Question: Should a boy continue counting the omer with a berachah once he becomes bar mitzvah?
A Reader
Chicago, IL
Answer: Leviticus 23:15 states, “U’sefartem lachem mimochorat haShabbat miyom havi’achem et omer hatenufa, sheva Shabbatot temimot tih’yena – You shall count from the morrow after the Sabbath [i.e., after the first day of Pesach], from the day you bring the omer of the wave offering, seven complete weeks shall there be.”
Commenting on this verse, the Talmud (Menachot 66a) discusses when to cut the sheaves and start counting the omer. The literal meaning of “miyom havi’achem – from the day the omer is brought” indicates that the counting starts during the day. But we cannot count 49 full days, or seven complete weeks, if we start during the day. Therefore, the sheaves are cut at night and the offering is brought to the Temple the next day. In any event, we see the importance of counting 49 complete days.
Rabbi Simcha Ben Zion Isaac Rabinowitz (Piskei Teshuvot 5:25) states that most Acharonim (the Ktav Sofer, Maharam Shick, and Minchat Eleazar, to name just a few) rule that a bar mitzvah boy should count the omer with a berachah provided that he did so until that point. The Gaon Rabbi Ben Zion Abba Shaul (Responsa Or LeTziyyon 1:95) rules likewise, arguing that we do not wish to weaken the rabbinic mitzvah of chinuch (which is the reason the boy was counting the omer before his bar mitzvah – see Yoma 82a). He argues further that the mitzvah of chinuch applies to an adult too in this case (considering that the bar mitzvah boy has no obligation to count since he has not done so, as a mature man, until this point).
There are noted poskim, though (such as the Chidushei HaRim, Avnei Nezer and Birkei Yosef), who rule that the bar mitzvah boy should not count the omer with a berachah because all the days he counted before he became bar mitzvah don’t really count since he had no biblical obligation to count before he became bar mitzvah. Thus, he has no chance to fulfil the mitzvah of counting 49 full days.
Still another school of opinion is represented by Chesed LeAvraham (56), Maharash Engel (7:112), and Tzitz Eliezer (14:20), which all rule that a bar mitzvah boy should count the omer with a berachah even if he has not done so up to that point (or missed a day since sefirah started). They reason that the obligation to count starts on the day the boy reaches bar mitzvah; hence the obligation of “sheva Shabbatot temimot” also starts on that day for him.
Rabbi Rabinowitz concludes that we follow the first opinion – that a bar mitzvah boy counts the omer with a berachah only if he has counted with a berachah until that point, not having missed a day while still a minor. (The Minchat Chinuch [Mitzvah 306] concludes similarly.) He adds, though, that this bar mitzvah boy should not be put in a position to fulfill another adult’s obligation to count the omer since an adult’s obligation is biblical while his is only rabbinical according to some poskim.
In his Teshuvot VeHanhagot (147, Orach Chayim), Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch writes that we follow this first opinion because the obligation to count the omer nowadays is rabbinical (see Menachot 66a and Rashi ad loc., that it is only zecher lamikdash, in commemoration of Temple times).
Rabbi Nissan Alpert (Limudei Nissan) wonders whether there is one long mitzvah which requires 49 days of counting (which would explain why someone who forgets a day cannot say a berachah on subsequent nights) or whether there are 49 separate mitzvos (which would explain why we recite a berachah every night).
Rabbi Alpert also suggests that a bar mitzvah boy can “merge” the counting he did before his bar mitzvah with the counting he does after since all of it is rabbinically obligated. Before he is bar mitzvah, he is fulfilling the rabbinical mitzvah of chinuch and afterwards he is fulfilling the mitzvah of sefirah which is only rabbinical in our (post-Bayit Sheni) times. So even if all 49 days are part of one long mitzvah, he is okay.
He further notes Rashi’s opinion that a minor has no obligation to observe mitzvot; it is the father duty to educate his child to perform them (Berachot 20b, s.v. “vechayavin bi’tefilla”). A father is thus obligated to educate his son to count the omer. And yet, he can hardly do so if his son will be required to stop counting in the middle (once he becomes bar mitzvah). There are thus two choices. Either the boy is not allowed to count at all (since he won’t be able to properly count all 49 days) or conclude that Chazal allowed him to count with a berachah both before and after his bar mitzvah for the purpose of chinuch.
In conclusion, it seems proper that a bar mitzvah boy count the omer with a berachah if he had counted with a berachah until that point. (See also Piskei Teshuva [20] quoting the Shevet HaLevi, who ruled similarly in a particular case, relying on the argument that each day there is a separate mitzvah to count.)