D’var Torah - Sefirat HaOmer

Why Do We Count 49 Days Leading Up to Shavuot?

By Sarah Rashba | 3 April 2024 | 5 Minute Read

Sefirat Ha’Omer

When I was a child, I always counted how many days were left in the school year, eagerly anticipating summer vacation.  Counting down the days to something exciting is a natural way to express positive anticipation. So it’s kind of obvious to assume that the reason we count Sefirat Ha’Omer, the 49 days before Shavuot, is to express our excitement for the arrival of Shavuot. 

But here’s the problem with the assumption that counting Sefirat Ha’Omer is about getting exciting for Shavuot. 

When you look at Leviticus 23, and consider how the Torah describes the practice of Sefirat Ha’Omer, it doesn’t seem to be about getting us excited about Shavuot at all. The Torah tells us,  very matter of fact,  that on the second day of Passover, we bring an Omer offering, which is a measurement of grain. No mention is made of the significance of this offering. We also begin counting Sefirat Ha’Omer, setting in motion a sequence of weeks that concludes on the 49th day, just before the arrival of Shavuot. Sefirat Ha’Omer seems to be about commemorating the grain offering - even the name of the ritual focuses on the grain offering. Counting seems to have nothing to do with preparing for Shavuot. 

And furthermore, we don’t count down to Shavuot as one might expect. When you have an exciting event coming up, like a vacation, it’s natural to count how many days are left. But instead of counting down the days left to the holiday, we count up. Each evening we recite a blessing and count aloud the number of days and weeks that have passed since the start of the Omer. So the method in which we count doesn’t seem to create excitement for the coming holiday of Shavuot, but rather, reminds us of the start of the Omer when we brought the grain offering. 

So Sefirat Ha’Omer seems to be about focusing on the grain offering, the Omer, that is brought on the second of Passover.  What is so special about a grain offering that it requires seven weeks of commemoration? And the fact that the counting concludes the day before Shavuot begins makes it seem like we are meant to connect the Omer offering with the holiday of Shauvot. But what in the world does Shavuot have to do with the Omer offering? Why do we prepare for Shavuot by counting Sefirat Ha’Omer? 

Finding clues in the Torah’s description of the Omer offering

Let’s take a closer look at Leviticus 23, where the Torah describes the Omer offering to try and understand its significance. At face value, the Torah doesn't tell us much about why we bring the Omer offering. We know that, from a halachic standpoint, the Omer sacrifice certainly had a function: The Torah prohibits people from consuming the new year's harvest of grain until after the Omer offering is brought. But the Torah doesn't tell us a whole lot else about the offering, or why we count seven weeks from this occasion. But I believe by digging deeper into the language the Torah uses to describe the Omer offering, we can find clues that will help us understand its significance a bit more. 

Clue Number One

The first clue is in Leviticus chapter 23, when the Torah tells us to begin counting the days between Passover and Shavuot.. The verses describe the Omer offering and then say to begin counting mimacharat HaShabbat – "on the Day after the Sabbath,”  and we, the readers, are left to figure out that the term "Shabbat" in this context doesn't refer to Saturday like it usually does. Instead, in this instance, Shabbat means Passover and the verse is telling us that we bring the Omer offering and begin counting Sefira on the second day of Passover. 

Weird, right? Why does the Torah make it so unnecessarily complicated? Why not just tell us straight out to start counting on the second day of Passover?  The Torah seems fixated on the idea of Sabbath.

And the obsession with Shabbat continues. When describing Sefirat Ha’Omer, the Torah emphasizes counting weeks. And the word used for the seven weeks is Shabbat:  Sheva Shabbatot. Seven "Sabbaths" we are supposed to count, for a total of 49 days.

 So… what's with the Omer and all this 'Sabbath' talk? The Torah seems to be emphasizing that the idea of Shabbat is key to understanding the Omer’s significance. 

Clue Number Two

The next clue that points to some deeper significance of Sefirat Ha’Omer is the word Omer. Literally, the word refers to a unit of measurement, but we use it to refer to the grain offering brought on the second day of Passover. It’s a rare word that appears here in the laws of the Korban Omer, and in fact, the only other time this word appears in the Torah is in the Book of Exodus, in chapter 16, which describes when the Israelites were first given the manna. There in Exodus 16, we’re told how much manna each individual collected. It was an “omer’s” worth, or as the Torah there points out, it was equivalent to a tenth of an ephah. This was the daily portion every day except, of course, on Shabbat. Before Shabbat, each individual collected a double portion of manna - two omers or two-tenths of an ephah. 

Putting the Clues Together 

When you consider these two clues, it seems like Leviticus chapter 23, in describing the Omer offering and Sefirat Ha’Omer is nudging us to think about Exodus chapter 16. In Leviticus chapter 23, Shabbat was used strangely, to connote the second day of Passover when the Omer would be brought and the weeks that would be counted.

 These two elements seem to draw our attention to the only other time in the Torah when the word Omer is used, in Exodus chapter 16.  In this narrative, when the Israelites began their journey in the wilderness, they received an Omer’s worth of manna. Notably, Shabbat also featured prominently in this context, as the day when they did not collect manna. Instead, they prepared for Shabbat by collecting a double portion of manna - a double Omer - on Friday.  

Manna: The Background for Understanding Sefirat Ha’Omer and Shavuot

Leviticus seems to be hinting to us that to understand the significance of the Omer offering and the reason why we count the Omer leading up to Shavuot, we need to look more closely at the episode in Exodus when the Israelites first got their daily Omer of manna. It seems that the Omer, a gift of grain that we give to God, is  recalling a gift of grain that God gave to us - the manna. And somehow, recalling the gift of grain - the manna - that God gave us in the wilderness, for 49 days, is the way that we can best prepare for Shavuot. 

In this series of videos, Rabbi Fohrman studies this episode in Exodus 16, when the Israelites got the daily Omer of manna in the wilderness and had to pause collecting for Shabbat. He explores how this episode is echoed in Leviticus 16, in the Omer offering, and he shows how  Sefirat Ha’Omer, the time period bookended by Passover and Shavuot, is recalling this significant event, an event that takes place in the backdrop of the Exodus and sets the stage for receiving the Torah at Sinai. 

Also Check Out These Pages:

• Passover Home
• Shavuot Home