Counting the Omer
According to Rabbi Hershel Schachter's approach of מָר כִּי אַתְרֵיהּ — each according to their place
Loading…
Rabbi Hershel Schachter, Rosh Yeshiva at RIETS, addresses the proper formulation when counting the Omer, drawing on a Talmudic passage in Tractate Yoma that shows how regional linguistic patterns should influence ritual declarations.
Tractate Yoma 55a describes the Kohen Gadol's counting of blood sprinklings on Yom Kippur:
The Gemara then reconciles this dispute:
"They do not disagree — one speaks according to his place, one according to his place." The formulation follows regional counting conventions.
The Magen Avraham (Orach Chaim 489:5) applies this principle to Omer counting:
He notes that in his region, even in secular speech, the smaller number was said first — validating the "one and twenty" formulation for his time and place.
Rabbi Schachter observes that the Magen Avraham's reasoning was based on Yiddish usage, where the smaller number came first (ein un tsvantsik). Today, both modern Hebrew and English place the larger number first ("twenty-one"). Applying מָר כִּי אַתְרֵיהּ today means saying "twenty-one days" rather than "one and twenty days."
Follows Yiddish: ein un tsvantsik
Follows modern Hebrew & English: twenty-one
Based on Rav Hershel Schachter's teachings. Sources: Tractate Yoma 55a; Magen Avraham, Orach Chaim 489:5.
Summarized from the scholarly article עשרים ואחד - או אחד ועשרים? by Uriel Frank, published in HaMaayan (Shaalvim).
In any language, compound numbers above twenty can be expressed two ways: descending (larger first — "twenty-one") or ascending (smaller first — "one and twenty"). Most languages settle on one: German and Yiddish use ascending; English and Portuguese use descending. Biblical Hebrew uniquely employs both systems — and the tension between them is the root of the entire dispute about Sefirat HaOmer.
Both orders appear in Tanach from the very beginning. Numbers 11–19 invariably use ascending order throughout the entire Bible. Above twenty, both orders appear — sometimes within the same speaker's words. Caleb ben Yefuneh famously uses both in a single breath (Yehoshua 14:10):
"These forty-five years… and now I am eighty-five years old" — descending, then ascending, in one sentence.
The Torah generally favors ascending; the later books of Nevi'im and Ketuvim generally favor descending. Ibn Ezra noted simply: לא יקפיד בזה הכתוב — "the Torah does not insist on one order." The difference is stylistic, not semantic.
Aramaic — used in Targum, Talmudic Aramaic, and ancient documents — uses only the descending order. This explains why Yemenite Jews counting the Omer in Aramaic always say עשרין ושיתא יומי ("twenty-six days"), whereas in Hebrew the question is open.
Rabbinic literature predominantly uses descending order. The pivot of the entire halachic debate is the Mishnah in Yoma (5:3–4), describing how the Kohen Gadol counted the blood sprinklings on Yom Kippur. Rabbi Meir's version places the running total first ("one, one-and-one, one-and-two…"); Rabbi Yehuda's version leads with the new increment ("one, one-and-one, two-and-one…"). The Gemara (Yoma 55a) resolves: ולא פליגי — מר כי אתריה ומר כי אתריה. Rashi explains this means each followed the counting convention normal in his region's spoken language.
This linguistic question became a practical halachic matter when writing the date in a get (bill of divorce). The Beit Yosef surveyed four Rishonim who held different positions:
| Authority | Days | Years |
|---|---|---|
| Smak, Pri Chadash | Descending (עשרים ואחד) | Descending |
| Mordechai | Descending above 20 | — |
| Kol Bo | Ascending (אחד ועשרים) | Ascending |
| Tur / Shulchan Aruch / Rema | Ascending (אחד ועשרים) | Descending (עשרים ואחת) |
The Beit Yosef concluded אין קפידא בדבר כדאמרינן ביומא — there is no stringency, since the Gemara itself validated both approaches as regional conventions. The Shulchan Aruch nonetheless codified the Tur's split (ascending for days, descending for years), and the Rema added that either order is valid post-facto.
Nearly all Jewish communities count the Omer using ascending order — הַיּוֹם אֶחָד וְעֶשְׂרִים יוֹם — even though the second half of the count (weeks and remaining days) follows descending order. Three major positions emerged:
Count as your local language dictates. In his time and place, Yiddish placed the smaller number first (ein un tsvantsik), so ascending order was correct. But he explicitly states: in places where the larger number comes first in local speech, count that way. The direct implication for modern Hebrew or English speakers: count descending.
Ascending is preferable where that is local custom, but descending is also permitted where that is the local norm. He frames it as a preference, not an imperative — a slightly more conservative reading than the Magen Avraham.
Explicitly advocates descending order for the Omer, against the then-universal custom: הכי חזי לן למימני בעומר כלל תחלה ואח"כ פרט, כגון עשרים ואחד. He argues the Mishnah's stam (anonymous position) follows R' Meir's descending order, and that we should update our practice to match contemporary speech.
Acknowledges both orders are found throughout Tanach and Chazal, but concludes: כבר נתפשט המנהג להזכיר הפרט תחלה, ואין לשנות לכתחלה — פוק חזי מאי עמא דבר. The widespread practice of ascending order is itself the decisive factor — "go see what the people do."
B'dieved (after the fact), one fulfills the mitzvah either way — this is undisputed. The l'chatchila question remains open. Frank's article concludes that the debate is primarily educational and values-based: does linguistic authenticity to one's contemporary vernacular take precedence, or does the weight of centuries of established practice? The Magen Avraham's logic — the same logic Rav Schachter applies — points clearly toward descending order for today's Hebrew and English speakers.
Source: Uriel Frank, עשרים ואחד - או אחד ועשרים?, HaMaayan, Nissan 5775. Shaalvim Institute for Torah Studies.