Sefirat haOmer, the counting of the omer/”sheaf,” refers to the commandment to count the 49 days from the second day of Pesach until Shavuot. In biblical times, these 7 weeks comprised the grain harvest, beginning with barley (for which the barley omer offering was brought on Pesach) and concluding with wheat (on Shavuot). Although we no longer bring these offerings at the Temple, we continue to count the 49 days. While the biblical origin of sefirat ha’omer is agricultural, this time period also connects Pesach, the celebration of Israelite liberation from slavery, and Shavuot, the culmination of that liberation process whereby the Israelites became a realized nation with their own Torah.

Counting the omer each year can remind us to always elevate ourselves from an enslaved mentality to one of freedom. We perform the counting each evening after sundown. We recite a bracha and then officially count the day of the omer, indicated by weeks and days. If the counting at night is missed, we count in the morning/during the day but without a bracha. If a whole day is missed, we continue counting the rest of the omer but without a bracha.

The bracha and formula for counting the omer each night can be found in the Siddur Sim Shalom Sefirat haOmer