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Counting days teaches us to make each day count.
Lessons for Today
"And you shall count unto you from the morrow of the sabbath, from the day of the elevation of the sheaf, seven whole weeks shall they be. Until the morrow of the seventh sabbath, you shall count fifty days, and you shall bring forward a new grain offering to Adonai. (Lev. 23:15, 16).
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Our Rabbis taught: And ye shall count unto you that is, the counting is a duty upon every one. On the morrow after the Sabbath, that is, on the morrow after the Festival. Perhaps it is not so but rather on the morrow after the Sabbath of Creation. R. Jose b. Judah says, Scripture says, Ye shall number fifty days, that is, every time that you number it shall not be more than fifty days. But should you say that the verse refers to the morrow after the Sabbath of Creation, then it might sometimes come to fifty-one and sometimes to fifty-two and fifty-three and fifty-four and fifty-five and fifty-six. R. Judah b. Bathyra says. This is not necessary, for Scripture says, Thou shalt number unto thee, that is, the numbering depends upon [the decision of] the Beth-din; accordingly the Sabbath of the Creation cannot be intended as the numbering would then be in the hands of all men. R. Jose says. On the morrow after the Sabbath means on the morrow after the Festival. You say that it means on the morrow after the Festival, but perhaps it is not so, but rather on the morrow after the Sabbath of Creation! I will prove it to you. Does Scripture say, ‘On the morrow after the Sabbath that is in the Passover week’? It merely says, ‘On the morrow after the Sabbath’; and as the year is full of Sabbaths, then go and find out which Sabbath is meant. Moreover, ‘Sabbath’ is written below, and ‘Sabbath’ is written above; just as in the former case it refers to the Festival, and indeed to the beginning of the Festival, so in the latter case, too, it refers to the Festival, and indeed to the beginning of the Festival. Mehachot 55b
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"Because the world is filled with trepidation between Passover and Shavuot for the grain and the fruit trees. Therefore the Holy Blessed One decreed that we count these days in order that we remember the trepidation of the world." Mateh Moshe quoted in Nautre in our Biblical Heritage, by Nogah Hareuveni
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Shavuot has always struck me as the 'poorer cousin' among the three central biblical pilgrimage festivals, even though my son, Noam, shared this bit of folklore found in a Jewish holiday cookbook on why Shavuot is the best holiday:
On Passover, we can eat where we want and when we want, but not what we want (ie. no chametz); On Sukkot, we can eat what we want and when we want, but not where we want (ie. only in the Sukkah); On Yom Kippur, we can eat where we want and what we want, but not when we want (ie. before or after the fast); BUT on Shavuot, we can eat where we want, when we want, and what we want!
Indeed, we can 'do what we want' because Shavuot is a pretty non-descript holiday. It has precious little ritual compared to Passover (with its elaborate Seder and ceremonial foods) or Sukkot (with the decorated Sukkah and the four species). Ice cream sundaes and cheesecake (and other traditional dairy foods) have become associated with Shavuot, but they do not have the religious significance of matzah and maror, or lulav and etrog which are prescribed in the Torah. Shavuot is the most abstract of all our holidays: there are no special ritual objects, nothing we have to do, nothing we have to eat. Perhaps the most salient aspect of Shavuot is the counting that we are required to start on Passover, described in this week's parasha.
This week's parasaha includes a description of all the biblical holidays. All three pilgrimage festivals have agricultural roots: Pesach is the holiday of Spring, Hag Ha'Aviv, when the barley first ripens; Shavuot is the wheat harvest (Hag HaKatzir) and the festival of first fruits (another one of the festival's names: Hag HaBikurim) and Sukkot, the fall harvest. But in the Torah, only two have a historical element: Passover is the exodus from Egypt; Sukkot reminds us of our ancestors trekking through the wilderness in temporary dwellings- the Festival of Booths. But in the Torah, Shavuot does not have an event associated with it. In the Torah, it is solely an agricultural festival.
Shavuot doesn't even have a fixed calendar date in the Bible either, rather, it is calculated as the fiftieth day after the 'Sabbath.' Shavuot is connected to Passover with fifty days (hence the English name: Pentecost) of counting (actually 49 days, or 7 times 7 days). Shavuot literally means 'weeks'; the Hebrew word shavua comes from the root: seven, sheva. Just like Shemini Atzeret concludes the holiday of Sukkot, Shavuot is seen as concluding Pesach. In fact, one of the rabbinic names of Shavuot is 'Atzeret!' (In the Talmud, Rabbi Joshua ben Levi calls it Atzeret shel Pesach). But connecting Shavuot to Passover is not for symmetry or just a calendar issue. For the Rabbis, it was a conceptual issue as well; what was the point of the Exodus? The liberation from Egypt was not an end in itself, but simply the first step to receiving the Torah. And it was inconceivable to the Rabbis that the Giving of the Torah had no festival to celebrate its anniversary, and since Shavuot had no biblically assigned 'event' it made perfect sense that seven weeks after Passover we should re-experience 'Matan Torah' the giving of the Torah. In order to do this, the seven weeks of counting and Matan Torah have to coincide. Fortuitously, the Torah does not provide an exact date for the moment of Sinai either. We only know that the Israelites arrived at Sinai in the third month and required several days of preparation. Depending on how we interpret the phrases 'in the third month' and 'several days of preparation' the Sinai event could fall anywhere from the third of Sivan to the middle of Tammuz.
There is also a problem with the date of Shavuot. The fairly detailed and lengthy (and rather complicated) discussion in the Talmud quoted above reflects the controversy between the Pharisees and the Sadducees (and later the Karaites) about when to start counting. After all, the text explicitly says, start counting after Shabbat, but the Rabbis understand this to mean, after the first day of the festival of Passover. (Shabbat can sometimes refer to a festival day.) The problem with counting after the first Shabbat after Passover is that, while Shavuot would always fall on the same day of the week, (Sunday), it would fall on a different date each year, making it impossible to coincide with the giving of the Torah. By counting fifty days from after the first day of Passover, Shavuot always falls on the sixth of Sivan, the third month, which can be made to coincide with Sinai. The festival of Shavuot is therefore brought into contact with the giving of the Torah and becomes "Zman Matan Torateinu" the Time of the Giving of the Torah and it became a custom to stay awake all night studying Torah. (It's probably not too early to plug Kolel's amazing all night Tikkun Lel Shavuot "SPEED TORAH". This year we will study the whole Torah in one night! Sun. Jun. 12 at Kolel starting at 9:30 PM. Visit our website for a full schedule and details.)
Lessons for Today
We connect Passover and Shavuot with counting. This is the 'counting of the omer.' The biblical word 'omer' usually means 'sheaf' and in our passage refers to a sheaf of barley, the first ripened grain. In Talmudic times, the word came to refer to a dry measure of about 2 quarts. (We try to link other festivals with each other: we start building our sukkah immediately after Yom Kippur; we save our lulav to sweep the crumbs before Passover; we save the protective wrapping (before they used styrofoam packaging) from our etrog to make wicks for our Chanukiyah. I'm happy to learn of others; if you know of any customs that connect two holidays that I haven't mentioned- let me know). The counting period is traditionally one of trepidation and semi-mourning, although the reasons are obscure. A variety of historical reasons has been suggested, but they are not particularly satisfying. Nogah Hareuveni suggests that all "Seven Species", the produce the land of Israel is famous for, are at critical developmental stages and require very specific weather conditions for their pollination or ripening, and farmers would count each day with great trepidation. The erratic weather during these fifty days includes hot winds called 'hamsin' in Hebrew/Arabic. Fifty days (chamishim) after the first harvest of barley, (pending ideal weather conditions) the critical wheat harvest follows. It is therefore on Shavuot, (but not Pesach) that there can be 'rejoicing in the harvest.'
Unfortunately, we've become disconnected with the meaning of counting the omer. Unless we're farmers, we're no longer attuned to our dependence on rain and sun, and the historical reasons seem forced. Many no longer observe traditions of 'mourning' during the counting, partly because of their unclear origins. But there is good reason to count, and it's not so easy! (Many years we've missed a night- even with handy magnetic Sefirah counter calendars on our fridge. This year we've taped a reminder on the bathroom mirror.)
We count from Passover to Shavuot to demonstrate our gratitude for Torah, and God's presence in our lives. Counting down heightens our excitement and anticipation, just like we count days till our birthdays, or until summer vacation. But I think there is another lesson. Counting reminds us that we should count our blessings. Counting days teaches us to make each day count.
Shabbat Shalom
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