How does the act of counting serve as a cleansing agent? What is the meaning of the prayer’s reference to “today’s Sefirah”? And what is the “Omer” in “Sefiras Ha’omer”?
There’s nothing quite like the moment of arrival.
It’s an exquisite, emotional moment when we sit down to the Seder on the first night of Pesach. The countdown is over, our efforts have culminated in the beautiful table we’re siting at, and we’ve reached our journey’s end.
Before we have a chance to ask, “What’s next?” we’re immediately cast into another, more formal countdown: Sefiras Ha’omer begins the very next day. While most of us know that we’re counting up to Shavuos, and demonstrating, in the words of the Sefer HaChinuch, “our longing and expectation for that exalted day,” we may not fully understand the relevance of these weeks.
Counting the Omer is not merely an emotive expression of our anticipation for Kabbalas HaTorah. It’s a process of growth. We seek not only to reach the day of Matan Torah, but to get there in a purified, elevated state. In the tefillah some recite after the daily Sefiras Ha’omer, we ask Hashem “in the merit of the Omer that I have counted today, may any blemish I have caused in today’s Sefirah be corrected, so that I can be cleansed and sanctified.”
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