TThe Torah commanded that the Jews count forty-nine days between the second day of Passover (the sixteenth of Nisan) and the festival of Shavout (Levitcus 23:15-16). This coincided with the daily offering of an “omer” of grain and is thus referred to as “The Counting of the Omer.”

Actually, with the suspension of the omer offering occasioned by the destruction of the Temple, the biblical impetus to count the days between Passover and Shavout no longer applies. We continue the counting tradition today as a matter of rabbinical law.

Because many tragedies have befallen the Jews during this time throughout history, the “Sefira” or counting period had assumed certain customs of mourning. The Talmud teaches of an epidemic that obliterated tens of thousands of the students of the great sage, Rabbi Akiva. In solemn commemoration, we do not arrange weddings or other festivities during this period, except on the thirty-third day of the Omer, “Lag B’Omer,” the day on which the epidemic halted its treacherous course.

In addition, it is said that the great mystic-teacher, Shimon Bar Yochai, would secretly study Torah with his students in defiance of the Roman decree, in the mountains of Galilee,

each year on Lag B’Omer. His students  disguised themselves as hunters, carrying bow and arrow, en route to the Rabbi, to avoid capture. Rabbi Bar Yochai died on Lag B’Omer, and, with his last request, insisted that Lag B’Omer be observed as a day of celebration, not mourning.

Accordingly, it is an established Lag B’Omer custom to dress as hunters, to play with bows and arrows, to visit Rabbi Bar Yochai’s grave in Meron (near Safed) in Israel, to light bonfires, sing, dance, and make merry, and to celebrate the first haircuts of three year old boys on the anniversary of Rabbi Bar Yochai’s yahrtzeit. Many also study the Zohar (i.e., a pioneering work on Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism, believed to be written by Rabbi Bar Yochai) on Lag B’Omer. This year, Lag B’Omer falls on Friday, May 23.

The Sefira is the counting of seven complete weeks from the second evening of Pesach until Shavuot eve (Sunday, June 8). The count, which takes place after the nightfall for the following day, is preceded by the blessing only if done in the evening, and no days have been missed in the count. NOTE: If you forgot to count at night, you may count all of the next day—but without a blessing. You may resume counting the next evening with a blessing.

Shavuot 2008 Schedule

Shavuot Overview

About Shavuot - Questions & Answers

Sefirat Ha-Omer

Shavuot Dinner at Anshe Sholom

June 2008 Calendar