Counting the Omer

A mature way of living is to discern between things that are just a means to an end and those that represent the end. When we realize what the end during the period of preparation, it too assumes the glow of the end.

What’s an Omer have to do with Counting?

In this week’s parsha, the Torah addresses the Mitzvah given to the Jewish people that would take effect upon their entry into the Promised Land. When they would reap their first grain they were to take a measure of grain (called an “omer”) and bring it to the Kohain (Priest). The Kohain is then to wave it in all six directions on the sixteenth day of Nissan (the second day of Passover). Before this offering was brought to the Temple, one was not permitted to eat any bread from the new crop of grain.

The Torah then proceeds to discuss a related Mitzvah. From the day that this offering was brought to the Temple, we are required to count fifty days until the next Holiday of Shavuos.

What is interesting is that this first offering is referred to the “omer” sacrifice. The counting is referred to as the “counting of the omer.”

Why, we may ask, is the offering known by the measurement and not by other more salient features of this offering, such as the type of grain that was used (barley) or the ritual of waving? What is so significant about the measurement?

An Omer of Manna from Heaven

To answer this question let us refer to another place where the Torah emphasizes the measurement. When the manna fell from heaven, the Torah stresses that no matter how much each individual gathered, they discovered that everyone had the exact amount—one omer of manna.

Here again we see that the omer was a salient feature of the manna.

Again, the question may be asked. What is so significant about that measurement?

The key to understanding the importance of the omer measurement can be found in the end of the Torah’s narrative concerning the manna. The Torah states: “And an omer is a tenth of an eifah.”

Commentators ask, why does the Torah mention this fact at the end of the discussion concerning the manna and not when it first introduced the fact that an omer of manna descended?

Take it or Leave it

The answer lies in a better understanding of the function of the manna and its relevance to our lives today. Manna was clearly from heaven. It involved virtually no measure of human endeavor. One had to either take it or leave it.

The lesson of manna is that, in truth, all of our needs—no matter how hard we work for them—are provided for us from G-d. The amount of effort is much less important than the mindset we bring to our endeavors.

To be sure, Judaism does indeed have a work ethic. We need to work because G-d wants us to contribute to the world. Moreover, even though our needs are provided for us by G-d just like manna, nevertheless, we must create the “vessels” into which to collect the blessings G-d showers on us. Without work on our part, G-d’s blessings have no receptacle. Our efforts do not generate the blessings they enable us to access them.

However, the connection of our livelihood to manna is that working more than what is necessary will not necessarily provide us with more blessing. Just as the manna was a small measure---just one tenth of an eifah—and it nevertheless it provided everyone with all of their nutritional and gastronomical needs, so too the quantity of our efforts do not determine the amount of success we will enjoy.

Perpetuating the Lesson of the Manna

How are we to perpetuate the lesson of the manna?

The manna, we are told lasted until the sixteenth day of Nissan of the year that Joshua led the Jews into Israel.

Once the era of eating food that came directly from heaven ended, it was crucial that the lesson of the omer of manna would continue to inspire us as to how to prioritize our lives. Yes, working hard to earn an honest living is not only imperative but it is the Jewish thing.

But, it is not the end; just a means to an end. The manna descended to enable the Jews to study Torah when they were in the desert, as our Sages state, the Torah could have only been given to the generation that subsisted on the heavenly food.

Similarly, we have to know that although the time that we are involved in our work has increased since those days when we lived in the desert, we must nevertheless not lose sight as to what is the goal. The objective of our working for a living is not to be able to make more money so that we can enjoy our lives. While those goals are not evil, in and of themselves, they too are only a means to an end.

The End and Amalek

What is the end?

The end is Torah study and the fulfillment of the Mitzvos

Thus, immediately after the Torah tells us that the omer was a paltry tenth of a larger measure, it is followed by the story of how the Jews in Refidim were attacked by our arch enemy Amalek.

Amalek, our Sages inform us, attacked us because they were the epitome of evil. But the reason they were able to attack an otherwise invincible nation that just emerged from Egypt with great miracles, is because they—the Jewish people—had loosened their attachment the Torah. Indeed, the location of that attack— Refidim—has the connotation of slackening.

When Jews forget what the “end” is and they obsess with the “means” they become more vulnerable to the forces of nature that have destroyed many a nation. Our strength is not just our intellectual prowess, material and military resources (though they are absolutely necessary according to the teachings of the Torah that require of us to defend ourselves when we are threatened). Our true strength that makes us an immortal people is our attachment to the Torah.

Thus, the day after we celebrate the Season of our Freedom that made us a nation, we must bring the omer offering, consisting of a paltry amount of barley—the least significant of the Biblical grains—as a way of invoking the memory of another omer---the Manna—that sufficed for the Jewish people and dramatized the power and importance of Torah.

310 Worlds

The word omer, the Kabbalists tell us, numerically adds up to 310; the number of “worlds” it is said in the Talmud, the righteous will inherit in the future Messianic Age.

The omer symbolizes our understanding that the key to our future is not the quantity of material acquisitions. It is the realization that even a modest involvement in this world—the manna—comes from on High.

Furthermore, when we appreciate that the omer is but a means to an end—the end being the Holiday of Shavuos, the day we received the Torah—then the omer—that symbolizes all of our worldly pursuits will lead us inexorably to the ultimate reward we will receive in the future Messianic Age.

It is also noteworthy that 310 is half of 620 which is the numerical value of the word kesercrown. This means that the omer, with its symbolism of worldly pursuits, is only half of the equation.

To achieve the full crown, which symbolizes the future Messianic Age, when sovereignty will return to the Jewish people and when G-d will reign supreme, we must add the other half of the omer. We must realize that we have to direct all of our activities, mundane and spiritual towards the end, the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai and the ultimate Redemption, when the revelation at Sinai will become a permanent fixture in the world.

From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Emor by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.