Page 90 - RMBA Upper School Haggadah 2018

Sefirat HaOmer – The Counting of the Omer

Starting on the 2nd night of Pesach, we count the Omer every evening for 49 days
leading up to Shavuot

and the receiving of the Torah.

‫ברוך אתה ה' אלקינו מלך העולם אשר קדשנו במצותיו וצונו על ספירת העומר‬
Praised are you, Hashem, Lord our G-d, Ruler of the universe, Who sanctified us with His
commandments and instructed us to count the Omer.

‫היום יום אחד בעמר‬
Today is day one of the Omer

Sefirat HaOmer - Rebekah Grzebinski (10th Grade)
Sefirat HaOmer is a special mitzvah commanded by the Torah (Vayikra 23:15-16). The Jewish
people are commanded to count the Omer - a set of 49 days, comple ng 7 weeks - between the
second night of Pesach and Shavuot. According to Rabbi Min Kantrowitz’s book, Coun ng the
Omer, these 7 weeks were Biblically the me it took for the Jewish people to travel through
Egypt and reach Har Sinai. This journey began on the 15th of Nissan (the first day of Passover),
and ended on the 6th of Sivan, when the Jews reached Mount Sinai and received the Torah from
G-d. During these days, we are supposed to count the omer to remember our arrival to Israel
and the Beit Hamikdash. However, Rabbi Kantrowitz says that the message of coun ng the omer
is that we must grow and mature in our spiritual state up to receiving the Torah on Shavuot. We
can derive a lesson from this, that during the me we count the omer, we are challenged to act
even more kindly and to work on our nega ve a ributes and personal behavior to become the
best Jew we can.
The Connection Between Pesach and Shavuot - Ariel Schneider (11th Grade)
As many people know, a er the Jewish people were taken from slavery in Egypt, they wandered
around the desert, and ended up receiving the Torah at Mt. Sinai. While these two events seem
to be coincidentally juxtaposed, can they be made out to be connected?
Rashi comments in the Torah, saying that Moshe asked Hashem on what merit did the Jewish
People, Bnei Yisrael, leave Egypt to get the Torah. The Rav, Rav Joseph Soloveitchik, offers an
answer, saying that the direct reason as to why the Jews were taken out of Egypt was to receive
the Torah.

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