Chadash (New Grain)

Chadash is the prohibition against eating the new grain of the year before the Omer offering is brought on the sixteenth of Nisan. From the time of the Omer, the new grain becomes permitted. This prohibition applies to the five species of grain - wheat, barley, spelt, oats, and rye - and to grain that took root after the sixteenth of Nisan of the previous year. Until the Omer is brought, all such grain is forbidden as chadash. After the destruction of the Temple, the Sages debated whether chadash applies by Torah law even without the Omer offering. The mitzvah of chadash connects the grain of the field with the service of the Temple, and teaches that the new harvest is not permitted until it has been dedicated to holiness.