וַיַּ֖עַן וַיֹּאמַ֑ר הֲלֹ֗א אֵת֩ אֲשֶׁ֨ר יָשִׂ֤ים יְהוָה֙ בְּפִ֔י אֹת֥וֹ אֶשְׁמֹ֖ר לְדַבֵּֽר׃
Ia menjawab dan berkata, “Bukankah apa yang ditaruh Yang Mahakekal di dalam mulutku, itulah yang harus kuperhatikan untuk kuucapkan?”
Redeeming Relevance; Deuteronomy
Based on its usage elsewhere as well as on its literal meaning, the expression of placing words in someone’s mouth connotes a strong dichotomy between the words and the speaker whose mouth eventually receives them. With regard to other places in the Bible where the expression is used, the most famous is with the prophecy of Bil’am. There, the gentile prophet makes it quite clear that it is not he who owns the prophetic words that he speaks, but rather that it is always God Who “puts them into [his] mouth” (Bemidbar 23:12). Likewise earlier, Moshe is instructed to put his own words “into the mouth” of his spokesman, Aharon (Shemot 4:15).
Chizkuni
“Avraham stood up and prostrated himself;” Avraham was dependent on the goodwill of everyone in that town; even if Efron had been willing to sell his field or plot Avraham would have needed all the townspeople’s permission to convert it into a burial site. Avraham had to first arise in order to prostrate himself in the appropriate manner to all of them, even to the one sitting behind him. But for a single individual such as Efron he was not required to rise, he just prostrated himself before him.
Rabbeinu Bahya
The most important aspect of the commandment to count in our verse is that one must begin the count on the 16th of the month of Nissan. This is the first day of the reaping of the barley harvest. The first cut barley (of good grade) is offered as a communal offering as a gift to the Lord as described in verses 12-13. The number 50 (of counting) comes to an end with the harvesting of the first wheat from which again an offering is brought in the form of two loaves of bread which are baked as leavened loaves (as spelled out in verses 18-20). The principal part of the whole commandment is the ritual of the offering of these two loaves. The accompanying animal sacrifices were precisely that, they did not constitute the principal part of the combined offerings. If, for some reason, no new wheat was available on that date the accompanying animal sacrifices mentioned here would not be offered.
The word חדשה, ”new,” which the Torah writes describing this gift-offering of two loaves of bread from the new wheat harvest which is to be brought on the fiftieth day of the count, constitutes the festival of Shavuot. When giving further details of this counting etc., the Torah adds that it is to be an “eternal statute in all your dwellings” (verse 14). Seeing that the performance of the Omer sacrifice is dependent on the subsequent offering of the two loaves on the Shavuot festival, it would have been easy to imagine that in the absence of a Temple where the latter could be offered, the former, i.e. the “count-down” would also become redundant; therefore the Torah had to write that this applies throughout the generations in all our dwellings, as distinct from “in your dwellings” (verse 17) which is the Torah’s wording for the applicability of the offering of the two loaves. Not only the counting but also the accompanying prohibition of eating from the new barley prior to the beginning of the count-down is applicable nowadays also. The commandment not to perform work on the Shavuot festival is also in effect just as it was when the Temple was standing, although the only commandment which dis- tinguishes that festival cannot be performed in our time. The common denominator of all the festivals listed in the Torah is that they apply both in the land of Israel and in the Diaspora and both when the Temple is standing and when it is not. If the Torah saw fit to emphasise that the Day of Atonement remains in effect throughout the earth and regardless of whether the Temple is standing, this may be due to the fact that our atonement is linked to the sacrifices offered on that day. Seeing we are not able to offer these sacrifices while we are in exile, we might have assumed that the day has lost its sanctity. The Torah therefore makes clear that the sacrifices are not the condition for the effectiveness of the Day of Atonement. In our portion the words “an eternal statute in all your dwellings” are not mentioned in connection with Passover, seeing this has already been mentioned in Exodus 12,14,17, where the Torah speaks of the consumption of unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Seeing that these parts of the ritual can be performed without the Temple, the Torah there had to spell this out. This is the commentary of Nachmanides on the Torah omitting the words “an eternal statute in all your dwellings” in connection with Passover in this portion.
The word חדשה, ”new,” which the Torah writes describing this gift-offering of two loaves of bread from the new wheat harvest which is to be brought on the fiftieth day of the count, constitutes the festival of Shavuot. When giving further details of this counting etc., the Torah adds that it is to be an “eternal statute in all your dwellings” (verse 14). Seeing that the performance of the Omer sacrifice is dependent on the subsequent offering of the two loaves on the Shavuot festival, it would have been easy to imagine that in the absence of a Temple where the latter could be offered, the former, i.e. the “count-down” would also become redundant; therefore the Torah had to write that this applies throughout the generations in all our dwellings, as distinct from “in your dwellings” (verse 17) which is the Torah’s wording for the applicability of the offering of the two loaves. Not only the counting but also the accompanying prohibition of eating from the new barley prior to the beginning of the count-down is applicable nowadays also. The commandment not to perform work on the Shavuot festival is also in effect just as it was when the Temple was standing, although the only commandment which dis- tinguishes that festival cannot be performed in our time. The common denominator of all the festivals listed in the Torah is that they apply both in the land of Israel and in the Diaspora and both when the Temple is standing and when it is not. If the Torah saw fit to emphasise that the Day of Atonement remains in effect throughout the earth and regardless of whether the Temple is standing, this may be due to the fact that our atonement is linked to the sacrifices offered on that day. Seeing we are not able to offer these sacrifices while we are in exile, we might have assumed that the day has lost its sanctity. The Torah therefore makes clear that the sacrifices are not the condition for the effectiveness of the Day of Atonement. In our portion the words “an eternal statute in all your dwellings” are not mentioned in connection with Passover, seeing this has already been mentioned in Exodus 12,14,17, where the Torah speaks of the consumption of unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Seeing that these parts of the ritual can be performed without the Temple, the Torah there had to spell this out. This is the commentary of Nachmanides on the Torah omitting the words “an eternal statute in all your dwellings” in connection with Passover in this portion.