Rabbi, Is it Commendable for Women to Count the Omer? What do learned women opine?
A. I found the following commendable article from Rebbetzin Chana Bracha Siegelbaum | Director, Midreshet B’erot Bat Ayin | www.berotbatayin.org, on Parashat Emor:
“Focused Self Refinement for Men and Women Alike”
Throughout all my forty years of being Torah observant, I have never counted the Omer from beginning to end. Truthfully, I haven’t even tried. I feel ambiguous about the many young women who ardently count the Omer with or without an app. On the one hand, I admire these devout women who want to take on this timebound, positive mitzvah, which is more than what the Torah mandates for women. On the other hand, I’m not an advocate of women taking on men’s mitzvot, which at times comes at the expense of keeping the many obligatory mitzvot for women.
Yet, it is not a black and white issue. As women’s roles evolve, the boundaries between men’s and women’s mitzvot become increasingly blurred.
During the period of counting the Omer, both men and women need to work on character refinement, in order to be worthy to receive the Torah.
The seven emotional sefirot (Divine emanations) that we go through, with their sub-sefirot, during each of the 49 days of the Omer, from Chesed (loving/kindness) to Malchut (royalty) teach us the spiritual and emotional focus of each day. No matter whether a woman counts the Omer or not, it is highly beneficial to meditate on the sefirah of the day and work on integrating it into our lives.”
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Hirshman, Horav Dovid Pam, Horav Aharon Miller and Horav Chanoch Ehrentreu and Horav Kalman Ochs Shlit’a.
Important Numbers
