Mitzvah lesaper et haMispar hamesaper

No, this is not a word game, and it is not a miracle, but a Mitzvah. Starting with the second night of Pesach, when originally we were also commanded to bring an omer of barley as a meal offering to the Beis HaMikdosh, we were then and now commanded to count each and every one complete day of the forty-nine days to Erev Shavuos, and each of those numbers is also associated with the story of our spiritual purification necessary for our receiving the Torah at Har Sinai. While Pesach dealt with our being saved physically by HaShem, this period preceding Shavuos deals with spiritual side of our relationship with ourselves and HaShem.

Words that Count and Must be Understood

Kodem kol, the Mitzvah entails our saying words, that count in both the simple and the figurative sense and which must be understood by the one saying them. If not, our count is invalid and must be repeated in a language we understand. This does not mean that we have to be completely fluent in Hebrew to understand what we say, but we must understand at least that much, and if we do not, we must say the Bracha and the count in a language familiar to us. While the Mitzvah of Megillah was mainly in hearing it, here the Mitzvah is saying - actually counting, whereby we say an introduction, a Bracha, then the count and the subsequent text - filling in the kabbalistic verse of the day's Sfira.

Since this hands-on Mitzvah is one required of the males, and since it is a time-bound Mitzvah, women are actually exempt. However, many have chosen to observe it, and this is, of course, permitted, but there has been debate concerning the permissibility of saying the Bracha, (Mishnah Berurah 489:3).

The element of spiritual purification is, however, one of importance to both male and female; therefore the count and the kabbalistic verses would in that sense appear to apply to both.

We are actually counting days and weeks of the seven full weeks to Shavuos (weeks). What does this mean ?

First of all, the count of 49 corresponds to the 49 levels of impurity to which we had sunk in Egypt. Secondly, the job of ridding ourselves of these Klippot is to be accomplished by tapping into, connecting to those divine attributes or Middos of HaShem by which He reveals Himself to us to a very limited degree. The seven "lower" Sfiros , which in the Ari's Sefer Yetzirah are referred to as Middos, divine attributes used by HaShem to administer the world, are those to which we refer during the Omer count.

These Middos are paralleled, according to the Zohar, by the seven shepherds, i.e. Chesed (kindness) by Avraham, Gevurah (power) by Yitzchak, Tiferes by Yaakov, Netzach (eternity) by Moshe, Hod (splendour; gratitude) by Aharon, Yesod (foundation) by Yosef, Malchus (kingship) by David HaMelech., representative of HaShem's majesty on earth.

In this tallying up these Middos one is reminded of Yaakov Avinu's description of the Middos of his twelve sons, whereby here, in regard to the Middos as presented in the Sfiros, we are dealing with infinite perfection incomprehensible to human beings and simply hinted at in emanations.

Saying these Sfiros in the section following the actual count is an excellent way of remembering the day's count even better than just with the number, and monitoring our growth while cultivating those Midos we associate with and desire from HaShem and which we need to be the decent human beings with whom He would leave His Shechina.

The Omer and Honey
Peaks and Valleys - The Good Omer and the Bad Omer
Omer Personalities - R' Akiva and R' Shimon Bar Yochai
From Beast to Man
From Matzos to Cheesecake
Lag B'Omer - Breaking up the Count
Mitzvah lesaper et haMispar hamesaper
Not Fowl, but Foul
One Long Party: Pesach to Shavuot
Oops, I forgot to Count the Omer
Sheva Shabbatot temimot tiyenah
The Best Unbroken Chain
The Mourning after the Night Before
The Students of Rabbi Akiva
What Does Lev Tov Have to do with Sfira?
The Counting of The Omer
Lag B'Omer - The 33rd Day