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Omer? What's An
Omer? There's one thing about Jewish religion and practice that is undisputed by every rabbi, layman, and scholar: whenever we seek to explain a given custom, we are sure to have more than one reason for why we do it. As this phenomenon has been famously summarized, "For every two Jews, there are three opinions." The practice of counting omer is certainly no exception to the spirit of this truism. Just what is an omer anyway? Put in its simplest terms, an omer is a unit of measurement. One omer is a dry volume of about three quarts, equivalent to a sheaf of grain. And just why are we counting, you might ask? The Torah tells us to do so in Leviticus 23:15-16, "And you shall count from the next day after the sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete; To the next day after the seventh sabbath shall you count fifty days; and you shall offer a new meal offering to the Lord." At Passover, we are supposed to start counting on the second evening, marking off seven weeks plus one day, letting us know that Shavuot will fall on the day we are finished counting. Those individual grains of barley act as a sort of a calendar, ensuring that we would bring our offering to the ancient Temple at the appropriate time. The omer forms a bridge between two of our major festivals, Passover and Shavuot. So who needs such a bridge? Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot together make up the Shalosh Regalim, the three pilgrimage festivals when every Jew was obligated to come to Jerusalem to make an offering at the Temple. Each of these journeys was connected to an agricultural event: Passover was the beginning of the barley harvest, as we see by the need to bring a fresh sheaf of it to the Temple; Shavu'ot was the festival of the first fruits that were harvested; Sukkot was to celebrate the taking in of olives and grapes from the fields. Underlying all of these celebrations is our ancient, Jewish connection to the land. So if none of us are farmers, and there is no Temple in Jerusalem, why do we still count omer? Farming is not the only reason we celebrate these holidays. They are also occasions that commemorate our ancient relationship with God and our development as a people. Passover remembers our rescue from Egypt. Shavuot recalls our receiving the Torah at Sinai. Counting the omer reminds us of the vital connection between leaving Egypt and the revelation at Sinai. If we had only left Egypt, we would have drifted apart. The revelation at Sinai formed us into a people and pushed us forward to a new and better way of life, turning us away from the slavery of our past. Today, counting the omer provides an opportunity for daily reflection on how each of us wants to use the freedom that we celebrate on Passover. What is it that we are building towards? How do we want to change ourselves in the light of our freedom? The process of numbering each of our days, even if only for 50 of them, causes us to consider how quickly time passes and how we choose to use it. As we move from Passover to Shavuot, I hope that all of us consider our time well. For a humorous look at the omer, take a look at the following website that provides a Simpsons' themed counting aid for us. B'Shalom Rabbi David Freelund |
