Living Torah Archives

On each day of the 49 days between Passover and Shavuos, it is customary to study a page of the Talmudic tractate Sotah, which consists of 49 pages. But the origins of this custom are immediately called into question: The Talmud existed well before the age of printing, and no two copies had the same format; the pages are always different. Additionally, the first prints of Talmud didn’t have an identical typeface either. Later, one format became common in which Tractate Sotah happens to have forty nine folios. Why then, do we associate Tractate Sotah with the 49 days between Passover and Shavuot?

On the sixteenth of Nissan, the second day of Passover, we begin counting down the days until the festival of Shavuos, a practice with origins in the Jewish people’s redemption from slavery. As soon they left Egypt, the Jews began to eagerly count down the days until G-d would give them the Torah at Sinai.

When Rabbi Yoel Kahn discovered that his Shabbos guest had crossed the International Date Line during the Omer Count, he realized that for him, that Shabbos was already the fiftieth day of the Omer, and the festival of Shavuos. Uncertain of what his guest should do, he advised him to consult the Rebbe. (1961)

Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi of Israel Avraham Shapira and Sefardic Chief Rabbi of Israel Mordechai Eliyahu visit the Rebbe during the Days of Sefirah between Passover and Shavuos. A discussion about the students of Rabbi Akiva and the mitzvah to love one’s fellow man.