Parshas Shemini 5785
- Torah Tavlin
- 19 hours ago
- 2 min read
Relevant Halachos of Sefiras Haomer
Being Motzie Another in Counting Sefirah: The Gemara (1) explains the posuk, "וספרתם לכם" - “You should count for yourself,” to mean that each person should count sefirah for himself. The Poskim in Shulchan Aruch (2) argue as to the intention of this drasha. The Levush and Chok Yaakov explain that even though there is a general rule known as “Shomea K’onah” - one can say something to be motzie a listener - here by Sefiras Haomer there is an exception to the rule and one cannot be motzie somebody else. However, the Magen Avraham and the Pri Chodosh (3) argue that all the Gemara means is that Sefiras Haomer is not like the mitzvah of counting forty-nine years to the Yovel year, which is a mitzvah incumbent on the top Beis Din of Klal Yisroel. Sefiras Haomer is different and is a mitzvah incumbent upon each specific individual to fulfill. However, one could be yotze with somebody else just like he could be yotze the Shabbos Kiddush and Havdala from them. If a person is in the hospital and has tubes in his mouth which does not allow him to count sefirah himself, since we do not have a definitive psak, one should count for him, and if he himself is being yotze, can make a beracha as well. He cannot make the beracha just for the patient, since some hold it does not work.
Follow Up Question: If one did the above-mentioned counting without a beracha and the man’s tubes were later taken out, can he count for himself from now on with a beracha?
Answer: If one misses a full day of sefirah, most Poskim hold that he can continue to count further with a beracha. However, we are concerned with making a beracha in vain and therefore we only count further without a beracha (4). If there are additional reasons to be lenient, we can even count further with a beracha. So in our case of the man who had the tubes removed during sefirah, where many hold that the counting of the other person does actually work for him, he can count further with a beracha when he is able to. This is similar to the case in halacha (5) where one is in doubt if he missed a day, and the ruling there is that m’safeik, he can count further with a beracha.
(1) מנחות סו. (2) שו"ע או"ח תפ"ט (3) שם (4) תפט:ט (5) עיין שם
