Counting the Omer and More….
Post date: Apr 20, 2017 8:14:29 PM
A new blog post in which I discuss:Sheaf-Offerings, עומר or Omer?
Digital Counters
Simpson’s “Homer’s Counter”
A niggun for the bracha used by early 20th century omer counters
How to use the Omer counting to date old Haggadot
Reform Judaism
And an Omer Song written by a legendary Kibbutz poet.
Introduction
These days, Jews all over the world count the Omer, the 49 days from the second day of Pesach until Shavuot (Pentecost). This counting is accompanied by a special blessing which is said every night. In the past it was not always easy to remember to count and keep track of which day it was. Special “Omer Counters” were used. I still have the little wooden one my parents used to count the omer, which can be scrolled to show the correct day.
More elaborate historic and contemporary Omer Counters are presented on the website of Richard McBee. Nowadays, one can easily download free cell phone applications that will remind you which day to count.
English Haggadot Translations and Omer Counting
The Counting of the Omer can also be found in Haggadot, but only in the ones which are produced for use outside Israel because the counting starts on the SECOND day of Pesach and outside Israel the Pesach seder is celebrated (and the Haggadah is read) two nights in a row. Israeli Haggadot, used only on the first day, will therefore not include this blessing.
Alexander & Assistants created the first ever English translation of the Haggadah in London, in 1770 and included the following Omer count:
Blessed art thou, O Lord our God! king of the universe, that sanctified us with thy commandments and commanded us to count the days of the sheaf-offering. (Levit. 23, Ver. 15.)
This is the first day of the sheaf-offering
Let it be thy will O Lord our God! and the God of our fathers, that thy temple may be builded soon in our days, and give us our share in thy law.
More than 50 years later, by the time the English translation of the Haggadah had crossed the Atlantic, the cumbersome “sheaf offering” is long forgotten. However, instead of providing an English term, the first Haggadah printed in America (1837) renders the Hebrew term for the Omer:
Blessed art thou, O Eternal, our God! King of the universe, who hath sanctified us with thy commandments, and commanded us to count the days of the עומר.
This is the first day of the עומר.
May it be thy will, O Eternal, our God! and the God of our ancestors, speedily to rebuild thy temple in our days, and grant us our share in thy law.
It takes until the 1850s before Rev. (at that time a title for Rabbi) A. P. Mendes uses the word “Omer” (with quotation marks) in his translation.
This is the First Day of the “Omer”
English Haggadot, Music and Omer Counting
The first English Haggadah to include a musical score for some of the closing hymns was published in 1906 by the Bloch Publishing Company (NY). The Haggadah was “translated arranged and edited by William Rosenau PhD.” with a musical score provided by cantor Rev. Alois Kaiser which became very popular. Bloch’s publishing competitor, Hebrew Publishing Company (also located in New York) did not want to subjugate so six years later they published their own English Haggadah with music (1912, Dr. A. Th. Philips, music by Henry A. Russotto). This musical score is much more extensive including an opening English song (“God the Shield of Israel”), kiddush, parts of Hallel, all the closing hymns and the Bracha for the “S’fira”, the counting of the Omer.
In the year the Russotto Haggadah was published in New York, a 19 year old Polish/Russian boy with a Gur Hassidism background decided, against the will of his father, to travel to Warsaw to study music and vocal training at the conservatory. Shalom Postolsky would eventually make aliya and become a writer/ poet and composer of songs for the Kibbutz movement. His Song for the Omer (lyrics M. Tabenkin based on the Mishna) can still be found in many Kibbutz Haggadot and was translated into English for a 1955 Yavneh (tel Aviv) Haggadah by I. M. Lask:
Dating Haggadot and Omer Counting
Publishers often forget to date their Haggadot. As a fervent Haggadah collector I have great difficulties cataloging such Haggadot but there is a neat trick I learned from the greatest Haggadah indexer ever, Isaac Yudlov. His catalog of all Haggadot printed until 1960 often indicates that a publishing date was established based on a five year calendar added to the Haggadah. The logic behind this is that if a Haggadah shows no publishing date but does give the date for Shavuot from 1936 to 1940 it is probably published in 1936. An example of such a Haggadah with missing title page and publishing data is a Maxwell Haggadah on the Hebrew Books website.
Omer Counting and Reform Judaism
The first English Reform Haggadot (Marks, London, 1842/ Jastrow, Baltimore, 1878/ The Eastern Eve Haggadah, Bloch Publishing, Cincinatti) did not include the blessing for counting the Omer. This is because Reform Judaism holds that even Jews who live outside Israel should celebrate only the first (and last) day of pesach as expressed by Claude Montefiore in his Outlines of Liberal Judaism (pp. 254-6) and quoted in the 1923 Revised Union Haggadah for Reform Jews (p. 151).
That Reform Judaism does believe in the value of counting the Omer can be seen on this website.
Simpson’s Homer Counting
And finally on the lighter side, I found this wonderful website about Judaism in the Fox Simpson TV series. It has a great printable Homer calendar to help you count the Omer and lots and lots more!