Counting of the Omer

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Counting of the Omer (or Sefirat Ha'omer, Hebrew: ספירת העומר) within Judaism, is a verbal counting with a blessing during the 49 days between Pesach (Passover) and Shavuot (Pentecost) which are counted ceremoniously as a commemoration of the Omer ceremony which was celebrated in the Temple in Jerusalem. This process is called Counting of the Omer.

1 Source
2 Background
3 The count
4 As a period of mourning
5 See also
6 External links

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Source

The source for this tradition is Leviticus 23:15-16:

"15. And you shall count for yourselves, from the morrow of the rest day from the day you bring the omer as a wave offering seven weeks; they shall be complete.

16. You shall count until the day after the seventh week, [namely] the fiftieth day, [on which] you shall bring a new meal offering to the Lord."

- The Judaica Press Tanach

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Background

The barley harvest in Israel begins during Passover; the omer is a Biblical measure of volume of grain. An omer offering was brought to the Temple on the second day of Passover and was the signal for the allowance of "chadash" (new harvest) grains.

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The count

Every night of the counting, a blessing is spoken and the count is stated in terms of both total days and weeks and days. For example, on the twenty-third day the count would be stated thus: "Today is twenty-three days, which is three weeks and two days of the Omer."

Each of the seven weeks is associated with one of the seven lower sefirot (#4-10), chesed, gevurah, tipheret, netzach, hod, yesod, and malchut. Each day within each of the seven weeks is associated also with one of the same seven sefirot, thus creating 49 permutations. The first day of the omer is thus associated with chesed in chesed, the second day with gevurah in chesed and so-on.

Symbolically, each of these 49 permutations represents an aspect of each person that needs to be purified. Mythically the Jewish people is freed again from Pharoah each year on Passover. The damage from the experience of slavery needs to be healed in order for each person to accept the Torah at Sinai on Shavuot fifty days afer Passover.

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As a period of mourning

This period is a time of partial mourning, during which weddings, parties, and dinners with dancing are not conducted, in memory of a plague which killed 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva. This custom is also in memory of those Jews murdered during the Crusades, the original pogroms occurring around this time. Some theorists suggest that the period of mourning was borrowed from the Roman superstition that May is an unlucky month, and that the associations with the plague and Crusades are later developments. The Romans had a similar custom of not marrying during the month of May, as that was the time of the Feast of the Lemures. Haircuts, shaving, watching movies, and listening to live music during this time are forbidden by many rabbis. It should be noted, however, that the extent of mourning is based heavily on custom, and therefore Jews will mourn to different degrees regarding certain prohibitions, basing their actions on ancient family custom.

There are other associations and explanations for the period of semi-mourning. One is that the first spring grain harvest is quite vulnerable during this period and a tone of anxiety, naturally felt by middle-eastern farmers at this time of year, needed to be reflected as well in the ritual calendar. Another explanation is that the purification needed to reject the vestages of Pharoah's law and slavery in order to receive God's law on the holiday of Shavuot is not conducive to celebration.

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External links

Jewish holidays
Shabbat \| Rosh Hashanah \| Fast of Gedalia \| Yom Kippur \| Sukkot, Hoshanah rabbah and Shmini Atzeret \| Simchat Torah \| Hanukkah \| Tenth of Tevet \| Tu Bishvat \| Fast of Esther & Purim \| Fast of the firstborn \| Pesach (Passover) \| Counting of the Omer \| Lag Ba'omer \| Shavuot \| 17th of Tammuz, The three weeks & The nine days \| Tisha B'Av \| Tu B'Av
National holidays of Israel
Yom HaShoah \| Yom HaZikaron \| Yom Ha'atzma'ut \| Yom Yerushalayim