The children in Jerusalem are already anticipating it. You daren’t leave a piece of wood lying around or it will be grabbed to add to the stockpile of logs, boughs, timber and old fence palings that have suddenly become treasure.
From the second day of Passover, the next 49 days, culminating in Shavuot, are known as the omer period. An omer is a bundle of grain that Jews offered in Temple times on each of the two holidays. In Leviticus 23:15, we are commanded to count the 49 days that pass between the two festivals. This counting is known as sefirat ha’omer.
We count each of the 49 days with a real measure of exactness, every evening at the end of the ma’ariv service. “Today is the first day of the omer….”is the formula, which expands into weeks and days. An Omer calendar makes it easier to remember. The seven-week countdown is comparable to elevation from slavery to the spiritual height of receiving the Torah at Sinai.
Counting the omer links us to the words of the Psalms:
“Number your days so that you may acquire a heart of wisdom.”
On Lag Ba’omer we celebrate our steadfast hold to the Torah through the ages, and also honor the lives of great Jewish heroes of the Second Temple period, such as spiritual leaders Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, and military leader Shimon bar Kochba.