דַּבֵּר אֶל־בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְאָמַרְתָּ אֲלֵהֶם כִּי־תָבֹאוּ אֶל־הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר אֲנִי נֹתֵן לָכֶם וּקְצַרְתֶּם אֶת־קְצִירָהּ וַהֲבֵאתֶם אֶת־עֹמֶר רֵאשִׁית קְצִירְכֶם אֶל־הַכֹּהֵן׃
Speak to the Israelite people and say to them: When you enter the land that I am giving to you and you reap its harvest, you shall bring the Omer (sacrifice), the first of your harvest to the Kohein (priest). (23:10)
The Omer sacrifice was offered from the first harvested barley of that year on the second day of Passover.
וּסְפַרְתֶּם לָכֶם מִמׇּחֳרַת הַשַּׁבָּת מִיּוֹם הֲבִיאֲכֶם אֶת־עֹמֶר הַתְּנוּפָה שֶׁבַע שַׁבָּתוֹת תְּמִימֹת תִּהְיֶינָה׃ עַד מִמׇּחֳרַת הַשַּׁבָּת הַשְּׁבִיעִת תִּסְפְּרוּ חֲמִשִּׁים יוֹם וְהִקְרַבְתֶּם מִנְחָה חֲדָשָׁה לד’׃
And from the day on which you bring the Omer of elevation offering—the day after the sabbath (i.e the holiday of Passover)—you shall count off 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 Hashem. (23:15)
This is the mitzvah of Sefirat HaOmer, the counting of the Omer, which is to count 49 days from the 2nd day of Passover, the day the Omer sacrifice is offered, until the holiday of Shavuot when we bring an offering of two breads made from the newly harvested wheat referred to as Shtei HaLechem (the Two Breads).
If the Torah tells us to count from the day the Omer sacrifice was brought, what happens when we don’t have that sacrifice anymore such as nowadays because we don’t have the Beit HaMikdash (the Holy Temple)- is there still a mitzvah to count? Most Rishonim (literally ,”the First Ones,” the leading Rabbinic authorities of Jewish Law who lived approximately between the 11th and 15th centuries) are of the opinion that nowadays it is not a Torah mitzvah. The Torah commands to count from the Omer offering on Passover to the Shtei HaLechem offering on Shavuot. If we don’t have those sacrifices we don’t have the mitzvah to count. That which we do count nowadays is a Rabbinic obligation which they instituted Zecher L’Mikdash- to remember what we did when we had the Beit HaMikdash.
Rambam (Maimonides in his code of Jewish law, “Mishneh Torah”, in the 7th chapter of the laws of Temidin and Musafin paragraph 22) disagrees and writes, “Every Jew is required to perform this duty (to count the Omer), everywhere and at all times.” The question according to him is how does he explain the connection the Torah makes between the counting of the Omer and the Omer sacrifice at the beginning of the count and the Shtei HaLechem offering on Shavuot at the end of the count? If there is no connection why didn’t the Torah just say to count the days without mentioning the sacrifices?
Rabbi Yechiel Michel Epstein (1829-1908) writes in his work Aruch HaShulchan (chapter 29, paragraphs 2-3) that according to Maimonides the essence of the mitzvah to count the Omer is to count the days from Passover leading up to Shavuot when we received the Torah from Hashem.
When Hashem appeared to Moshe at the Burning Bush, He told him, “And when you have freed the people from Egypt, you shall worship G-d at this mountain (Shemot 3:12).” This mountain was Mount Sinai and to worship G-d on this mountain meant to receive the Torah. The Midrash states that when the Jewish people were leaving Egypt they recalled this promise and asked Moshe when this would take place. Moshe responded in fifty days. From that day on, every Jew (on their own!) counted the days in anticipation of that special event.
This according to Maimonides is the essence of the mitzvah to count the Omer. It’s where we, as our ancestors did, express our excitement and anticipation of receiving the word of G-d on Shavuot.
The Torah connects the counting to the sacrifices of Omer at the beginning and Shtei HaLechem at the end is to teach the following lesson. In the times of the Torah barley was primarily used for animal feed and wheat was used for human consumption. The Omer sacrifice of barley brought on the holiday of our exodus from Egypt symbolizes that we started off on the low level of an animal. The Shtei HaLechem of wheat that we brought on the holiday of receiving the Torah symbolizes that then we attained the level of a person. Man was created in the image of G-d. With the Torah a person can have proper control of one’s physical impulses and the means to elevate oneself to be G-dly. The Torah imparts this message to us by connecting the mitzvah of counting the Omer to these sacrifices.
Therefore, as we count in anticipation of experiencing again the receiving of the Torah on Shavuot we remind ourselves how sorely lacking we are without the Torah and that our ability to truly live up to the image of G-d that every human being possesses is through the word of G-d found in His holy Torah.
Shabbat Shalom!
Yitzchak