Lag B Omer and M' B Omer
EJD
Counting the Omer2 was an agricultural function. Many of the holidays in Jewish tradition are rooted in an ancient agricultural calendar. Counting one Omer per day from the second night of Pesach, we arrive at Lag B Omer, the 33rd day from Pesach en route to Shavuot, which is the 50th day. As Adonay in Leviticus commanded:
When you enter the land I am going to give you and you reap its harvest, bring to the Kohen (priest) a sheaf of the first grain you harvest (Leviticus 23:9[10] NLT).
Why Lag? Lag is an acrostic of two Hebrew letters Lamed and Gimmel, which add up to thirty-three. Lamed equals thirty and Gimmel equals three in the numbering scheme of the Hebrew alphabet. So the question again: Why Lag or why the thirty-third Omer? According to tradition, on the thirty-third day the talmidim (students) of Rabbi Akiba stopped dying. Some kind of suffocating disease was said to be plaguing the academy and was stopped on this day. The plague was caused by a disrespect for one another among the student body.
The day commemorates a miracle associated with the great sage, Rabbi Akiba. It implied the deliverance from a plague of death. Human lives were spared. The lesson of the event is: Apply correction (tikqun) to the problem and the judgment is stayed, and the plague ceases. A sort of prophylactic approach to this developed from this event. A sense of national mourning and judgment was to be encouraged in order to inspire repentance. When enough repentance is affected, then Gentile decrees against the Jews and other troubles can be mitigated or averted.
Rabbi Akiba was a First-Century (CE) sage. There was another important figure and another important counting of the Omer that took place in that century, and that was left out of the matrix of the Jewish-holiday schema. One day however, this day will become one the great holidays because of its significance.
M' B Omer, or maybe Mem B Omer is the precise counting. Mem is the number 40 in the Hebrew alphabet. Forty is significant in Jewish history and in the Bible. At the end of 40 years of wandering in the desert, Israel entered the promised land. The crossing of the Jordan river figures into the symbolism of resurrection - of passing from death into life. The crossing was a national event, one day there will be a national resurrection. But that event has to be rooted in proper divine authority and based on the right reasons.
What exactly took place on the fortieth day of the Omer?
On this day:
- Messiah completed 40 days of resurrection appearances to His talmidim (disciples). (Acts 1:3)
- Messiah ascended from the Mount of Olives into heaven.(Acts 1:9-12)
- Messiah entered the heavenly Beit Ha Miqdash. (Hebrews 9:24)
- Messiah led captivity captive. This means that the righteous dead were brought out of Sheol (the upper portion) and taken into heaven (similar to Eliyahu [Elijah]). (Ephesians 4:8-10)
- Messiah completed His sacrificial role as Kohen Ha Gadol (high priest) after the order of Malki-Tzedek. (Hebrews 7:15-25; 8:1-6; 10:12-22)
"But our High Priest offered himself to God as one sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down at the place of highest honor at God's right hand. There he waits until his enemies are humbled as a footstool under his feet. For by that one offering he perfected forever all those whom he is making holy" (Hebrews 10:12-14 NLT). The proper authority and the right reasons have been fulfilled in this event. This is the Tikqun - the ultimate correction - supernatural transformation that stays the hand of judgment and gives us eternal life. It is accessed by faith, by the time-honored faith in Yeshua.
2There are two different approaches to the counting of the Omer. This means that the date for Shavuot will be different for each approach. Karaites base their argument on the Bible alone rather than Rabbinical tradition. They interpret 7 weeks as 7 sabbaths to show that the counting must start on a Sunday after Pesach (Passover), because of the expression in Leviticus 23:15: "Morrow after the sabbath."
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