Counting the Omer, Explained: 10 Things You Might Not Know

1. Wondering where the name 'Counting the Omer' comes from? When the Temple stood, the Jewish people would bring, on the second day of Passover, a special barley offering called the 'Omer offering.' Only after that offering was brought was the year's new grain permitted for use. 'Counting the Omer' begins on the second day of Passover, when the Omer offering was brought—hence the name.

2. Counting the Omer is a commandment from the Torah. "And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day you bring the omer of waving—seven complete weeks shall there be... you shall count fifty days."

3. The purpose of Counting the Omer is to get ready to receive the Torah on Shavuot. When the People of Israel left Egypt, they were mired in 49 gates of impurity. So we count from 1 to 50: each day they climbed another rung and shed another layer of impurity, reaching purity on the fiftieth day—when they received the Torah.

4. It may feel obvious that Counting the Omer starts on the second day of Passover and ends on Shavuot—but that wasn't always a given. In the Second Temple era, the Sages of Israel fought a tough battle with the Sadducees, who read the command about the Omer—"And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath"—as if one must start counting on the Sunday after Passover, rather than the day after Passover, as taught by the Oral Torah. That struggle included many attempts by the Sadducees to disrupt the harvesting and offering of the Omer.

5. We count the Omer each evening after nightfall—starting about thirty minutes after sunset.

6. Before counting the Omer we recite the blessing "al sefirat ha'omer," but you say the blessing only if you count at the proper time (that is, after nightfall until the following morning) and if you have not missed the count on any of the previous days.

7. Counting the Omer is done while standing. On the verse "From when the sickle begins upon the standing grain you shall begin to count seven weeks," our Sages (Chazal) taught: "Do not read bakamah but bekomah"—meaning, standing.

8. If someone asks you, 'What's today's Omer count?' don't answer with today's number if you haven't yet counted—it would be considered 'counting without a blessing.' Instead, say what yesterday's count was, and the asker can work out today's number.

9. The Omer is known as a period of mourning—but that mourning isn't inherently about the count itself. The customs (no weddings, no haircuts or shaving, and avoiding music) commemorate the 24,000 Torah scholars, students of the Tanna Rabbi Akiva, who died in a plague during this time. This mourning period lasts 33 days, and according to most opinions falls between Passover and Lag BaOmer.

10. Although the verse says "you shall count fifty days," we do not count the fiftieth day—Shavuot—since the meaning is "up to fifty," not inclusive.