This week’s parsha includes the commandment :“You shall count 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 the lord.”
In interpreting the meaning of the omer one school of thought has emphasized the importance of the practice as indicating a recognition that the grain which the Israelites’ harvest is not simply the product of their labor but evidence of Hashem’s grace. Thus the rationale for the offering of the new grain to God.
That may explain the offering on Shavuot – also know as chag ha katzir – the holiday of harvest – but how does it explain the 49 day count of the omer?
The seforno teaches that Shavuot in fact begins on the first day of the Omer because the Israelites would give prayer and thanks each day in order for there to be a good harvest (on shavuot – chag hakatzir). They were in a way showing faith by giving thanks for something that would occur in the future. Our counting of the omer commemorates those prayers.
Nechama Leibovitz takes the lesson further: just as the Israelites prayed each day and not simply at the harvest so too should we offer praise and acknowledgement of god each day and not simply at the time of our “harvests.”
Some other teachings on sefirat haomer:
The linkage that we make between shavuot and the giving of the torah is, of course Rabbinic in origin, there is no hint of it in the torah. So just as the Rabbis created a linkage between shavuot and matan torah, so too the linkage between sefirah and the giving of the torah:
“Why do we count from the time of the wheat offering to the time of the kabbalat torah? To teach us that each is dependent on the other: there is no wheat (food) without torah and no torah without wheat (physical sustenance).”
Several commentators used a wordplay between count l’spor (S P R) and sapir – sapphire – which is made with the addition of the letter yud.
Using this wordplay one teacher found a lesson of faith in the simple command:
You shall count for yourself from the next day – in the Hebrew it is more reflexive – v safartem lochem going forward (mmacharat).
Count (sefarterm) is read as Sapir and refers to purifying one’s thoughts. Machartem referring to the future is a reference to faith, because man does not know what will happen in the future (machar) but believes in god that will give him strength as he goes forward in his life.
Thus: “You shall count from the next day” becomes – you shall purify your thoughts (sapir like a sapphire) with the strength of the faith (represented by macharat the next day) in Hashem.
According to tradition the period of sefirah is also one of mourning because of many tragedies that befell our people including the death of pupils of Rabbi Akiva.
One teaching links this tradition rooted in history to halacha:
Why do we not say the bracha “shehechayanu” over sefirat haomer? The days of omer are days of judgement and sentencing by the evil ones in gehenom and was the time of the sentencing of the pupils of Rabbi Akiva. Therefore the blessing of the omer is at night to weaken the force of the evil judgements that rule at night. And the blessing of shehechayanu is not said because it is a blessing of simcha.
These few examples show how Chazal take a simple practice which stikes us oftentimes as obscure and imbue it with meanings in our personal, historical and ritual lives.