Daphna Levin-Kahn – Head of Jewish Studies High School

Count the days, make them count

We are now in the middle of the Omer period, Sefirat Haomer, the seven weeks between Pesach and Shavuot, in which the Torah requires of us to count each day, with the Talmud delineating many halachot (Jewish laws) about the specifics of the counting.

In Parashat Emor, we hear the first commandment about the Omer:

וּסְפַרְתֶּם לָכֶם מִמׇּחֳרַת הַשַּׁבָּת מִיּוֹם הֲבִיאֲכֶם אֶת־עֹמֶר הַתְּנוּפָה שֶׁבַע שַׁבָּתוֹת תְּמִימֹת תִּהְיֶינָה׃
עַד מִֽמׇּחֳרַת הַשַּׁבָּת הַשְּׁבִיעִת תִּסְפְּרוּ חֲמִשִּׁים יוֹם וְהִקְרַבְתֶּם מִנְחָה חֲדָשָׁה לַה’׃

And from the day on which you bring the sheaf of elevation offering—the day after the sabbath—you shall count off seven weeks. They must be complete:

You must count until the day after the seventh week – fifty days; then you shall bring an offering of new grain to God. (Emor, Leviticus 23: 15-16)

According to the Torah, at the start of the Omer, on the second night of Pesach, an offering of grain was brought to the Temple, and then, seven full weeks would be counted, and, at the end, an offering of grain was brought to the Temple, and an unnamed festive day was to take place.

What’s the point of this counting to connect Pesach to this Festival of Weeks (Shavuot)? It seems strange to count so meticulously for so long just to do virtually the same thing you did at the start.

There are several ideas that attempt to answer this question:

In the Torah, Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot were agricultural festivals, each connecting to an important milestone in the arable calendar. The harvest around Pesach time (in Israel) was the barley harvest, which was and still is, mostly animal feed. Shavuot celebrates the wheat harvest, wheat being a predominantly human food. Thus, the Sages tell us, the Omer helps us grow from being driven by basic animal instincts, as experienced by the slaves in Egypt, to the higher level of consciousness and morality of humanity, developed by the Jewish People in the weeks following the Exodus.

This idea is developed further when considering the use of the plural form, in this mentioning of the Omer counting; וּסְפַרְתֶּם לָכֶם – “And you (pl.) shall count for you (pl.)..” The purpose of the Omer is to remind us that we are a community, and must move onwards and upwards, away from the “slave mentality”, to become the “holy nation” we discussed from last week’s parasha. We also learn that this counting is not meant to be simply rote or repetition, but לָכֶם for you – for us to grow spiritually and communally.  

Interestingly, our traditional understanding that Shavuot is “Zman Matan Torateinu”, the “Time of Our Receiving the Torah” is not written in the Torah but is raised and debated by the rabbis in the Oral Torah, later recorded in the Talmud.

The Kabbalists add a mystical element to the Omer: There are seven elements of the universe: Love, respect, compassion, efficiency, beauty, loyalty & leadership, and seven biblical leaders, each of whom represents one of those elements. For each day of the Omer, the Kabbalists assign a different blend of these elements on which to meditate, with the intention of strengthening our souls’ connections to the Universe, to God and Torah.

Let us consider another idea:

Throughout the Jewish Year, Judaism provides opportunities to reflect on our behaviour, actions, selves, progress in the short and long term, each day, week, month and year – with Tefillah, Shabbat, Rosh Chodesh and Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. We are given specific times to onsider our own good fortune and privilege or enhance our empathy around Freedom (Pesach), Material Possessions and Home (Sukkot), Joy (Purim), Light (Chanukah), the environment (Tu Bishvat) and so on. The Fast Days and Semi Mourning Periods enable us to think about what we may have lost or yearn for and what is worth fighting for.

The Sefirat Haomer encourages us to contemplate how, when we set a goal, have an ambition, or something about which we are looking forward, we should not lose sight of the process or the present, but make each day count, rather than merely count the days.

Winnie-the-Pooh ~ A.A. Milne

Shabbat Shalom