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M y mother used to start
preparing for Shabbat
on Wednesday.
To some, that may
seem like jumping the gun, but
this kind of anticipation is not un-
common in Jewish life. After all,
even before the second seder is
over — while we're still at the
table, mind you — we start to
count the days until Shavuot. Be-
fore the last matzah crumb is
swept away, we begin "Sefirat
haOmer." The Counting of the
Omer.
Originally, the Sefirah con-
nected the Passover barley har-
vest of Shavuot. It was a time of

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anxiety, anticipation and hope.
Would the crop ripen? Would the
harvest be fruitful? The fate of
the crops were at stake and, by
extension, so was the fate of man.
The commandment to count
the Omer is straight-forward. Be-
ginning on the second day of
Passover, says Leviticus, bring a
sheaf (omer) of the ripened bar-
ley harvest to the Temple in
Jerusalem. Do this for 49 days.
On the 50th day (Shavuot) bring
the first fruits of the wheat har-
vest to the Temple as an offering
to God. And all this, our ances-
tors did.
Generations later, during the
exile that separated the Jews
from their land, the rabbis shift-
ed the emphasis of the Omer
from the agricultural to the al-
legorical. They made Passover
the time of Israel's "betrothal" to
God. They made Shavuot the
"wedding day." And, said the rab-
bis, just as a bride eagerly counts
the days between her engage-
ment and her wedding, so will Is-
rael count the days between
Passover and Shavuot, when we
were finally united with God
through out acceptance of the
Torah.
The ancient Israelites cele-
brated the Omer period with
feasting and joy. But after the de-
struction of the second Temple,
the Sefirah turned into seven
weeks of semi-mourning. Prohi-
bitions against music, banquets

or fun of any kind were the rule,
including the best known taboo
— no weddings.
Now, some suggest this
"mourning" is for Bar Kochba's
failed rebellion against the Ro-
mans. Others say it's in memory
of the 24,000 students of Rabbi
Akiba who died in a plague that
struck on the first day of the
Omer in 130 CE. Scholars of su-
perstitious stripe claim the ban
on weddings is borrowed from a
pagan belief that demons stalk
the earth in spring, casting their
evil eye on marriages made in
May.
Whatever the reasons for the
mournful mood, at some
point during the Middle
Ages — like an oasis in
the desert — Lag
B'Omer appeared! What
inspired the creation of
this merry (But minor)
festival is unclear. But
there is was. On the
33rd day of the Omer, on
the 18th day of the He-
brew month of Iyar, the
Jews got "a day off."
Lag B'Omer has no
religious significance or ritual.
Rather, it's a day for relaxation
and fun, and the people took to
it immediately. There were
parties and rollicking picnics in
the woods! The rabbis also de-
cided that on Lag B'Omer (18
Iyar, remember?), the ban
against weddings could be lifted.
Why? Because Pirke Avot (in
its description of the ages of
man) says, "At 18, the wedding
canopy." And so, in communities
everywhere, eager couples
rushed to their rabbis and tied
the knot.
So there you have some back-
ground on the Sefirah period and
Lag B'Omer. Will you celebrate
with a picnic? Have fun! Will you,
maybe, get married — in which
case, mazel tow!
On the other hand , perhaps
counting the 49 days between
Passover and Shavuot seems ir-
relevant and is of little or no im-
portance to you. Whatever the
case, ponder this.
Our life span, according to the
Psalms, is 70 years — symboli-
cally represented by the seven
weeks of the Sefirah. We are also
told to number our days — to
count them — so as to get us a
heart of wisdom. And herein lies
the contemporary message of the
Omer.
Our very lives should be con-
sidered personal Sefirot. Sefirot
in which we make every day
count. ID