Concerning the mitzvah of Sefirat HaOmer, it is known what the Ran writes in the end of Masechet Pesachim, that the source of the mitzvah of Sefirat HaOmer is because the Yidden when they went out of Mitzrayim, and they knew that they are going to receive the Torah on Har Sinai, they were counting the days till Matan Torah, which means they couldn't wait till the day would come when Hashem would give them the Torah. And they counted the days, and because of that, we also have a mitzvah to count the days between Pesach and Shavuot, which would mean that we count the days till Matan Torah. As the Chinuch writes as a reason for the mitzvah of Sefirat HaOmer, he says נצטוינו למנות ממחרת יום טוב של פסח עד יום נתינת התורה, we were commanded to count on the day after פסח till the day the תורה is given, להראות בנפשנו, to show in our נפש, החפץ הגדול אל היום הנכבד בלבנו, to show in our נפש the great desire we have to that special day in our heart. כעבד ישאף צל וימנה תמיד, just like a slave who will constantly count, מתי יבוא העת הנכסף לו, when will the time that he desires come, שיצא לחירות, that he should go out free. כי המנין מראה באדם, because counting shows on the person, כי כל ישעו וכל חפצו להגיע אל הזמן ההוא, that his whole desire and his whole outlook is to reach that time. And this is the reason of the mitzvah of Sefirat HaOmer, and it is also hinted and written in different Rishonim like in the Moreh Nevuchim חלק ג׳ פרק מ״ג, in the Midrash that the Itur writes, and also brought down in the She'elot uTeshuvot HaRashba חלק ג׳ סימן רפ״ד, and also in the Levush Orach Chaim סימן תפ״ט סוף סימן א׳, and the Abarbanel in פרשת אמור, and in many other mefarshim. ולכאורה, we have to understand according to this that the reason for the mitzvah of Sefirat HaOmer is to count the days between Yetziat Mitzrayim and the day that Hashem gives us the Torah, which is Shavuos, why do we connect it to the קרבן העומר? It is called Sefirat HaOmer, which means counting the days from the קרבן עומר. The קרבן עומר was brought on Pesach, it was a קרבן made of barley, a קרבן מנחה, and this קרבן allowed the people to eat חדש. Till you bring the קרבן עומר, you're not allowed to eat חדש, which means you're not allowed to eat the new crop, but from when they bring the קרבן עומר, you're allowed to eat חדש. So why is it that we connect the mitzvah of counting the days between Pesach and Shavuos to the קרבן העומר, and it's even called Sefirat HaOmer, we count the days of the עומר? And in the לשון of the Sefirat HaOmer we say, today is this and this amount of days לעומר, to the עומר, or according to the other נוסח, בעומר, but we connect it to the עומר. Why is it connected to the קרבן עומר?

But to understand this, we have to first understand something else concerning the קרבן עומר itself. The קרבן עומר, as we said before, was a קרבן מנחה, a קרבן which is made of flour. Now we know כל המנחות באות חטין, that all the מנחות, all the קרבנות מנחה were made of wheat, except two קרבנות מנחה were made of barley. One of them is the מנחת סוטה, the קרבן מנחה סוטה, a woman that did not listen to her husband, who told her do not hide with this and this man, and she went along and did hide with him. So then he brings her later to the בית המקדש, and she has to drink the מים המאררים, and she has to bring a קרבן מנחה. Now that is the מנחת סוטה or מנחת קנאות, and the דין is that her מנחה is not made of חטין, of wheat, but made of barley. And also the מנחת העומר is another exception that it's made of barley, not made of wheat. Concerning the מנחת סוטה, it says in the Gemara why her מנחה was not חטין but שעורים, because we know that חטין, wheat, is מאכל אדם, that's food for a human being. שעורים, barley, is מאכל בהמה, is food for a בהמה. And therefore we say כשם שמעשיה מעשה בהמה כך קרבנה מאכל בהמה. Just like her actions were actions of a בהמה, she was a סוטה, she acted improper like a בהמה, like an animal, therefore her קרבן is made of שעורים, which is מאכל בהמה, food of a בהמה. So this is a reason why the מנחת סוטה should be of barley, but why should the מנחת העומר be of barley, which is a מאכל בהמה?

But the pshat is as follows. When the Yidden were in Mitzrayim, we all know that they were in a very, very low level, as it says that they were in the מ״ט שערי טומאה, they were sunk into the forty-nine gates of tumah. And it says even more, if Hashem would have waited and not taken them out then, then they would have sunk into the שער הנו״ן, in the fiftieth 50th gate of tumah, and from there you can't get out already. Because we know that there are 50 gates of tumah, and as long as you didn't reach the 50th gate, you still could get out. So when the Yidden were in Mitzrayim, had Hashem waited longer and they would gone into the שער הנון, into the 50th gate, then Hashem would never, kivayachol, been able to take them out. So He took them out only when they were in the מ\"ט שערים, they went down into the 49th gate. But 49 gates of tumah they were. When they went out of Mitzrayim, Hashem pulled them out at that time, not because they elevated themselves to a high level, but Hashem pulled them out of Mitzrayim while they were in that low level. As it says in the Haggadah, that till נגלה עליהם מלך מלכי המלכים הקדוש ברוך הוא וגאלם, השם Himself revealed Himself to them and took them out. So He, from above, came down to the level the way they were, and pulled them out of Mitzrayim. Now, it's self-understood that the Yidden, in that level, were not at all any kelim, any vessels, to receive the Torah. In order to receive the Torah, you have to be in a madregah, in a level that you are able to receive it. At the time of Matan Torah, there was a revelation of Hashem. It says Hashem came down to this world, וירד השם על הר סיני, He came down with the whole פמליא שלו, with whole מרכבה שלו, He came down with all of the inyanim of above. So to come down that way, and to give the Yidden the greatest present, the most spiritual thing that exists, which is the Torah, the people, the Yidden, had to be ready for it. And it's self-understood that the level they were in when they left Mitzrayim, they were not at all on the level of being able to receive the Torah. What had to be done was they had to get out of the 49 gates of tumah. Not only did they have to go out from the 49 gates of tumah, but they also had to enter into the 49 gates of kedushah. Because the Gemara says that חמישים שערי בינה נבראו בעולם, there are 50 gates of wisdom, which really means 50 gates of kedushah in the world. And it says that the 50th gate is the highest level, where a person cannot reach. Even Moshe Rabbeinu, it says, could not reach this level in his lifetime. It says כולם ניתנו למשה חוץ מאחד, they were all given to Moshe Rabbeinu, all 49, except one, the 50th, because in his lifetime, when the tzaddik is alive, cannot reach that highest madregah. It does say from the Mezeritcher Maggid, that when Moshe Rabbeinu passed away, that's when he reached even the 50th level, as the pasuk says that he was buried in Har Nevo, in the mountain called Nevo. So the Mezeritcher Maggid explains that the word Nevo is made up of two words: נו\"ן בו, the 50th was within him. Because when he passed away, then he was able to receive even the 50th. As the Chazal say on the פסוק, כי לא יראני האדם וחי, that a person cannot see Me and live, Hashem said to Moshe Rabbeinu. So it says בחייהם אינם רואים אבל במיתתם רואים, that the tzaddikim cannot see the highest level of Hashem while they're alive, but after they pass away they are able to see. So Moshe Rabbeinu, after he passed away, was able to reach the 50th level. But while a person is alive, he cannot reach the 50th level. But the 49 levels a person is able to reach. And we could imagine that in order to be able to receive the Torah, they had to reach the maximum that a human being is able to reach, because to receive the Torah, the highest spiritual thing that exists, with Hashem coming down to this world, they had to be in the highest level possible for the human beings. So therefore, they had to reach the 49 שערים, gates of kedushah, in order to be kelim to receive the Torah. So it comes out that they had to do two things: they had to get out of the 49 gates of tumah and enter the 49 gates of kedushah. Being that we say that there are 50 gates of tumah and there are 50 gates of kedushah, it's self-understood that the gates of tumah are parallel to the gates of kedushah, which means that the 50 gates of tumah are the same, lehavdil, as the 50 gates of kedushah. Each one is the same inyan. You have one gate of tumah, which is parallel to the same inyan the way it's in kedushah, but this is the inyan in kedushah, and the other one is the way it is in tumah. And therefore, when you go out from one gate of tumah, at the same time you're able to enter one gate of kedushah. Even though you just went out one gate of tumah, you still have many gates of tumah to go out, so how can we say that before you go out from all the gates of tumah you're able to enter a gate of kedushah? But being that the gates of tumah are parallel to the gates of kedushah, so if you work very hard on what that one gate of tumah represents, so not only do you go out from that gate of tumah, but at the same time, you're also able to enter the parallel gate of kedushah. And this was the avodah of the Yidden at that time. They had to break themselves away from the forty-nine gates of tumah and enter the forty-nine gates of kedushah, and then they would be ready to receive the Torah from Hashem. And this is why it took them forty-nine days till they received the Torah, because every day the Yidden worked on a different gate. They worked to get out from one gate of tumah, and at the same time to enter one gate of kedushah. And since every day they worked on one gate, on one level, on one idea, on one aspect, so therefore after forty-nine days, that's when they were pure and ready to receive the Torah. Just like it was at the time when the Yidden went out of Mitzrayim, the same is every year, because we know when we celebrate a Yom Tov, it is not chas v'shalom the pshat that we just remember something that happened years ago, but the idea is to relive and to reenact the same thing as it happened then. So, nowadays, too, the days between Pesach and Shavuos, the forty-nine days, they are days when we have to work on ourselves to go out of any level of tumah that we have, and enter into the levels of kedushah to be kelim to be able to receive the Torah on Shavuos. And for that we have forty-nine days, because there are forty-nine major things that we have to work on during these days, which are connected to the forty-nine gates of tumah, and lehavdil to the forty-nine gates of kedushah.

And as we see that every day of Sefirat HaOmer is connected to a different sefirah. As we see in many siddurim that under each sefirah it mentions a different sefirah: the first day is called חסד שבחסד, the second day is גבורה שבחסד, then it's תפארת שבחסד, etc. And in many נוסחאות we even mention those ספירות in the Ribono Shel Olam that we say after the counting of the sefirah. Now, each one of these ספירות represents a different middah, a different characteristic of a person. Because we know a person is made up of seven middot, the seven characteristics. First, he has three parts to the intellect, as we know from sefarim, that there are three parts, there is חכמה, בינה ודעת in the person's brain, then we have seven middot, seven characteristics of the person, which are חסד, גבורה, תפארת, נצח, הוד, יסוד, and מלכות. And each one of these is a different characteristic. We also know that there is what we call התכללות המדות, that there is a combination of the middot. Within chesed itself, you have the חסד שבחסד, and you have גבורה שבחסד, etc. Each one is another detail within chesed. When a person is completely kind, for instance he gives his son a present, that is the act of chesed, and it's חסד שבחסד. If a father would punish a child because a child didn't act properly, this is also chesed, but it's גבורה שבחסד. So each one is made up of other middot. And that is the idea of the forty-nine days, that in order to get out of the forty-nine שערים of tumah, and to enter the forty-nine gates of kedushah, we have to purify and change our characteristics, which mainly is made up of seven, and each one of the seven is combined of the other seven, so together it is forty-nine. And that is what happens: the first week we work on our מדת החסד to elevate and purify מדת החסד. The first day we purify the חסד שבחסד, the second day the גבורה שבחסד, then תפארת שבחסד, etc. The second week we work on the middah of גבורה: the first day is חסד שבגבורה, then it's גבורה שבגבורה, תפארת שבגבורה, etc. The third week we work on our מדת התפארת. And now is not the time to explain exactly what each one of the middot mean, but the general idea is that each week is for a separate middah, and each day is for a separate detail within that middah. And this is the way we prepare ourselves to receive the Torah on Shavuot. Which means that on Pesach we're in a low level, because it is the same as it was when the Yidden went out of מצרים, they were in a low level, at that time the yetzer hara was strong. And between Pesach and Shavuot they purified themselves, they changed over the yetzer hara, they overpowered the yetzer hara. And by the time Shavuot came around forty-nine days later, they were pure and ready to receive the Torah. The same with us, we have to overcome the middot from the yetzer hara from the beginning of Pesach on, forty-nine middot of the yetzer hara, so each day we overcome a middah which is connected to the yetzer hara, and at the same time that same middah is purified and elevated to kedushah, so we go out every day from one gate of tumah and enter one gate of kedushah, and after forty-nine days we're ready to receive the Torah.

This is why we connect the ענין of Sefirat HaOmer to the קרבן עומר. Because the קרבן עומר, which is the beginning of the Sefirat HaOmer, tells us what our avodah during the Sefirat HaOmer should be. As we said before, The קרבן עומר was a קרבן made of barley, which is מאכל בהמה. And this is exactly what we mean. When we start off, we still have the middot of a בהמה. We have middot like an animal, which means our middot are not pure yet. The middot of our yetzer hara are still strong. Especially the expression in חסידישע ספרים, that they refer to the yetzer hara constantly with the expression נפש הבהמית, the animalistic nefesh, the animalistic soul. So the middot we have in the beginning are still מדות בהמיות, מדות of a בהמה, because the middot are from the נפש הבהמית, from the animalistic soul that we have. And avodah is to purify and to elevate these middot from the בהמה that we have within ourselves, and to bring them to a higher מדרגה in order to be able to receive the Torah. So therefore, before we start counting, there is a קרבן עומר brought, a קרבן to Hashem which is מאכל בהמה, made of food that belongs to בהמה, to tell us that we are still in a level where our maasim are like maasim of a בהמה. Just like by the סוטה we say, the reason her קרבן was made of שעורים, because just like her maasim, her actions were מעשה בהמה, so her קרבן also has to be a קרבן of מאכל בהמה. So too with us. In the beginning, our actions, our middot are still middot of the בהמה. And therefore we bring a קרבן to Hashem as a starter to our avodah of purifying our middot and elevating ourselves. So the first thing we do, we bring the קרבן עומר to Hashem, which is a קרבן מנחה of שעורים, of מאכל בהמה, showing that we still have middot of a בהמה. And from then on, we start our avodah, our service of Hashem, in purifying and elevating the middot. And the first day, we elevate and purify the middah of חסד שבחסד, the second day גבורה שבחסד, etc., till by the time we finish, we elevate the forty-ninth middah, and then we are pure and ready to receive the Torah. And this is the true meaning when the Ran says that when the Yidden went out of Mitzrayim, they counted the days and couldn't wait for מתן תורה, and that's why we have a mitzvah of Sefirat HaOmer also. But it really means not just that they counted the days, but they did something through the counting. That means every day they worked on themselves to get closer and be more ready to מתן תורה. And after forty-nine days, they were one hundred percent ready. The same is with us, that every day we have to purify ourselves and elevate ourselves to make ourselves ready to be able to receive the Torah on Shavuot. Therefore, after the forty-nine days pass, and we elevated ourselves to purify, that all our middot, that's when Shavuot comes and we receive the Torah again with a renewed חיות from Hashem.