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Parshat Emor

By: SFW Students & Alumna
Chani Schonbrun, SFW ’04-‘05

In our Parsha we are given the mitzvah of sfirat ha'omer. We find this mitzvah in two places in the Torah. In Parshat Emor, perek 23, pesukim 15-16 it says: "U'sfartem lachem mimocharat hashabat miyom havi'achem et omer hatnufa sheva shabbatot tmimot t'hiyena ad mimocharat hashabbat hashvi'it tispiru chamishim yom v'hikravtem mincha chadasha la'hashem." In Parshat Re'eh perek 16, pasuk 9, we read: "Shiv'ah shavuot tispor lach me'hechail chermash bakamah tachail lispor shiv'ah shavuot"

There are two different aspects to sfirat ha’omer that can be learned from these pesukim. First, to count the 50 days between Pesach and Shavuot, and, second, to count the 7 weeks.  Are these two separate mitzvot or are they two parts of one large mitzvah?

There is a machloket between the Rambam and Rabbeinu Yerucham about this very issue. Rambam says that there is only one mitzvah, which entails counting both the 50 days and the 7 weeks. To prove his approach, the Rambam explains that if counting the weeks were its own mitzvah, we would count each week upon the completion of the previous week and the beginning of the next, just like we count each day at the completion of the previous day. And secondly, if counting the weeks and counting the days were two separate mitzvot, we would have to say two separate brachot.  Since we only say one bracha, it is proof of the fact that there is only one mitzvah.

Rabbeinu Yerucham argues that there are two mitzvot, one to count the days and another to count the weeks, and that in the time of the beit hamikdash, they made two brachot. However, in the absence of the beit hamikdash, the mitzvah of counting the weeks became a d’rabbanan and we therefore no longer make a bracha on it. Its status changed because in the pasuk in dvarim where it says "sheva shavuot tispor lach" the Torah connects the counting of the weeks to the bringing of the korban omer. Since we now no longer have the ability to bring a korban omer, the mitzvah to count the weeks is only zecher l’mikdash and has therefore changed status from a d'oriyta mitzvah to a d'rabbanan. So while they used to make two brachot in the times of the beit hamikdash, we no longer make a second bracha. 

However, according the the Rambam, both countings are contained in one mitzvah and this mitzvah is not intrinsically connected to the omer, rather the omer just gives us a time frame for when to count.  Therefore, according to the Rambam, there is no difference between the way that they used to count in the time of the beit hamikdash and the way we count today. 

Interestingly enough, when the sefardim and taimanim count they say "hayom ____ yamim baomer, shehaim ____ shavuot" as opposed to the way ashkenazim count, "hayom _____ yamim, shehaim ____ shavuot baomer."  The taimanim say the word "baomer" right after counting the days, before counting the weeks so as to connect the counting of the days to the omer without the hefsek of counting the weeks (which is only dirabanan) in the middle.

An interesting halachic question that can arise is what if a person forgets to count a day, can he still make the bracha at the beginning of each week to count the weeks? According to Rabbeinu Yerucham, it seems like b'zman beit hamikdash, if one forgot to count a day, while he misses out on the mitzvah of counting days, he still has the mitzvah to count weeks and can still make a bracha on that.  However, bzman hazeh, where the counting of the weeks is only d'rabbanan since we no longer have the korban omer, it would seem that one would not be allowed to make the bracha at the beginning of each week.