Counting of the Omer

[TorahTent]

To follow the count for this year, visit https://torahtent.com/Omer2025.php

The Scriptures 2009
Lev 23:9  And יהוה spoke to Mosheh, saying, 
Lev 23:10  "Speak to the children of Yisra'ěl, and you shall say to them, 'When you come into the land which I give you, and shall reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the first-fruits of your harvest to the priest. 
Lev 23:11  'And he shall wave the sheaf before יהוה, for your acceptance. On the morrow after the Sabbath the priest waves it. 
Lev 23:12  'And on that day when you wave the sheaf, you shall prepare a male lamb a year old, a perfect one, as an ascending offering to יהוה, 
Lev 23:13  and its grain offering: two-tenths of an ěphah of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering made by fire to יהוה, a sweet fragrance, and its drink offering: one-fourth of a hin of wine. 
Lev 23:14  'And you do not eat bread or roasted grain or fresh grain until the same day that you have brought an offering to your Elohim – a law forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. 
The Feast of Weeks
Lev 23:15  '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. 
Lev 23:16  'Until the morrow after the seventh Sabbath you count fifty days, then you shall bring a new grain offering to יהוה. 
Lev 23:17  'Bring from your dwellings for a wave offering two loaves of bread, of two-tenths of an ěphah of fine flour they are, baked with leaven, first-fruits to יהוה. 
Lev 23:18  'And besides the bread, you shall bring seven lambs a year old, perfect ones, and one young bull and two rams. They are an ascending offering to יהוה, with their grain offering and their drink offerings, an offering made by fire for a sweet fragrance to יהוה. 
Lev 23:19  'And you shall offer one male goat as a sin offering, and two male lambs a year old, as a slaughter of peace offerings. 
Lev 23:20  'And the priest shall wave them, besides the bread of the first-fruits, as a wave offering before יהוה, besides the two lambs. They are set-apart to יהוה for the priest. 
Lev 23:21  'And on this same day you shall proclaim a set-apart gathering for yourselves, you do no servile work on it – a law forever in all your dwellings throughout your generations. 


Counting of the Omer (Hebrew: סְפִירַת הָעוֹמֶר, Sefirat HaOmer, sometimes abbreviated as Sefira) is a verbal counting of each of the 49 days between the holy days of Passover and Shavuot. The period of 49 days is known as the "omer period" or simply as "the omer" or "sefirah".

The count has its origins in the biblical command of the Omer offering (or sheaf-offering), which was offered on Passover, and after which 49 days were counted, and the Shavuot (Pentecost) holy day was observed. The Temple sacrifices have not been offered since the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, but the counting until Shavuot is still performed. Shavuot is the only major Biblical holiday for which no calendar date is specified in the Torah; rather, its date is determined by the omer count.

The Counting of the Omer begins after the weekly Shabbat during Passover. According to all practices, the 49-day count ends the day before Shavuot, which is the 'fiftieth day' of the count.

The omer ("sheaf") is an old Biblical measure of volume of unthreshed stalks of grain, the amount of grain used for the Temple offering.