Munchies For A Mentch

In this week’s parsha, Emor, we find a description of the service involving the bringing of a measure of the new year’s wheat produce as a sacrifice and expression of gratitude to Hashem for providing mankind with its required sustenance, represented by wheat- man’s staple grain.

The commentators make the observation that a similar korban, representing the same theme is brought on Pesach, but with one difference-on Pesach the Korban Omer consists of barley whereas the offering brought on Shavuos is made from wheat -why?

An enlightening approach is the following; In the Talmud barley is always described as being a type of grain typically fed to animals whereas the superior grain-wheat, is accepted as being a food of quality fit for human consumption. During Pesach we thank Hashem for providing for our needs and so too on Shavuos – but there is one major difference on Pesach we hadn’t yet received the Torah, on Shavuos we had. A human being without a divinely instructed code of moral conduct (as opposed to a moral code created by man purely for the sake of pragmatism and efficiency which can so easily be dropped when “necessary” ) is not all that different from an animal-just a bit cleverer.

The Torah is our moral guide book and our instruction manual as to how to achieve perfection and true success in life- how to be a “mentch”.

R’ Ezer Pine