As Heard From Rabbi Avigdor Miller ZT”L
“And you shall count for you from the day after the Shabbat.” (23:15)
The 7-weeks counting is not made by counting the days ahead (ex. “today is 49 days before Shavuot”), but by counting the days that elapse after the offering of “the Omer, the first of your reaping.” (23:9) If the counting was merely in the eagerness for the great event of the Giving of the Torah when Hashem’s voice would be heard, then we should count the days that remain ahead. But the procedure of counting the days that passed since the Omer demonstrates the very important principle of Gratitude for the produce of the land.
Every additional day that we continue to eat the fruit of the land, since the Omer was offered and thereby made the new produce permissible, brings added happiness and thereby requires additional gratitude. By looking back at all the days when we enjoyed the new crop, we thereby become more and more full of Gratitude and love of Hashem that gives us the land and the produce. And we thereby become even more eager to serve Him by accepting His Torah.
“If there is no flour, there is no Torah” (Avot 3:17) and therefore “If the is no Torah, there is no flour.” (Ibid) Because the Torah-study is the expression of Gratitude for the flour which enables men to fulfill their purpose in life which is Hashem’s Torah.
Thus the giving of the Torah, which is memorialized 50 days after the Omer, actually emphasizes and augments the Gratitude for the produce of the land. This does not merely provide sustenance and happiness but enables men to achieve the highest form of happiness and truest prosperity, which is the Torah-study and the achievement of True Knowledge of Hashem.
Quoted from “Kingdom of Cohanim” by Rabbi Avigdor Miller ZT”L
Shabbat Shalom
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