The Spring Wheat Harvest Creates a Huge Dilemma for Jewish Rabbis.
There's none so blind as he whom the Almighty has blinded and he that refuses to see.
Shalom All,
the following will show just how blind some people are and show more evidence that the Pentecost NEW meat offering had to be from the SPRING WHEAT which is harvested in the summer, 50 days AFTER the seventh Sabbath, Leviticus 23:16.
We all know or should know that Leviticus 23 teaches a NEW meat offering NOT an OLD one, is to be brought to the Almighty from the wheat harvest. The blinded Jews bring an OLD meat offering for the traditional Pentecost as you will see shortly.
The Rabbis teach that SPRING WHEAT that is planted in the spring and reaped four months later, in the summer, can not be eaten until the following year because it is considered Chodosh/NEW grain/meat. They believe that anything planted during or after Passover and has not took root, cannot be eaten until after next Passover wave sheaf has been waived. They quote from the Mishnah to support their belief, as the following web sites will show. According to this belief, the traditional Pentecost winter wheat cannot fit the requirements of a NEW meat offering because it is considered OLD grain/meat because it is planted in the fall, and took root before Passover. Therefore there's no way they can have a NEW meat offering of the wheat unless there EYES are opened and they acknowledge the summer wheat harvest/Pentecost.
Even if they planted Winter wheat, it would not be considered a NEW grain/meat offering because it was planted before the Vernal Equinox and according to the Mishnah etc. the NEW grain/meat comes after Passover, in the summertime and that is exactly what the Scripture calls for but they are too blind to see because of their tradition etc.
The following definitions and web sites prove what I'm saying.
Chodosh — the new crop of grain (spring wheat). Originally, chodosh was forbidden by the Torah until after Pesach (when it is then called yoshon, the old crop). Its status today outside of Israel is open to various opinions. Actual chodosh grain is prohibited even outside of Israel, but with the double doubt as to whether a product is made from winter or spring wheat and whether that spring wheat is from this year’s crop or last year’s, many authorities are lenient outside of Israel. All kashrus agencies require yoshon status for products of Israel. See yoshon. Also,
http://www.kashrusmagazine.com/magazine.php?do=133
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshon we read,
In Judaism, Yoshon (Hebrew: ישן ; "old [grain]") is a concept within Kashrut (the Jewish dietary regulations), based on the Biblical requirement not to eat any chodosh— grain of the new year (or products made from it) prior to the annual Omer offering on 16th Nisan.[1]
In classical Rabbinic Judaism, this requirement was considered restricted to the five classical grains of Judaism - wheat, barley, oats, spelt, and rye; any of these grains that are too young to pass the requirement (and products made from them) are referred to in Judaism as Chodosh, meaning "new [grain]." Additionally, the Rabbinic interpretation requires grain to have taken root prior to the omer offering for it to become permitted; therefore, grains planted after Passover could only be consumed the following year.
Following the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 C.E., the omer offering was no longer offered. Since this time, the new grain has been deemed permissible following the date on which the offering was brought in ancient times.
The applicability of the chodosh rules to grain grown outside the Land of Israel is a subject of debate among halakhic authorities. Rabbi Moses Isserles forbids it, while Rabbi Yoel Sirkis felt it is permissible.[2] Additionally, the manner in which various foods have historically been available has meant that Jewish populations would need to risk starvation to pursue stringent compliance with this aspect of Kashrut. These two factors led to a situation in which observation of the yoshon regulation was relatively limited until very recently (at least in the Ashkenazic community).
In modern times, particularly in Developed Nations, food is much more readily available than it historically had been, and grain is in sufficient abundance that Orthodox Jews have become more interested in following yoshon requirements. Modern packaging practices, which in some nations involve the stamping of production dates on every package, often allow individuals to determine whether food is definitely yoshon; packaging organisations sometimes add Kashrut information to the packaging, and sometimes include in this information whether the product is known to be yoshon.
Hope someone can understand what I'm saying and possibly add to it.
See also
http://www.tzemachdovid.org/thepractica ... emor.shtml and
http://www.fao.org/nr/water/cropinfo_wheat.html
And
http://www.star-k.org/kashrus/kk-yoshon-old_new.htm for full details. And at
http://www.ou.org/kosher/daf/advanced/yoshen.htm and
http://www.star-k.org/kashrus/kk-yoshon-prepchodosh.htm
Jewish Rabbis are discussing the problem and referring to the Mishnah etc. to prove that everything harvested after Passover is NEW meat/grain unless it was planted before Passover and then it is OLD grain/meat and I believe the Scripture teaches it is supposed to be A NEW MEAT OFFERING. Had they not brought in another wheat harvest, they would not be having this dilemma.
Also remember that Lamentation 2:6 teaches that He would cause BOTH the Sabbaths AND feast days to be forgotten in Zion, and that is exactly what has happened.
Brother Arnold
ps. From the following we see that Philo also may have understood new produce to be from grains sown in that year around Passover and after.
THE SPECIAL LAWS TWO XXX (176)
(179)The feast which takes place on the basis of the number fifty has received the name
“the feast of the first produce” since during the feast it is customary to offer two leavened loaves made from wheat as the first fruit of grain, the best food. It is named “the feast of the first produce” either because before the annual crop has proceeded to human use,
the first produce of the new grain and the first fruit which has appeared are offered as first fruit. (180) For it is just and religiously correct that those who have received the greatest gift from God, the abundance of the most necessary as well as most beneficial and even the sweetest food, should not enjoy it or have any use of it at all before they offer the first fruits to the Supplier. They are giving him nothing since all things and possessions and gifts are his, but through a small symbol demonstrate a thankful and God-loving character to the one who needs no favors but showers continuous and ever-flowing favors.
THE SACRIFICE OF ABLE AND CANE XX (72)
XX. (72) We have now adequately gone through the first article of our accusation against Cain. And the second is of this nature, Why does he bring the first fruits of the fruits of the earth,
but not of the first produce? May it not be for the same reason, that he may give the pre-eminence in honour to creation, and may requite God himself with what is the second best? For as there are some persons who place the body before the soul, the slave before the mistress, so also there are persons who honour the creation more than God, though the lawgiver delivered this injunction, that “we should bring the first fruits of the first produce of the earth into the house of God,” and not assign them to ourselves. Philo seems to separate firstfruits and first produce. Not sure what all this means but we do more searching. Perhaps cane did not want to give up the first fruit of wheat harvest.
Philo says, in another quote that,
“This feast is the most publicly celebrated feast and is called “
the feast of the first produce,” named etymologically from the circumstance that the first of the produce, the first fruits, are dedicated at that time.
Why would not the barley be counted as first fruits??? Could it be because barley was sown and took root before the NEW year began and therefore could not be called a new grain/meat offering but is called wave sheaf instead???
Another quote says,
“and this festival, being that of the first fruits of the corn, has derived its name of pentecost from the number of fifty, (penteµkostos). And on it it is the custom to offer up two leavened loaves made of wheat, as a first fruit of the best kind of food made of corn; either because, before the fruit of the year is converted to the use of man, the first produce of the new crop, the first gathered corn that appears is offered as a first fruit, in order that by an insignificant emblem the people may display their grateful disposition;
The term
“fruit of the year” could be referring to the grain that took root AFTER the agricultural year began around Passover and produced a fruit of the new grain that summer. The barley would not be fruit of the year/revolution because it was planted in the old year. Year is a revolution in Exodus 12 were He told Moses that this is the first month/moon of the year/revolution.