In Hebrew, shavuah means week - shavuot is plural. These 49 days of the counting of the Omer culminate on the 50th day, the first day of Shavuot, the Festival of Weeks. Counting these 49 days is known as Counting the Omer. The Omer was brought to the Temple each day for the next 49 days, during which time the next and most important grain, the wheat, was ripening. In this way, the people acknowledged the role of the Divine in creating the grain. Only after that ceremony, called the wave offering, was completed, was the rest of the community permitted to enjoy the barley crop or any new produce from the spring harvest. (This waving process is similar to the formula still used today for shaking the lulav on Succoth). The Priests would wave this sheaf of barley, the Omer, in the six directions, North, East, South, West, Up and Down. The people would choose the most select first-cut barley, harvest it carefully, and bring it to the Temple as an offering to Yahweh. The process of harvesting this barley offering involved an elaborate ceremony, described in detail in the Mishnah, which is an early rabbinic commentary on the Torah. During Scriptural times, a sheaf of barley (known as the Omer), selected from the choicest of the barley grown within the land of Israel, was brought to the Kohanim as an offering (Leviticus 23:10-12). When the Temple was standing, barley was the first agricultural crop in Israel to be ready for harvest in the early spring. Also interesting is the fact that it’s the only Feast that is never plainly given a date for its observance in the Torah.Īs with many of the Hebrew High Holidays, it was an agricultural festival. It’s a Holiday given a name that comprises the days that proceed it, the completion of seven Shabbatot. (Leviticus 23:15)” Notice the expressions “for yourselves” and “that you brought.” Keep that in mind as I want to look into this later.Ĭount to what? We are to count to the 50th day, which is called Shavuot or the Feast of Weeks. “And you shall count ( סְפַרְ sefirah) for yourselves from the day after the Shabbat, from the day that you brought the sheaf ( עֹמֶר Omer) of the wave offering: seven Shabbatot shall be completed. It is a time when we are instructed to “count.” Pentecost πεντηκοστή meaning “to count 50”]) we enter a strange time. The only exception is Yom Kippurim and the weekly Shabbat is sometimes called Shabbat Shabbaton.īetween Bikkurim (meaning “the Feast of First Fruits”) and Shavuot שבועות (meaning “weeks” A.K.A. The Hebrew word used is Shabbat, the same word used for the weekly Shabbat and the Hebrew word used to describe feast days is Shabbaton. If we say the verse speaks of the weekly Shabbat, then the waving of the First Fruits will always be on a Sunday and Shavuot will always fall on a Sunday – exactly seven Shabbatot plus one day, or 50 days later. It’s over how to interpret the command to begin the count on “the day after the Shabbat” (Leviticus 23:11) One view, is that it refers to the weekly Shabbat and the other view is that it refers to the First day of Unleavened Bread (Bikkurim). It surrounds the commencement of the Counting of the Omer. There has been a controversy that goes all the way back to ancient times to today. I want to inspire people to count and get as much out of it as possible and I don’t think either observance times will condemn anyone as they both have solid arguments. I want to cover some deeper aspects about Counting the Omer, not just lecture on when it starts (though that’s important). Now many of you are new to the Counting of the Omer and have never observed Shavuot before, so I’ll explain this only briefly and am happy to discuss the subject further at the end of this lecture. I want to assure everyone who might be wrestling with this subject, that I am open to discussion, as I want to find the truth rather than have my way or win a debate. This might surprise some people considering how much we align with many other rabbinical perspectives. Before we get started I want to explain why we commence the counting of the Omer and subsequently observe Shavuot on a different day than Orthodox Jews.
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