When We Feel LIke We’ve Been Counting Forever:
The Chinuch, Rav Mirsky and the Omer in 2024
This year, we don’t have to remember to keep counting. Because it seems like we have never stopped.
For 31 plus weeks, with tears, frustration and broken hearts, we have taken out our sharpies and taped on a number representing the days since the dreadful day that changed us forever.
During this time after Pesach, we have always asked ourselves questions about the Omer. And yet, just like everything else since October 7, these questions look different for our people as we see things through a different lens.(1)
Why count days and weeks?
The Torah points out two mitzvot related to the counting of the Omer. We are told to count days and also count weeks(2):
הַכָּתוּב אָמַר תִּסְפְּרוּ חֲמִשִּׁים יוֹם וְאָמַר גַּם כֵּן שִׁבְעָה שָׁבֻעֹת תִּסְפָּר לָך
The Sefer HaChinuch quotes the Rambam who points out that one may think that these are two separate mitzvot. However, as we know, the mitzvah is combined.
וְכָתַב הָרַמְבַּ"ם זִכְרוֹנוֹ לִבְרָכָה (סהמ"צ שם) וְאַל יַטְעֶה אוֹתְךָ..וְתַחְשֹׁב שֶׁהֵם שְׁתֵּי מִצְוֹת, שֶׁאֵין הַכַּוָּנָה בָּזֶה לוֹמַר שֶׁתִּהְיֶה מִצְוָה בִּפְנֵי עַצְמָהּ, אֲבָל הוּא חֵלֶק מֵחֶלְקֵי הַמִּצְוָה
“And do not be misled by saying..that they are two commandments. As the intention of this is not to say that it be a commandment on its own, but [rather] it is a part of the [different] parts of the commandment.
We count days and weeks in one mitzvah. This conversation made me think of the distinction between the rhythm of days vs weeks. On the one hand, days are natural. The sun rises, the sun sets.
Weeks, on the other hand, are created. If you look out the window, you know if it’s day or night, but you don’t know if it’s Tuesday or Wednesday. (3,4)
Of course, the week has its roots in the Torah. The difference between days and weeks is also echoed in the first Perek of Breishit. וַֽיְהִי־עֶ֥רֶב וַֽיְהִי־בֹ֖קֶר, days happen, and on some level, while God certainly makes it all happen, vayehi , the term, in some way, feels more passive. It seems that the day, by the cycle of the sun,even, kevayachol, “happens” to God.
Weeks on the other hand are completed consciously. There is no וַֽיְהִי when it comes to Shabbat and the end of the week. With the end of the week, we read, וַיְכַ֤ל אֱלֹהִים֙ God put down the Divine work. God rested, and blessed and sanctified the seventh day.
, וַיִּשְׁבֹּת֙ בַּיּ֣וֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִ֔י׃וַיְבָ֤רֶךְ אֱלֹהִים֙ אֶת־י֣וֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִ֔י וַיְקַדֵּ֖שׁ אֹת֑ו
(Breishit 2:2-3)
This dynamic reflects life as well. As we walk through life, there are moments in which it feels that time is put upon us. The sun has risen and it has set, life has happened to us.
And then there are active moments, symbolized by the week–moments where we can be more impactful, working to create a world where our actions can matter.
Counting both days and weeks can lead us to remember that life is both passive and active – this is an inescapable part of the human condition.
Yes, on some level Oct. 7 happened to us, those 200+ days ago. We were taken by shock, outrage and surprise. But what we have done with the 29 weeks since, for good and for bad, has been defined by the deeds and the words of us and our people. It is what we do that will define much of the time going forward.
“Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik makes this very point when distinguishing between “fate”
Verbally counting days and counting weeks teach us about fate and destiny, the dual aspect of our human reality.
Why does the Torah call the weeks temimot and not shleimot, complete?
The Torah tells us that the weeks must be complete.
וּסְפַרְתֶּ֤ם לָכֶם֙ …שֶׁ֥בַע שַׁבָּת֖וֹת תְּמִימֹ֥ת תִּהְיֶֽינָה׃
You shall count off seven weeks. They must be complete. (Vayikra 23:15)
When we count in the Torah, says Rav Mirsky, we want to get an accurate and complete number.(6) We use the term shalem (eifah shleimah, even shleimah). This should seem to be the case as well that in the case of the Omer also we are counting a quantity, 49 days and on the 50th we celebrate. So it would make most sense to use use the term shalem-complete.
Yet, he says that when it comes to character or quality, and not numbers, the Torah uses the term tam. Noah was a tsadik tamim (Ber. 6:9) Yaakov was an ish tam. (Ber. 25:27) These people were role models of virtue and value. With respect to the Omer, the use of tam, teaches us that the time for sefira is not simply a moment of counting numbers, it is a time of improvement of our personal qualities. When the Jewish people left Egypt they were on a very low level of purity (mem tet shaarei tumah) and each day of the 49 they removed one level in order to receive the Torah. The counting, temimot is a statement of progress of quality of character.
We, too, must use this time of the Omer of tikun midot, of improving our personal selves and relationships. R. Mirsky points out that both the terms el chai (living God) and lev tov (good heartedness toward others) have the gematria of 49-important elements to achieving our goals of self improvement.
While faith is never simple, post October 7th, for many, it has been especially challenging. Our faith in humanity has been shaken and our faith in God’s protection have both been put to the test. It is acts of chesed, of learning and tefila that must take place on its most intense level during these times in order to strengthen our commitment to others (lev tov) and to our relationship with God (el chai).
Why must each of us count individually–can’t others fulfill it for us?
R. Mirsky discusses the two different approaches to fulfilling the mitzvah of the Omer. There are those such as the Orchot Chayim who treat the reciting of the Omer like many other mitzvot. Just like one can recite Havdalah or kiddush or many other brachot for others through the principle of shomeah k’oneh (hearing is fulfilling), so too, the Omer. Listening and hearing should be enough.
However, the Lvush and others feel that the Omer is different. By virtue of the fact that the Pasuk states, וּסְפַרְתֶּ֤ם לָכֶם֙, you must count,(7) just hearing it is not enough. Each person has to count the Omer for themselves in order to reach the state of purity that the Omer is asking us to reach.
Each person must verbally count each and every day in order to internalize the journey toward the Torah and the commitment to personal growth.
There is one additional point: From the tragedy of R. Akiva’s students to the Crusades to the Cossack riots, the Omer has historically been a time of trouble for our people. Sadly, these days, we need not be reminded of the challenging times that we are in. Each day, each of us, must count the days of the Omer and each of us must count the days out loud since October 7. (8)
Rachel Goldberg, mother of Hirsch Goldberg Polin says about her daily tally since Oct 7, “ I find it so remarkable how nauseating it is every single time,’’ she said. “And it’s good. I don’t want to get used to it. I don’t want anybody to get used to the fact that these people are missing.’’
For each of us, each day should be a personal moment of reflection and pain. No one could or should count that for us.
This year, it is not only a mitzvah to count the days since Pesach, it is a statement of unity and personal reckoning when we personally, “nauseatingly” fulfill the obligation to count each day since October 7th.
So the counting continues.
Each night I will count the weeks and days– but that count will end on June 10, as we will celebrate with God and with our community Chag haShavuot.
And each morning, I will also count. I will take out that sharpie, and count with tears, with questions and with actions.
And I will certainly count with a daily prayer that this seemingly endless counting ritual will come to an end with a new day of life for our People and our Land.
כן יהי רצון
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1-Much of the Halakhic content for this essay came from the Sefer HaChinuch Mitzvah 306 and R.Yitzhak Mirsky’s reflections in his Hegionei Halakah, Vol 2, pp. 214-233.
4-Joe Pinsker in his review of Prof. David Henkin’s (Ramaz Alum) book, writes “the week as we know it—a repeating cycle that has seven distinct days and divides work from rest—has been around for about 2,000 years, since ancient Roman times.” (https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2021/11/weeks-seven-days-david-henkin/620712/)
7-Vayikra 23:15
8-This is similar to Nida when one has to personally count in order to go to the mikvah to become tahor.
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