Sefiras HaOmer 5785

Before the great gift of Canva, creating flyers for shul programs was an arduous task. I’d do my best to tinker with the graphics available on Microsoft Word—geared far more towards word processing than graphic design—to create something that would promote an upcoming event with as much pop and pizzazz as possible.
And then I was introduced to Guru. And then to Fiverr. Online platforms that allowed you to outsource. For cheap. Put out the specs for your project, and someone, somewhere, would do your bidding for a pittance. Best of all was the perk of time-zone arbitrage. Pass off the job to a graphic designer in Bangladesh late at night and wake up the next morning with a draft already waiting in your inbox.
Outsourcing can be a game changer. But slow down. It doesn’t work for everything.
In formulating the obligation to count Sefiras HaOmer, the Torah instructs, “וספרתם לכם—And you shall count for yourselves (Vayikra 23:15).” This is unusual language, emphasizing the need for one to perform the mitzvah himself. What, pray tell, would the alternative have been?
The Mishnah Berurah (489:5) brings two approaches to explaining the Torah’s language. One is that the Torah here dispels the notion that counting Sefiras HaOmer should be compared to the counting of the years of the Shemitah cycle, or the number of cycles leading up to the Yovel. These mitzvos are actually not incumbent upon the rank and file, but devolve instead upon the collective body of Bais Din. Counting to Shemittah or to Yovel need not be performed by the private citizen. Counting to Shavuos, on the other hand, must be.
The other approach is, halachically speaking, more surprising, as it suggests that the Torah is overriding a principle that functions in all other areas of halacha, but not for Sefirah. Namely, the principle of shomei’a k’oneh—that hearing another person recite a text or make a statement is akin to having recited those same words oneself. It is shomei’a k’oneh that allows us to fulfill our obligation of Kiddush or Havdalah while merely listening to their recitation by another person, or to simply hear Megilas Esther read by the baal korei as a means of performing that mitzvah.
Shomei’a k’oneh—that listening is like reciting—works for many mitzvos, but not, according to this school of thought, to Sefiras HaOmer. One may not listen to another person counting the correct day. “וספרתם לכם—you should count for yourselves.” The count must be ariculated in one’s own voice.
There is a common thread shared by both approaches: The mitzvah of Sefiras HaOmer cannot be outsourced in any which way. Tempting though it might be to leave Bais Din with the burden of maintaining a correct count, Sefiras HaOmer must be undertaken by every individual. Conversely, it may be that even one who is embracing his personal responsibility to count, must do so in a manner that assumes the totality of that responsibility, enunciating the words himself rather than leaving another to do so as he listens on.
Outsourcing can be great. Sending a project off to someone else to handle so that you’re freed up to make more critical contributions—to do your best work—is smart business. But what happens when we outsource the very thing we’re meant to contribute? The very work incumbent upon us—and only us—to perform?
For all my enthusiasm surrounding the great discovery of Fiverr and what it could mean for multiplying my productivity, I understood that certain things couldn’t be outsourced. Imagine trying to outsource a hospital visit to a congregant recovering from surgery. Or spending time with a couple trying to navigate a sticky Shalom Bayis situation. Or attendance at a funeral or a bris. At some point, you’ve outsourced yourself right out of the very relationships you were trying to free up time to better engage with in the first place. You’ve outsourced yourself out of your very self.
Perhaps this is precisely what the Torah is accentuating regarding Sefiras HaOmer. Although the Torah was originally delivered through an agent, it was, in truth, never an outsourced enterprise. Moshe Rabbeinu delivered the Torah, but he did so to every single Jew. The Torah knowledge stored in the mind of Moshe Rabbeinu does not obviate the demand for every Jew’s personal engagement with Torah study. No matter how well someone else may have come to know Hashem by way of His Torah, the pursuit of that relationship is the purview of every member of the nation.
There is a wealth of assistance we can leverage in helping to craft a relationship with someone we love. We don’t need to grow the flowers ourselves, dip the chocolates, or even drive to the store to make the purchase in-person. But outsourcing has its limits. Don’t believe that you can send a laptop along with your spouse for the big anniversary dinner and let someone from Bangladesh make conversation over Zoom. Sure, it would save time and free you up. But free you up for what? At some point you’ve just outsourced yourself out of everything that matters.
In the ramp up to Shavuos, we’d do well to remember this point. Torah is not something that can simply be left to others to perform. Giving honor to and maintaining reverence for those who have amassed huge amounts of Torah knowledge is no replacement for our own learning. Generous donations to Torah institutions does not create a series of proxies to learn Torah in our place. We simply cannot send another in our place to carry on a dialogue with our Beloved.
Torah study is a personal conversation between Hashem and every individual member of His Chosen Nation, and not something that can be passed off to Bais Din or those we may feel—even genuinely so—are more capable at understanding the message than we are.
Torah is the spending time. It’s the in-person contact. The face-to-face conversation. It’s the moments we take to put everything else on hold to sit down and listen closely to what Hashem wants to tell us. And it cannot be outsourced.
Sefiras HaOmer commences the very night after we gather to read the Haggadah and relate the story of Yetzias Mitzrayim. One of the most remarkable features of that night is the deletion of Moshe Rabbeinu’s name from the narrative we retell. Which is, of course, on brand. For in the Haggadah we relate Hashem’s declaration that, “אני ולא מלאך, אני ולא שרף, אני ולא שליח, אני ה׳, אני הוא ולא אחר—It was I and no angel, I and no fiery angel, I and no messenger, it was I, Hashem, I and no other.” The Hagaddah contains these words as a reminder that in crafting His relationship with us, Hashem chose not to outsource. As we count each day leading from the Haggadah to Shavuos, we must remember to return the favor.