The verses are followed by my summary notes of an essay by Rabbi Shalom Noach Berezovsky, of blessed memory, the Slonimer Rebbe from 1981-2000.

"And you shall count for yourselves, from the morrow of the rest day from the day you bring the Omer [a measure] [of barley] as a wave offering seven weeks; they shall be complete.

You shall count until the day after the seventh week [namely,] the fiftieth day [on which] you shall bring a new meal offering [Mincha] to the L-rd.

From your dwelling places, you shall bring bread, set aside, two [loaves] [made from] two tenths [of an ephah]; they shall be of fine flour, [and] they shall be baked leavened, the first offering [Bikurim] to the L-rd." (Lev. 23:15-17)


a) Questions: in examining the source verses from the Torah we find a few peculiarities:

i) Why does the verse connect the "mincha offering" with the counting of the Omer?

ii) Why doesn't the verse reveal the date of the Shavuot Festival (of the receiving of the Torah); it is just referred to as the day of the offering of the bikurim.

iii) Why doesn't the verse reveal the date that we begin to count the Omer, it only says "from the day after the Shabbat."

iv) Why does the verse say to count 50 days when we only actually count 49 days.

b) The essence of this holy Omer period is revealed in the famous prayer that we pray during the counting time "to purify us from our impurities and to sanctify us with the highest sanctity." This teaches us that we leave behind our impurity in the period of counting the Omer and enter into the source of holiness.

c) From Pesach through the Omer until Shavuot is all one unit of time whose goal is to complete the redemption from our subjugation. The idea of completion on Shavuot is seen from the fact that G‑d said to Moshe that when you get to this mountain (Sinai) this is the sign that you have completed your exodus. Also the reason why it doesn't say expressly that it is a mitzva to be happy on Pesach, as it does on Shavuot and Succot, is because the joy of Pesach is not complete until Shavuot.


a) The verse [Ex. 15:17] says that the Jewish people did not want to go out of Egypt via the path of the Pilishtim and the next verse continues that the Benai Israel went out of Egypt "chamushim". The connection between the verses is as follows: the going out of Egypt occurred in 50 (chamishim) different units of redemption. Thus the going out of Egypt is mentioned in the Torah exactly 50 times. These 50 times are a complete redemption whereas the actual leaving of Egypt on Pesach was only one of fifty different units of redemption therefore the Jewish people did not feel ready to complete their going out of Egypt via the shortcut path of the Pilishtim since they had only grown one fiftieth of their potential freedom consciousness. This also explains why we needed 49 days to escape the 49 gates of impurities.

b) The answer to the question why it says to count 50 (and not 49) days is because the 1st day of Pesach is the first fiftieth of the freedom-purification process.

c) This 50 unit freedom purification process also explains why one can't miss one day of the fifty to continue counting with a blessing, since he would have missed the effect of "perfect" weeks.

d) The divine influx sent on the first night of Pesach is as strong as the entire Omer and then disappears, yet, the effect it made projects and generates enough energy to the entire Omer period to gradually get back to this level at the end of 50 days.


a) Another essential aspect of the Omer period is acquisition of good character traits, because these serve as the necessary vehicle to receive Torah.

b) Thus, the 49 days of the Omer numerically are equivalent to the term "laiv tov" ["good heart" — laiv=32, tov=17] which is what one acquires by working on one's character traits. (A good heart is also the most preferred attribute that we learn about in Pirkei Avot [2:10], since it is the most inclusive).

c) During the Omer period we read the Torah portions that deal with ritual sexual purity and sanctification, signifying that these seven weeks are auspicious for these matters.


a) We can answer our question about what is the connection between counting the Omer and bringing a "mincha chadashah" - a new offering. This mincha represents the new Torah we receive this year as a result of our Omer counting preparation.

b) We can also answer why the Torah doesn't mention expressly which date of the Month the Shavuot holiday falls on, nor which date the Omer starts on. All we need to know is the date of the first day of Pesach. The rest of this period is only a continuation of this first day of Pesach, which spurs on our preparation for our receiving of Torah. We only need to know the first point of reference of the first day of Pesach !


a) The verse states "and you should count for yourselves on the morrow of the Shabbat." The meaning is explained as follows; the Shabbat itself is so sanctified that it can make mundane pleasures holy, thus enabling us to sanctify ourselves even in those areas of pleasure permitted to us. In doing so we're able to remove all spiritual poison [infecting us] as our forefathers did when they received the Torah.

b) The principle of the two loaves of leavened bread that are brought on Shavuot hint at the two types of approaches to chametz at the beginning and at the end of this period:
a. First we are sunk in 49 gates of impurity and must keep ourselves absolutely separated from it.
b. Afterwards once we have purified ourselves from forbidden lusts and other types of evil inclinations, we can eat chametz and raise it up to holiness.

c) This is also hinted at in our sages' words (Kiddushin 30b) "I have created the yester hara [evil inclination] and I have created Torah as its antidote..." i.e. once we have prepared ourselves for and entered into Torah, we can raise up the chametz.


Source: an emailing from <yitzchakschwartz @> on April 4, 2012.