News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) Tuesday is the 23rd day, which is three weeks and two days of the counting of the Omer, the measure of barley that was harvested in ancient times at the beginning of the 49-day counting period and brought to the Holy Temple as a sacrifice. The end of the counting period coincides with the evening before Shavuot, the festival of the first fruits and the handing down of the Torah on Har (Mount) Sinai. The blessing over the counting of the Omer is recited at night and is omitted during the day if one forgot to count.

Most of the days between Passover and Shavuot are a period of partial mourning in memory of 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva who died during the same period during the Bar Kochba uprising. In the same period of time one thousand years later, Christian Crusaders killed tens of thousands of Jews. Five hundred years later, an additional slaughter of Jews took place in Eastern Europe during the days of the Omer.