Marking Time: Recounting the Omer

Since the Passover Seder is a time for questions, it should come as little surprise that some would be raised by an easily missed moment tucked into the Haggadah's back half. During the recitation of the Hallel prayer that marks the second Seder's ritual conclusion, we make a blessing and declare, "Tonight is the first night of the Omer."

What is the Omer, anyway, and what does it have to do with Passover? How long does the Omer last? And why does it start on the second night of Passover and not, say, the first?

The Omer is the 49-day period stretching from the second night of Passover to the start of Shavuot, marking the arduous path of spiritual enlightenment that begins with Passover's celebration of the redemption from Egyptian slavery and reaches its pinnacle with the giving of the Torah on Shavuot. It is marked by the daily ritual of counting the Omer, noting both the day and week (for example,"Today is 24 days, which is three weeks and three days to the Omer"). But like many other occasions on the Jewish calendar, the Omer period is one that has taken on a variety of meanings and associations with the passage of time. Like a capsule version of Judaism itself, the Omer and its customs contain multitudes ranging from the era of the Temple to the recent past.

The notion of the Omer stems from the biblical commandment to bring an offering to the Temple on the 16th of Nissan, the second day of Passover. Beginning on that day, the Torah states, one is required to count seven weeks, with the 50th and final day being Shavuot. Even in the absence of the Temple, and the Omer's ritual offering of the first of the harvest, the counting of the Omer abides.

The purpose of the counting of the Omer, and of the Omer itself, is actually a matter of some disagreement. The kabbalists saw the Omer as a strictly spiritual period, in which each day reflected a bump upward in holiness. This is balanced by the post-Temple understanding of the Omer as a period of mourning in which weddings, music, haircuts, shaving and other emblems of joy are strictly forbidden.

According to the Gaonim (the generation of scholars postdating the Talmud), the mourning is in response to the tragedy of the students of Rabbi Akiva, all 24,000 of whom mysteriously died in a plague that, as legend has it, stemmed from their internecine bickering. In remembrance of their fate, and in the hopes of avoiding their sin, the Omer is treated by many observant Jews as a period of solemnity, leading into the Three Weeks and the Nine Days, steps on the ladder leading to the saddest day on the Jewish calendar, Tisha b'Av, which commemorates the destruction of both Temples.

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