May 16, 2025

emor? more like omer!

sholem aleichem,

When the Torah commands us about the Omer in Parshas Emor, it says

וּסְפַרְתֶּ֤ם לָכֶם֙ … שֶׁ֥בַע שַׁבָּת֖וֹת תְּמִימֹ֥ת תִּהְיֶֽינָה

You will count for yourselves … seven weeks, they will be complete

and also

תִּסְפְּר֖וּ חֲמִשִּׁ֣ים י֑וֹם

You will count 50 day [the singular is not a typo]

There are a number of kashyas here:

1. is this is one mitzvah (to make a “complete” count) or a collection of mitzvos (one mitzvah per day/week that we count)?

2. do we count weeks (“seven weeks”) or days (“50 day”)?

3. if the count is days, do we count 49 days (corresponding to 7 weeks) or 50 days?

4. why is the lashon of the second verse “50 day” and not “50 days”?

There’s a sense in which the practical halachah tries to balance both sides of the first kashya. On the one hand, we do bless each individual day with asher kidshanu (the blessing before doing a mitzvah). But on the other hand, if we miss counting a day entirely, we stop saying the blessings moving forward.

In other words, we treat each day as enough of its own mitzvah to require a blessing only so long as it is potentially included in a “complete” count. As soon as the “complete” count is impossible (by forgetting a day), each subsequent day is no longer treated as enough of a mitzvah on its own to warrant a blessing.

Compare this with Chanukah. On Chanukah, like the Omer, we say a blessing for each night out of some total number of nights. But with Chanukah, these are fully separate mitzvos: if you miss lighting the candles one night, you still say the blessing asher kidshanu when you light candles on the remaining nights.

The Omer days, in comparison, are a bit nonbinary: each day is not entirely its own mitzvah, but also not entirely subsumed in the mitzvah of the complete count. In this way, we uphold both perspectives of the first kashya.

The actual language of the count similarly balances both perspectives of the second kashya (are we counting days or weeks). Today, for example, is the 33rd day of the Omer. When we count it, we say “Today is 33 days of the Omer, which is 4 weeks and 5 days of the Omer.” In other words, we count both the weeks and the days.

The kabbalistic minhag of the Omer reflects this balance as well. Each day of counting the Omer, we are invited to reflect on two sefiros, two aspects of haShem. One sefirah marks the week, and the other marks the day. For example, the first week is the week of chesed (loyal love), and the seven days of the first week cycle through chesed and six other sefiros:

1. chesed within chesed

2. gevurah (discipline) within chesed

3. tiferes (compassion) within chesed

4. netzach (endurance) within chesed

5. hod (splendor) within chesed

6. yesod (foundation) within chesed

7. malchus (nobility) within chesed

Over the course of the 49 days of the Omer, we reflect on all possible ordered pairs of these sefiros. But haShem is One. These seven aspects of haShem in their 49 permutations are not separate from each other, indeed one purpose of this practice is to understand that each one of them contains all the others and is contained in all the others. And is thus one with all the others.

In this world, most of the time, these aspects of haShem seem very different to us. The boundless love of chesed seems so distant from the discipline and severity of gevurah. But they all come from the same source, their distinctions are only apparent because of their descent to us.

And as these 49 aspects of haShem are all one, so to the 49 days of the Omer are all really one day. Each day of the 49 is an aspect of Day 50: the day of Shavuos, the day of the revelation of the One. The goal of counting the 49 days is to understand their essential unity, to ascend to a place of revelation where the distinctions between sefiros dissolve into Oneness.

And here is the explanation of the third and fourth kashyas. It isn’t a question of 49 days or 50 days: we count 49 days, but b’emes we are just counting day 50. And this is why the lashon is “50 day”, in the singular: all 49 days are mamash one day. All 49 blessings are mamash one blessing. All 49 permutations of haShem’s sefiros are b’emes One.

The halachos and the minhagim of the Omer are training our sense for this essential unity, as they themselves uphold both sides of each kashya we explored: individual and collective, days and weeks, 49 and 50, singular and plural.

The mitzvah of the Omer is to be, as Ana B’koach calls us, דורשי יחודך, seekers of haShem’s oneness. The mitzvah of the Omer is to look closely at each division in our world, and to reveal how each side of that apparent division contains, and is contained in, the other. The mitzvah of the Omer is to turn every wall of division into a bridge of connection.

Only through this practice can we merit the revelation of Truth on Shavuos, the revelation that ein od milvado, that there is no Other.

Good shabbos, and a joyous Lag b’Omer, a splendor of splendors,

ada

p.s. The Omer/Emor pun of the title doesn’t quite bear out in Hebrew, because Omer is spelled with an ayin and Emor with an aleph. But maybe that also is an example of a division in which we can seek Oneness… (she says, as an excuse for not being able to pronounce them differently in the first place.)