The counting of the omer is one of the most unusual mitzvot of the Torah. Leviticus 23:15-16, “And from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, you shall count for yourselves: seven completed Sabbaths. Until the morrow after the seventh Sabbath you count fifty days, then you shall bring a new grain offering to the Lord.”

On Pesach (Passover) we experience liberation. We have been set free from bondage, but we do not yet know what to do with this freedom. The instruction comes on Shavuot (the Feast of Weeks/Pentecost), with the giving of the Torah.

Counting the omer connects these two events: Pesach and Shavuot. One event remembers liberation, while the other the actualization of freedom in the lives of the free. Each day that the omer is counted we are to recognize that our lives have been changed, and from the change what we are now free to do.

Yeshua/Jesus having been crucified on Pesach and raised on Bikkurim (First-fruits), also connected Pesach to Shavuot. Now, not only do we theologically recognize freedom in the royal law, but we now have the power to live it through the Holy Spirit and be agents of change in the lives of others: His hand and His feet.

Be well. Shabbat Shalom.