What’s the idea of the omer count & what do we relive? The Bnei Yisrael went through a massive change in the 50 days from Exodus until Mattan Torah. We went from having everything done for us by HaShem in yetzias mitzrayim to working on spiritual growth ourselves in an intense 49 days of self-work and introsepction. Rabbi Tatz points out that this can be seen in the star signs of each month. Nissan’s sign is the sheep – a passive animal who needs to be led;like we were led passively out of Egypt. Iyar is an ox – a powerful animal who has strength of its own;like our working on ourselves in the omer. And Sivan is twins, for that is the combination of the work of Nissan and Iyar; HaShem did the work for us, then we worked on ourselves to acquire spiritual growth personally, and then we meet together in Sivan; hence the symbol of twins. So,in the omer we relive that experience of internalising the spiritual growth of pesach which we did not work for and making it one’s own achievement so to speak. After all, we are in this world to work on ourselves and not to be given pure spiritual gifts with no effort. Just to add one thing: The name ‘omer’ is a catch-word to remind us of the ‘omer’ of the manna, where HaShem provided everything for us.
If the idea of the omer is to work on everything ourselves, why do we name it after something which HaShem did without any of our involvement? Because if you look at it, it is near impossible to go from the penultimate level of impurity to the level of Adam Harishon in 50 days. How did Bnei Yisrael do it? Because their spiritual growth had much help from HaShem – we make the effort and HaShem helps us acheive. This is why we call it the omer – even though it is the time where we put in the effort and work to achieve spiritual growth, we must realise that HaShem is helping us every step uf the way.
Have a constructive Omer.
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