Sefirat HaOmer is too many things

“You shall count for yourselves, from the day after Shabbat, from the day on which you will bring the Omer of the wave-offering, seven complete weeks they shall be.”

We currently find ourselves in the middle of the 49-day period of the Jewish calendar known as Sefirat HaOmer (the Counting of the Omer). It’s somewhat obscure, so if you’ve never heard of it, don’t worry, you’re not alone. And, in my opinion, you’re lucky. Because for those of us who have heard of it, it is way too many things. Here are some of the things it is:

1. A math-based commandment
“You shall count for yourselves, from the day after Shabbat, from the day on which you will bring the Omer of the wave-offering, seven complete weeks they shall be.” (Leviticus 23:15)

It’s literally just a commandment to count days. According to Rabbinic tradition, Shabbat here refers to Passover. And after the 49-day count is the holiday of Shavuot.

By the way, the Sadducees argued that Shabbat means Shabbat (specifically the first Shabbat after Passover).

So, right off the bat, even the simplest aspect of this mitzvah is complicated. It doesn’t bode well.

2. An agricultural temple ritual
The Omer offering, which kicks off this 49-day count, consisted of barley, and the special offerings brought on Shavuot consisted of wheat. Thus, the Counting of the Omer serves as a set of agricultural bookends for the spring harvest.

According to Maimonides, even though the Temple rituals are no longer possible, the counting itself is still a mitzvah. Most other major opinions rule that the counting is only a Rabbinic obligation nowadays.

Either way, I’m not a farmer, so this explanation of the mitzvah always feels unrelatable for me. But don’t worry, there are 47,000 more (I’m rounding up).

3. A period of mourning
According to the Talmud, 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva died between Passover and Shavuot. By the Middle Ages, this became codified as a period of mourning, with restrictions regarding wedding celebrations, haircuts and listening to music.

Even if the source of this mourning feels very removed for most of us, we can all feel its impact today just by going to local kosher establishments and hearing nonstop a capella music. That’s enough to make anyone just a little bit sadder.

Of course, we Jews can’t even agree on when to be sad; there are several different customs regarding which subset of the 49 days are subject to the laws of mourning. Sad.

4. A period of personal growth
The Zohar describes the seven weeks of Sefirat HaOmer as a process of spiritual purification. Later Kabbalistic works associate Sefirah (counting) with Sefirot — 10 channels of Divine emanations. Specifically, each of the seven weeks corresponds to the lower seven Sefirot, known as the Middot (emotional attributes). But in Kabbalah, all spiritual entities are built with the same structure of Sefirot, even the Sefirot themselves. So, each day corresponds to one of the seven emotional attributes as it exists within one of the seven emotional attributes, totaling 49. Confusing.

In Lurianic Kabbalah this was about repairing blemishes in Divine emanations that we created through our actions. Later, in Chassidic teachings, the focus shifted to the emotional attributes within our own souls.
So, for those keeping track, Sefirat HaOmer is about math, agriculture, mourning and rigorous introspection.
But there’s still more.

5. Preparation for receiving the Torah
The Torah doesn’t explicitly state that the holiday of Shavuot commemorates the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai, but the dates match up if you do the math (more math!), and the Talmud makes the connection. Later commentaries expand on that and present Sefirat HaOmer as a time during which the Israelites — having just been miraculously freed from Egypt — prepared themselves for receiving the Torah.

I don’t know the source for this, but according to thousands of Shavuot sermons, this is a process that each one of us repeats each year.

See? I told you that Sefirat HaOmer is way too many things. And each of those things is way too many things.
But I guess it kind of makes sense. There is a famous Midrashic idea that there are “70 faces of Torah.” If this is the case, then it would stand to reason that the path to getting there couldn’t be just one thing. PJC

Dovid Taub is an artist and educator. He is the author of “The Sefirat HaOmer Field Guide,” which is available on Amazon. More of his work can be found on CreativeJudaism.com.