Concepts of Scripture in Mordechai Breuer 275within the framework of their belief in Torah mi-Sinai (Torah given at Si-
nai). Th ese insights would fully belong among the “seventy faces of Torah”
regarded as legitimate and praiseworthy by the Talmudic rabbis (Midrash
Numbers Rabba 13.15). From Breuer’s point of view, the palace of Torah is
all the more majestic because it incorporates responses to the challenges of
the past two centuries.
Yet not every disagreement should generate dialectic; not every uncer-
tainty is an ambiguity; not every textual divergence confronts us with a
legitimate variant. Sometimes no more than one party to a disagreement
in interpretation can be right; some uncertainties need to be eliminated
if at all possible, rather than cherished as a source of profundity; a scribe
may err with no extenuating literary or theological apologia. Paradoxically,
the momentum driving the Orthodox cultivation of omnisignifi cance,
once it embraces noncanonical sources and methods, may end up unwit-
tingly “sanctifying” some of these profane resources mainly because they
are there.
Th us, one may agree with Breuer’s outlook and yet wonder whether he
goes too far in annexing every speculation generated by the academic in-
genuity and industry on exhibit in the literature he studied. Let us exam-
ine one example where Breuer’s program intersects with early rabbinic and
nonrabbinic exegesis. Consider a famous crux found in Leviticus 23. Aft er
giving laws concerning the Passover holiday in verses 5 – 8, verses 9 – 11 of
this chapter direct the Israelites to off er a sheaf of barley on “the day aft er
the Sabbath” (mohorat ha-shabbat; Leviticus 23:11). Th e same phrase occurs
again in verse 15, which directs the Israelites to count seven weeks starting
on “the day aft er the Sabbath.” At the end of those seven weeks, another
festival occurs, which is associated with the off ering of the fi rst fruit (bik-
kurim), that is, the holiday of Shavuot (that festival is described in verses
16 – 21). Th e crux involves the precise meaning of the phrase mohorat ha-
shabbat in verses 11 and 15. According to rabbinic tradition, the phrase re-
fers to the morrow of the fi rst day of the festival of matsot (Passover), that
is the sixteenth of the month of Nisan. Th us, the word shabbat here does
not mean the Sabbath; rather, it refers to the fi rst day of the Passover fes-
tival. On the day aft er the beginning of the Passover festival, farmers must
off er a sheaf of wheat known as the omer at the Temple; counting seven
weeks from the omer yields the date of the second festival, Shavuot. Ac-
cording to rabbinic tradition, the Sadducees (another ancient Jewish group
who opposed the predecessors of the Rabbis) rejected this interpretation.
In their opinion, mohorat ha-shabbat means the day aft er the Sabbath, the