Taamei Hamitzvos - Chadash
By Rabbi Shmuel Kraines
“Study improves the quality of the act and completes it, and a mitzvah is more beautiful when it emerges from someone who understands its significance.” (Meiri, Bava Kama 17a)
Chadash
Mitzvos #303-305; Vayikra 23:14
We may not eat from new grain crops (chadash) until the Omeroffering has been brought from it on the 16th of Nissan, and in the absence of the Beis HaMikdash, after that day has passed. Outside Eretz Yisrael, where the first Yom Tov of Pesach is observed for an additional day, the prohibition extends until after the 17th.
Sefer HaChinuch and Alshich explain that since grain products are people’s staple food, it is fitting to bring a portion of the new crops as an offering to Hashem before partaking from it ourselves. He compares this to the obligation to recite a berachah before partaking of any pleasure in this world. The Omeroffering consists of barley because it is the first grain to fruition. It is waved in all directions to show that the entire world belongs to Hashem and that we and all we own are dedicated to Him. Once we recognize this, we are worthy of enjoying His bounty meriting further blessing.
Taking a different approach, Rav Menachem HaBavli links the prohibition to the counting of Omer,which leads up to the time of the Giving of the Torah on Shavuos. This insight will shed light on why the mitzvah of Chadash applies even in the absence of the Omeroffering. He explains that the new crop alludes to Creation; it is as if Hashem’s creation of produce repeats itself every year. We have a mitzvah to refrain from eating from the new crop until we begin counting toward the Giving of the Torah to demonstrate that the world was only created so that we fulfill the Torah and come to know the Creator. We are showing that without the Torah, there is no reason for Hashem to continue sustaining His world with the new crop. As the Mishnah in Pirkei Avos (3:17) puts it: If there is no Torah, there is no flour. Every time we refrain from eating Chadash, we honor the Creator and bring deeper into our hearts the reason for our existence (Olelos Ephraim §108).
