Counting Towards Shavuot

Counting Towards Shavuot

Dr. Zvi Shimon

The holidays have both agricultural as well as historical significance. Passover is the time of ripening and also commemorates our exodus from Egypt. Shavuot is both the harvest festival and according to the sages, also the time of the giving of the Torah. Sukkot is the festival of the ingathering of the produce from the field and a commemoration of our travels in the desert during the exodus from Egypt. With regard to the historical significance, Passover and Shavuot represent a historical continuum from the salvation in Egypt to the giving of the Torah. The counting of the omer stresses the link between the two. It is an expression of our excitement and eager anticipation of the giving of the Torah. After we undergo the exodus from Egypt in the Passover 'Seder,' we count the days till Shavuot, in anticipation of the giving of the Torah. Rabbi Hirsch (Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, Germany, 1808-1888) expounds on this line of explanation for the counting of the omer:
"'After the Shabbat,' when you have not only celebrated the Festival of your having attained freedom, but you have also brought to your mind before God the fact of your independence gained by possession and enjoyment of one's own land, so that you are conscious of both those possessions, freedom and prosperity which in general, are the aims which all national desires and all national efforts are directed to attain, then you are to consider yourself not at the goal, but only at the beginning of  your national destiny and only then begin to count for the acquisition of another goal.  Thus this command to count is expressed in Deut. 16:9, in these terms: 'When the sickle begins at the standing corn, begin thou to count etc.' Where others leave off their counting, you begin your counting."
Rabbi Hirsch combines the historical and agricultural components of the holidays. The offering of the omer is intricately connected to the entrance to the land of Israel. The Torah states: "WHEN YOU ENTER THE LAND that I am giving you and you reap its harvest you shall bring the first omer of your harvest to the priest" (23:10). After expressing our ownership over the land of Israel and feeling a sense of freedom through the enjoyment of the fruits of our own labor we begin counting the days towards the giving of the Torah. Although living as a free and prosperous nation on our own land is of tremendous importance, it is not the ultimate national achievement. While other nations may satisfy themselves with physical material accomplishments, the goal of the People of Israel lies in the spiritual domain, in the establishment of a nation which lives according to the precepts of the Torah.