Instructions for counting the omer are found on our Omer Overview Page. You can find the specific blessing for today at chabad.org.

We’re dedicating a new Sefer Torah on the first day of Shavuot. In honor of this joyous occasion, we’re using the counting of the Omer to take a whirlwind trip through the Torah

Today’s portion is Bamidbar from the book of Numbers. Today’s insight was generously provided by Mimi G.

Verses of note: Bamidbar 1:17 – 1-20

What caught your attention in this parashah?

Because we call the fourth book of the Torah Numbers in English, I had always focused on the act of counting in this portion. But I had never noticed that the portion also emphasizes the naming of each individual counted in the census.

What’s one explanation for these verses?

The fourth book of the Torah, Bamidbar, opens with Adonai commanding Moses to conduct a census in the wilderness. What was the significance of this census, beyond counting the number of men, above twenty years of age, who would be able to go forth to war?

After escaping slavery, the children of Israel were undoubtedly experiencing many wildernesses – physical, psychological, spiritual and moral. In a time of chaos and vulnerability, the census would certainly have given a sense of a collective whole (albeit one that ignored the presence of women and children). This census goes beyond mere counting, however: each of the 603,550 males was recorded by individual name according to tribe, creating an identity beyond simply a number. Binding the members of the twelve tribes, each with their unique blessing and destiny, into a cohesive nation became a necessary and constant process in the wilderness, and indeed it continues today. How do we as Jews, and as Americans, balance identity and individual liberties with our responsibility to the common good?