We are presently in the midst of the omer count. Being that this week’s Parsha contains the actual commandment to count ‘sefirat ha-omer’, this is an appropriate setting for an analysis of some aspects of this intriguing mitzvah.
In truth, the omer count is not the only mitzvah of counting that is found in the Torah. The Torah instructs us in two other places to count toward an upcoming event. In the Torah portion that deals with the Sabbatical Year (Leviticus 25), we are taught that the fiftieth year should be celebrated as a Year of Jubilee. The Torah states that there must be a count of seven Sabbatical cycles towards the Year of Jubilee. Why? What is the purpose of actually counting up to the Year of Jubilee? The Jubilee Year is the year of the great emancipation proclamation; all slaves are free to go. Also, it is a year in which landowners who were forced by their difficult economic situations to sell land have the right reclaim their title and repossess their family inheritance. The Torah declares that all land sold since the last jubilee cycle is automatically returned to its original owner. The Jubilee Year is exactly what it sounds like, a year of jubilee, a joyous year that we look toward with great anticipation (with the exception of the slave owners!). Clearly, the count toward this spectacular year is a method that the Torah gives us in order to express our yearning and excitement for the Jubilee Year to finally arrive.
Another mitzvah of counting that is not as well known is found in Leviticus 15:28. The Torah demands the separation of husband and wife during the time period of the wife’s menstrual cycle. Under certain situations the Torah itself prescribes a count of seven 'clean' days, as a prerequisite to their return to an intimate relationship. Although this particular count differs from the count of the omer and the count toward the Jubilee Year, in that one does not have to verbalize the numbers, the concept behind the count is very much the same. The couple looks forward to returning to intimacy. The count is symbolic of their eagerness to restore a normal state of marriage.
The count of the omer is no exception to this rule. The omer count also represents feelings of longing and anticipation. The Sefer Hachinuch explains that we count the omer toward the holiday of Shavuot as an expression of our yearning to relive the receiving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai. Now we are prepared to scrutinize more thoroughly the phrasing of the commandment to count the omer. The Torah writes (Leviticus 23:15) “You shall count for yourselves from the day following the ‘Sabbath’, from the day that the omer is sacrificed, seven complete weeks, until the end of the seventh week you shall count, fifty days.” The verse seems to be self-contradictory. Should the count begin on ‘the day following the Sabbath’ or on ‘the day that the omer is sacrificed’? Rashi quotes from the Talmudic sages that ‘Sabbath’ cannot be taken literally because we have no idea from which Sabbath we are to start the count. Clearly, the term ‘Sabbath’ is merely a code word for the first day of Pesach. The Torah instructs us to begin the count on the day following the first day of Pesach, which is the day when the omer is sacrificed.
But why would the Torah intentionally be so misleading? The common usage of the word 'Sabbath' certainly implies the seventh day of the week. Is the Torah trying to throw us off and cause us to erroneously count the omer from the day that follows the actual Sabbath? Seemingly, the Torah is trying to teach us a very significant message by deliberately choosing a misleading word. One of the most important lessons to learn, as we prepare to count our way toward the receiving of the Torah, is that the written Torah only supplies us with part of the necessary tools. In the absence of the Talmudic scholars who have mastered the Torah and share with us their keen insights throughout the pages of the Talmud, we have very minimal accuracy in our comprehension of the Torah. The Torah must consist of two components that complement each other, namely, the written law and the oral law. If we try to excel in the written law without paying close attention to the oral law, we are apt to make even the most basic errors. Normally one would not hesitate to translate the term 'Sabbath' as the seventh day of the week. It is only through the Talmudic interpretation that we are taught otherwise. The sages of the Talmud teach that in this particular context the term 'Sabbath' must refer to Pesach; otherwise we would not know from which Sabbath to begin our count.
The term that is used by the Torah to destroy chometz by the first day of Pesach is 'Tashbitu', which is the same root as 'Sabbath'. The sages argue that it must be the day after the day of 'tashbitu', the first day of Pesach, that is used as the landmark to begin the omer count. The omer count, as we have explained, is a period of preparation for receiving the Torah. The first stage in this preparation is the realization that a true understanding of the Torah can be achieved only if viewed through the eyes of the Talmud. Without understanding that message one is not ready to begin the omer count. Therefore, specifically in conjuntion with the omer count, the Torah goes out of its way to use a term that is ambiguous, which forces us to look to the Talmud for interpretation.
