NAALEH.COM Omer Parshat Emor By: Mrs. Shira Smiles

We are now in the time period known as sefirah or, more accurately, sefirat haomer. These are the forty nine days totaling seven full weeks that the Torah commands us to count from the second day of Pesach until Shavuot. We count the omer, based on the name Hashem has given this offering which is waved before Hashem on this first day of counting. What is interesting is that the omer is not really the animal sacrifice being offered but a measure for the grain that is part of many of the sacrificial rituals. Why then is only this offering called the omer and none of the others? Further, What’s the connection between this offering and counting the days leading up to receiving the Torah on Shavuot, asks Rav Yosef Salant, the Be’er Yosef? Further, Rabbi Eliyahu Roth in Sichot Eliyahu notes that after reciting the blessing and actually counting, we count the days either ba’omer, in the omer, or la'omer, to the omer, depending on individual custom. Since the counting begins from the time of the offering on the second day of Pesach, shouldn’t we be counting me’omer, from the omer? Click here for Summary by Channie Koplowitz Stein.