Then we celebrate Shavuot on the 50th
day; this year the holiday begins the eve-
ning of May 23-25.
Why should we do the counting? The
Torah says it is to know when to celebrate
Shavuot during the wheat harvest, which
apparently will come 50 days after the bar-
ley harvest in Israel.
Sefer haHinukh, the "Book of Education"
about the 613 mitzvot written in 13th-
century Barcelona, explains that Shavuot
marks the day of the revelation of the
Torah. We value our national freedom
highly but receiving the Torah much more
highly. We eagerly count the days from
the holiday of freedom to the holiday of
receiving Torah.
In practice, people count at the begin-
ning of each night, and even say a blessing
on counting, but perhaps as a rabbinic
ordinance.

or

-

Gleinfingghel(Orfier

6

A primer of what it means,
why it is done and its significance.

Barley, above, is harvested first in Israel; then comes the wheat harvest and
Shavuot.

Louis Finkelman
Special to the Jewish News

M

uch of spring, in the classical
Jewish calendar, has the name
Sefirat haOmer (counting the
Omer), a period from Passover to Shavuot
that has a complicated history.
The name comes from a seemingly
straightforward biblical verse. First, the
context of the verse:
At the beginning of the barley harvest,
we are to offer a measure (called an omen)
of this newly grown barley as part of the
sacrifice for the day after the day of rest.

(Leviticus 23:9-13).
Rabbinic tradition understands "the day
after the day of rest" to mean after the first
day of Passover and not the day after the
weekly Sabbath. The scholars who calculate
the Jewish calendar always had to make
sure that Passover would fall about the
beginning of the barley harvest in Israel.
Now, the verse: "You shall count for
yourselves on the day after the day of rest,
from the day you bring the waved Omer,
they shall be seven complete weeks [Isn't
that 49 days?]. Until the day after the sev-
enth day of rest, you shall count 50 days
..." (Leviticus 23:15-16).

No Marriage, But Mourning
A mystery: Rabbis, more than a thousand
years ago in Iraq, report that Jews cus-
tomarily refrain from marrying between
Passover and Shavuot. Why?
One of these early rabbis explains this
as an expression of mourning because
thousands of the students of Rabbi Akiva
died in this season (as reported in the
Talmud Yevamot 62b).
If the custom of mourning began with
the death of Rabbi Akiva's students, it
stayed a secret for a long time. Rabbi
Akiva died in about 135 C.E., and Iraqi
rabbis wrote the first report of the custom

several centuries later.
Another explanation for the origin of
the mysterious mourning period traces it
back to the Roman belief that ghosts trav-
el about in part of the spring, known as
Lemuralia, so ancient Romans refrained
from marrying during this ghostly period.
Proponents of this origin do not explain
how the Roman custom reached the Jews
of Iraq.
Still another explanation: Rabbi David
Abudraham, in 14th-century Spain, notes
that farmers everywhere worry in the
weeks before the wheat harvest. Everyone
who eats wheat worries. The Mishnah
(Rosh Hashanah 1:2) indicates we are
judged in this period. People just feel too
anxious to get married at this time of year.
Different Jewish communities have dif-
ferent customs for which days to observe
as wedding-free.
Incidentally, the earliest reports only
said that people postponed their wed-
dings. Other signs of mourning, such as
not getting haircuts, not going to celebra-
tions, seem to have developed later.
On the 33rd day of the Omer
(Wednesday night, May 6, and Thursday,
May 7), we interrupt the mourning period
to celebrate Lag b'Omer.
Kabbalists assert that Lag b'Omer
honors Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, one
of Rabbi Aldva's five remaining students,
and the day bar Yochai revealed the
secrets of Kabbalah in the Zohar (Book
of Splendor), a milestone text of Jewish
mysticism.

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