day ye offer it u’mimachorath [literally: “and from the morrow,” means u’b'machorath — “and on the morrow]. Scholars have said that the letter beth cannot occur as a prefix in the word machar (tomorrow) or machorath (the morrow). [Therefore it states], And it came to pass ‘mimachorath’ [literally: “from the morrow”] that Moses sat to judge the people [which means “on the morrow”]. And the Eternal did that thing ‘mimachorath’, 9:6. [literally: “from the morrow,” which means “on the morrow”], and similarly all such expressions.”

“And he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord,.... Or the omer of barley; this was done by the priest in the tabernacle and temple, where was the presence of God, and that before the handful of it was put upon the altar; which agitation or waving was, as Gersom says, towards the cast; it was moved to and fro, backwards and forwards, upwards and downwards, to make an acknowledgment to the Lord of heaven and earth, that the fruits of the earth and the plentiful harvest were of him, and to give him the praise and glory of it: to be accepted for you; of the Lord, as a thanksgiving to him, for the harvest now ripe, and the appointed time of it, and the plenty thereof; and that the remainder might be sanctified and blessed to them, and they have leave to gather it in, which they had not till this was done: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it; not after the seventh day, but after the first day of the feast of unleavened bread, which was a sabbath, in which no servile work was to be done, Lev 23:7; and so the Targum of Jonathan calls it the day after the first good day of the passover, which was the sixteenth of Nisan, as Josephus expressly says, in the place above referred to; and so it is generally understood by Jewish writers (m) the account given of this affair is this; the messengers of the sanhedrim went out (from Jerusalem over the brook Kidron to the fields near it) on the evening of the feast, (i.e. at the going out of the fifteenth) and at the beginning of the sixteenth of Nisan, and bound the standing corn in bundles, that so it might be the more easily reaped; and all the neighbouring cities gathered together there, that it might be reaped in great pomp; and when it was dark, one said to them, is the sun set? they said, yes. With this sickle (shall I reap?) they said, yes. In this basket (shall I put it?) they said, yes. If on a sabbath day, he said to them, On this sabbath day (shall I do it?) they said, yes (n). These questions were put and answered three times; then they reaped it and put it into the baskets, and brought it to the court, where they parched it before the fire, to fulfil the commandment of parched corn; then they put it in mills for grinding beans, and took out of it a tenth part (of an ephah), which was sifted with eighteen sieves; then oil and frankincense were poured upon it, being mixed; and it was waved, and brought, and a handful taken and burnt, and the rest was eaten by the priests; and when they had offered the omer, they went out and found the streets of Jerusalem full of meal and parched corn (o), there being now full liberty to reap what they would: now this sheaf of the firstfruits was typical of Christ; it being of barley, may denote the mean estate of Christ in his humiliation; and but one sheaf for all the people, may signify that Christ is the one Mediator, Saviour, and Redeemer: yet as a sheaf comprehends many stalks and grains, so Christ has a complication of blessings in him; yea, he had all his people representatively in him, when he was offered for the whole body of his mystical Israel, all the children of God scattered abroad; the manner of reaping it, by persons deputed by the sanhedrim on the eve of a festival of the passover, in the sight of much people, without Jerusalem, near Kidron, exactly agrees with the apprehending of Christ in the night near Kidron, by persons sent from the Jewish sanhedrim, and his suffering publicly without the gates of Jerusalem; it being brought to the priests in the court, and threshed, winnowed, dried, and parched by the fire, and ground in mills, may denote the various dolorous sufferings of Christ, by means of the priests and elders of the people; and oil and frankincense being put on it, may denote the acceptableness of his sacrifice to God; and the waving of it, his resurrection from the dead, which was on the very day this sheaf was waved; who is the firstfruits of them that sleep in him, and which sanctifies the whole body of them, and ensures their resurrection unto eternal life; see Co1 15:20. (m) Jarchi & Ben Gersom in loc. Jarchi in Misn. Succah, c. 3. sect. 12. (n) Misn. Menachot, c. 10. sect. 3, 4. (o) Ib. sect. 4, 5.”