Menachot 4: The Omer as an Involuntary Meal Offering

The Gemara continues to discuss the kometz that was brought to the altar.  If this offering was completed sh'lo lishma, for its own sake, it is valid.  It is not credited to the owner, though, and a replacement offering is required.

Today Rav tells us that this is totally invalid because the purpose of the offering was to permit the new harvest; the new harvest was not permitted through the process.  Rav did not provide any biblical proofs for his ideas and so they were easy to dispute. 

Rav discussed the omer, a unit used to measure barley offered in the Temple on the 16th of Nissan (the day after Pesach ends).*  He believed that the omer were the same as other meal offerings.  The rabbis disagreed because unlike other meal-offerings, the omer cannot be voluntary offerings. The grain was roasted and crushed into a flour.  A handful was offered on the altar (burned) and the priests consumed the rest of the flour. Once the omer was brought, the community could eat the grain from the new harvest.  Because the omer offering was required to allow the people to eat from the new harvest, it cannot be voluntary like the other meal offerings.  It must become invalid if not used for its stated purpose.

* The omer was harvested beginning on the night after the first day of Pesach (even if it was Shabbat).