In Parshat Emor we read about the Omer.
The Mitzah of the Omer is only observed in the
enter the Land that I give you and you reap its harvest, you shall bring an
Omer from your first harvest to the Kohen…”
Before any grain produce of the new crop may be eaten, an
Omer, a measure of ground barley (containing the volume of 43.2 eggs) must be
brought to the Beit HaMikdash on the second day of Pesach as an offering
showing that we appreciate the fact that the produce of the Land is a gift from
God.
Even thought the farmers worked hard in order to work the
Land, at the end of the day, the produce would not have grown without God’s
help.
Today, we don’t bring the sacrifice since there is no Beit
HaMikdash. We still count the days of the Omer which was a Biblical obligation
but now is probably only a Rabbinic obligation since we don’t have the Beit
HaMikdash.
The paragraph that we read before saying the blessing over
counting the Omer comes from Parshat Emor, Vayikra 23:15 “You are to count from
the morrow of the rest day (starting the Second day of Pesach), from the day
that you brought the Omer offering that is waved- they are to be seven complete
weeks- until the morrow of the seventh week you are to count fifty days and
then offer a new meal offering to God.”
After we say the blessing and count the appropriate day we
say “May God return for us the service of the Beit HaMikdash to its place,
speedily in our days.”
Even though we are still counting the Omer by Rabbinic law,
we pray for the day that we can fulfill the Biblical commandments of the Omer
offering and the counting of the Omer in Yerushalayim.