Menachos, Chapter Ten, Mishnah 3. We continue our discussion of the process of bringing the Omer. Before we describe the order of events, it is worth setting out the timetable clearly, so that the picture will be sharp.
The timetable of bringing the Omer:
The fourteenth of Nissan, afternoon: the agents of the court go out and designate in advance which barley will be reaped. This is not yet Yom Tov at all.
The night of the fifteenth: the Seder night, and the following morning is the first day of Pesach.
The afternoon of the fifteenth: the local people go out to the place of the barley in order to watch the reaping, and they wait there until nightfall.
The night of the sixteenth of Nissan (the night of the first day of Chol HaMoed in Eretz Yisrael): the barley is reaped, and over the course of that night it is processed.
The morning of the sixteenth: the Omer is offered.
The words of the Mishnah:
"Keitzad hayu osim?" - how was this actually carried out? "Shluchei beis din yotz'in me'erev Yom Tov" - the agents of the Sanhedrin would go out on the eve of Yom Tov, on the fourteenth of Nissan, during the afternoon hours before the Seder night. "Ve'osin oso kerichos bamechubar lakarka" - they would bundle the stalks of barley in advance into small fist sized sheaves while they were still attached to the ground, and tie them. In this way it is known in advance what will be reaped, and the grain is bundled and easy to pack into baskets. "Kedei sheyehei noach liktzor" - so that the reaping should be quick and easy.
There are two reasons for this:
Not to trouble the public: a large crowd is standing and watching the process, and there is no reason to make them wait any longer than necessary.
The pressure of time: this is a busy night. After the reaping the barley must be turned, roasted, ground, sifted and made into a Minchah. There is a great deal of work ahead, and therefore it must be begun as early as possible.
"Vechol ha'ayaros hasmuchos lesham" - the residents of the villages near the place of the reaping, within the distance of the techum (two thousand amos, about a kilometer), are obligated to come and watch the reaping of the barley. "Kedei sheyehei niktzar be'esek gadol" - so that the reaping should be done with great publicity, before a large crowd and with fanfare.
Why all this publicity?
The verse dealing with the Omer states that it is done "mimochoras haShabbos" - on the day after the Shabbos. We have a tradition that "the Shabbos" in this verse refers to Pesach, to the first day of the festival, and therefore the reaping and the bringing of the Omer are always done on the second day of Pesach, which is the first day of Chol HaMoed, the sixteenth of Nissan.
The Boethusians and the Sadducees, however, sects that rejected the Oral Torah, claimed that it is specifically done on a Sunday, the day after Shabbos, in which case the reaping might fall on the second, third or fourth day of Chol HaMoed, depending on which day Sunday falls out. Our calendar today is fixed, and there are days on which the festival cannot fall, but in the time of the Mishnah the festival could fall on any day of the week. In order to refute them and to declare publicly that their reading of the verse is mistaken, the reaping is done with all this commotion.
The order of the questions and answers:
"Keivan shechashecha" - once darkness fell and the crowd had gathered, the reaper would open with a series of questions, each one asked three times:
"Ba hashemesh?" - has the sun set? The intent is not merely sunset, but the completion of twilight until three stars appear, that is: has night arrived, so that the fifteenth of Nissan has ended and the sixteenth has begun? "Omrim: hein" - and they answer "yes" ("hein" in the language of the Mishnah), and so too for the second and third questions.
"Magal zu?" - shall I reap the barley with this sickle? "Omrim: hein".
"Kupah zu?" - shall I place it into this basket? "Omrim: hein".
"Shabbos zu?" - when it fell out on Shabbos (a real possibility in the times of the Mishnah): shall I perform the reaping now, on this Shabbos? "Omrim: hein".
"Ektzor?" - shall I actually carry out the reaping now? "Vehem omrim lo: ketzor".
"Shalosh pe'amim al kol davar vedavar, vehem omrim lo: hein, hein, hein" - each question is asked three times, and three times they answer him "hein". Several ways of understanding this have been offered: according to the Rambam, the reaper asks three times and they answer him three times; and some understand that they answer three times to each of the three questions, for a total of nine answers.
In practice the matter is emphasized even further, for according to the Sages three separate men perform the reaping, and even on Shabbos. It emerges that each of the three reapers asks three times: "Ba hashemesh? Ektzor? Magal zu?" and so on. All told, as the Rambam describes it, nine questions and nine answers at each of the stages.
"Vechol kach lamah? Mipnei haBeisusim" - all of this commotion, over something that could have been done quietly by a single person at night, was meant to uproot the view of the Beisusim.
Not much is known historically about the Beisusim, and they are usually grouped together with the Tzedukim, about whom there is a great deal of information thanks to Josephus. They may have been the students, or the descendants of the students, of Antigonus of Socho, who misunderstood his teaching that one should not serve for the sake of reward, and ultimately rejected the Oral Torah and clung to the Written Torah alone.
From the verse "Usefartem lachem mimacharas haShabbos miyom havi'achem es omer hatenufah" they expounded that the reaping must take place specifically on Sunday, and not on whichever day of the week happens to follow the first day of Pesach. In their words: "There is no reaping of the Omer at the conclusion of Yom Tov", but rather at the conclusion of Shabbos, on the Sunday after Pesach.
The halachah: the halachah does not follow the Tzedukim and the Beisusim. The reaping and the bringing of the Omer take place on the sixteenth of Nissan, in the manner described here, and in accordance with the Rambam's view: three men perform the reaping, and each of them asks the questions three times.