Dear Friends;

Since this week, there is no designated Parsha because of Chol Hamoed Pesach, I would like to say a few words about Sefirat HaOmer. I hope that you’ll enjoy reading it.

The Torah commands us to count the days between the festivals of Passover and Shavuot. This period is called Sefirat HaOmer, or counting the omer, and it refers to the counting of the seven weeks from the second night of Passover until the day before Shavuot. What is the significance of this counting?

Basically, Sefirat HaOmer is a system of countdown to Shavuot, where the Benei Yisrael received the Torah. Just to clarify, the reason that we don’t listen to music and don’t attend parties till Lag BaOmer, has nothing to do with the commandment of counting the Omer. It just happened that at this period of time, in the second century of the common era, a plague raged amongst the disciples of the great sage Rabbi Akiva, and 24,000 of his Talmidim died, because they did not act respectfully towards each other. However, the plague stopped on Lag BaOmer. And that’s why we are in a period of mourning. Otherwise, Sefirat HaOmer is a joyous time of the year.

So, why does the Torah commands us to countdown to Shavuot? Well, the concept of countdown is something that is used by every society including Judaism. Countdown refers to a situation where we are presently here, but we desire to be “there” at the final destination. We count the days to a wedding, a vacation, or any happy events in the future. They are intangible, but we long for these events to be here now. So what do we do? We count-down the days, the minutes, until these events arrive; counting bridges the gap between now and then. This way we can feel the desired moment approaching. We can, with certainty, say how many days are left. Without the count, the desired time is only a dream. When we count, the goal we long and yearn for becomes a reality.

The Sefer HaChinuch, explains that during the time period when we count the omer, we are anticipating the festival of Shavuot when we received the Torah. We yearn to be at Mt. Sinai, so we count the days until Shavuot. In this way it becomes a reality and it builds excitement. Our goal is to reach Shavuot. We want it to be here now. And the reason that we count is because we haven’t reached our goal yet.

But the question that you may ask is why do we “count-up” in Sefirat HaOmer and not count-down like for everything else? For example for a wedding, we count down to that event. Two months, three weeks, three days, we are getting closer and closer each day. So why is it, then, that when we long for the day of Shavuot do we count upward – 1,2,3? Shouldn’t we be counting down to the day we await: 30 days, 29 days etc.?! An interesting answer is given by Rabbi Moshe Shapiro from OU organization. He says that the days of the omer are meant to be days of spiritual growth. The counting that we do is not meant to be a sentimental passing of time until we reach Shavuot; but rather the counting is a process of development as each day passes. When we count to a wedding or a vacation, the days leading to those events are not important. In fact, we would like them to pass as soon as possible. By counting downwards, we are showing that the days until the event are meaningless. We are merely counting the passage of time, which at the time of the event will equal to zero or nothing. In the case of the omer, on the other hand, we count upwards. The omer is a time for growth, one day builds on the previous – 1,2,3, and so on until we have 49 days of spiritual growth and reached a level befitting a people ready to accept the Torah on Shavuot.

Rabbi Shapiro says that Sefirat HaOmer also symbolizes the lifespan of human beings. We also count-up our Birthdays. 1 year old; 5 years old; 20,50 and hopefully 120 years old. And by counting up our birthdays, we are in fact trying to reach our goal which is our final destination, “Olam Haba”, the world to come. But we need to realize that in order to reach our goal, we need to grow each day. We need to be spiritually ready to embrace Hashem. Each day we have to elevate ourselves and try to be a little better than yesterday. As we get older, we get wiser too, and we can reflect on the things that we may have done wrong in the past. Just to acknowledge our mistakes, is already an improvement. G-d does not expect us to become perfect but he wants us to try at least. He only needs to see us improve, and once we do improve, we can count up our birthdays with a joy. Because, hopefully, we’ll be ready to embrace G-d when we reach our final destination.

So remember my friends, Sefirat HaOmer is not just about counting — it’s about improving ourselves too. We count up, because we want to move up! In order to receive the Torah which are the words of G-d, we need to be at a higher spiritual status. It’s a great privilege to be the Chosen People and to be given the Holy Book of Torah. So let us show our appreciation by improving ourselves!

Shabbat Shalom, Chag Sameach & Regards;

Martin