Q&A: Reasons for the Commandments—Counting the Omer and Shavuot as an Example
Reasons for the Commandments—Counting the Omer and Shavuot as an Example
Question
Hello
We count every day from Passover until Shavuot. Do you think the purpose is the counting itself? What’s the point of “counting”? Does God want us to count just because “that’s how it is,” and it can’t be understood?
Is the idea that one should prepare to receive the Torah? And if so, how should I prepare for that?
Answer
I have no idea. Some commentators explained that the counting is preparation for the giving of the Torah, to make it precious. How should one prepare? By counting the Omer.
Discussion on Answer
Okay, so it’s too bad. But what does it mean that it’s too bad? That there’s no obligation to observe it? After all, our discussion dealt with that and only with that.
If there is an obligation to observe, then one must observe even if one doesn’t understand, while remarking that it’s a shame that this is so. By the way, if I observe only because I understand the results, then I’m not doing it out of commitment to God’s will but because of my own considerations (interests and the like). So even if God had explained the reasons to us, the observance still ought to be done not because of them. And perhaps that is why He did not reveal them to us.
To perform 613 acts when you have no idea why you’re doing them other than that “that’s what God said.” What a low form of serving God. Loathsome servitude.
When dealing with adults, you explain the meaning of the demands being placed before them. Too bad God treats us like babies… do this and this and this and don’t understand. Why? Because! “Be silent; thus it arose in My thought.”