One, two, three, four days; we bridge the Exodus to the revelation at Sinai by marking time’s passage, seven time seven weeks, and all this is rooted in the harvest and its special sacrifices of barley on Pesach and wheat on Shavuos. How?
This mitzvah takes us back to the beginning of time, to Bereishis. Adam sinned and was sentenced to a life of backbreaking labor in the field. Such a life, long as it may be, is likened to just one day that ends with death: fleeting, ephemeral, and devoid of meaning. If he won’t learn to count his days, man will never find his way back to the Tree of Life.
Like Adam all people. The holiday that celebrates freedom from slavery is followed immediately by the harvest season, and with it the grave danger of never-ending work; counting the days protects from this hazard and leads to receiving the Torah, the true Tree of Life.
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