From the first day after the Seder night of Passover, we start counting the Omer. In the book of Leviticus the torah mention “You shall count seven full weeks at the end of which you will bring fiftieth day a new offering to the Lord”. From the second day of Passover we then have the obligation to count 7 weeks until the holiday of Shavuot. Although today the temple does not exist, our Sages instituted the Omer counting, days per day for 49 days until Shavuot.
On Passover we free ourselves from the grip of evil and we are preparing for seven weeks, we gradually rising day by day, to be spiritually able to receive the laws from God, the Torah, the fiftieth day, day of Shavuot. The Omer symbolizes the purification of Israel for the receipt of the Torah and the Zohar goes to the extent to say, one that does not count the Omer is not among the pure people and did not participate in the Holy Law.
1. We must count the Omer on the current day and from the seventh day, we count the days and weeks.
2. It is recommended to count the Omer standing. But it does fulfill the commandment if it is counted sitting.
3. The obligation is to count the Omer every single night after nightfall once the stars appear. If by mistake the Omer was counted at dusk, before the stars came out, according to some Sages opinion it does fulfill the obligation, but it would be advisable to count again at nightfall, without repeating the prayer.
4. The Omer is usually read late following Maariv evening prayer, after the Amidah. If it is dark, Omer can be read even before the prayer of Maariv.
5. The leading Chazzan begin by saying the prayer and then followed by all present repeating the prayer and counting for themselves, because the duty of counting must be personal.
6. At dusk, we will not make a meal prior to the reading obligation of the Omer, but if we started the meal ahead of time, it is not required to interrupt the meal and it is therefore read after the meal.
7. If we can not count in Hebrew, the Omer can be read in any other language that is known.
8. If, before counting, we are asked “what is today’s count of Omer”, we must answer: “yesterday it was such a day of Omer”, because if we include the account of Today in our reply, we will have fulfilled our obligation and we must do it as it should normally be counting the Omer with the prayer.
9. If we forgot to count at the beginning of the night, you can still do so throughout the night. If we failed to count at night, we can repair this omission during the day but do not say the Prayer, and the following nights we continue to count with the prayer.
10. But if we failed to count even during the following day, therefore the count of 49 will not be completed so we have not fulfilled the condition of “seven weeks”, we will just count the Omer but without Prayer till the end of the 49 days.
11. Before we pronounce the Prayer, we should know which day we are.
12. If we were wrong one night in the account, and it has not made the mistake the next night, it is as if we had not counted all day, and we can not say the Prayer the following days. This applies if one is sure of the error, but when in doubt if we were wrong, or not, we can continue to rely on other nights with the prayer.
13. Women are not obligated to count the Omer. If they wish, they can without saying the Prayer.
14. Women have the custom not to work during the nights of Omer, since dark of the night.
Translated and adapted from various Talmudic sources by Elisha Ben Mordechai
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