Keep the Fire Burning as We Count the Omer

By Yehudit Garmaise

      Just as slaves count the days until they are freed, we are commanded to count the days from Pesach to Shavous to show our anticipation for Mattan Torah. As we wait, we count constantly, while we ask, “When will we finally be free?”

   To spiritually prepare ourselves and express our anticipation for Matan Torah on Shavous, we count the Omer. But how do we remain inspired to count for 49 nights? 

    Here are five fun facts to stay inspired, as we count up:

 1. Rebbe Yochanan of Stolin, zt”l, taught that Chassidus emphasizes the importance of serving Hashem with joy and enthusiasm, but how do we attain these feelings? Our feelings begin with our deeds, he said, because what we do influences our hearts.

   Jews’ happiness becomes a reality when they count sefiras ha'omer, or any mitzvah, b’simcha, says Rav Elimelech Biderman, shlita. Whereas, when Jews perform mitzvos with laziness, chas v’shalom, that indifference can influence their hearts. However, Jews who arouse excitement and happiness with external hislahavos for the mitzvos merit to attain internal hislahavos, or enthusiasm. Our external actions influence our hearts until we feel the joy from within. 

2. As 306 mitzvos precede Sefiras Ha'omer, and 306 mitzvos follow it, Sefiras Ha'omer is mitzvah #307, which is exactly the middle of the 613 mitzvos.

        Just as a middle beam holds up an entire structure, sefiras ha'omer is the middle mitzvah of the 613 mitzvos and holds up all the Torah’s other 612 mitzvos, says the Barnover Rav, zt”l.

        Counting the Omer is the foundation, the middle, and the central beam that enables us to keep the entire Torah.

3. Rabbi Avigdor Miller, zt”l, explains the Counting of the Omer by emphasizing that without kemach, or flour, we cannot receive Torah. Therefore, when we count the Omer, we are seizing the opportunity to show gratitude to Hashem for feeding the whole world, every day. “We’re so happy that you’re feeding us, and therefore, we can accept the Torah with gratitude and simcha at the end of these 49 days with a leiv shalem, a full heart,” Rabbi Miller, zt”l, says. “If we don’t feel tangible hakaras hatov for the food that Hashem gives us, then we cannot really accept the Torah.” 

4. In Shemos 26:10, we read ,ועשית חמישים לולאת, "you shall make 50 hooks," about which in Lechem Min HaShamayim, Trumah, 21, the Chida zt”l, quotes

     Rabbeinu Efraim, who says that just as 50 hooks connected the sheets of the Mishkan, the 50 days of Sefiras Ha'omer connect us to our Father in heaven.

5. The Torah explains how counting the Omer purifies us, Rav Biderman says, when we read in Vayikra (23:15), וספרתם לכם ממחרת השבת, which means, “Count…from the day after Yom Tov…" The Ohr HaChaim Hakadosh says that וספרתם comes from the word ,ספיר, or sapphire. וספרתם לכם means that Jews who count the Omer become pure, and their neshamot shine like sapphires.