Wheat sheaves near King's Somborne - geograph

The ''omer'' ( he, עֹ֫מֶר ''‘ōmer'') is an ancient Israelite unit of

dry measure Dry measures are units of volume to measure bulk commodities that are not fluids and that were typically shipped and sold in standardized containers such as barrels. They have largely been replaced by the units used for measuring volumes in the me ...

used in the era of the

Temple in Jerusalem The Temple in Jerusalem, or alternatively the Holy Temple (; , ), refers to the two now-destroyed religious structures that served as the central places of worship for Israelites and Jews on the modern-day Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusa ...

. Omer is known also as isaron .It is used in the Bible as an ancient unit of volume for grains and dry commodities, and the

Torah The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the s ...

mentions as being equal to one tenth of an ephah. According to the ''Jewish Encyclopedia'' (1906), an ephah was defined as being 72 '' logs'', and the ''

Log Log most often refers to: * Trunk (botany), the stem and main wooden axis of a tree, called logs when cut ** Logging, cutting down trees for logs ** Firewood, logs used for fuel ** Lumber or timber, converted from wood logs * Logarithm, in mathe ...

'' was equal to the

Sumer Sumer () is the earliest known civilization in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia (south-central Iraq), emerging during the Chalcolithic and early Bronze Ages between the sixth and fifth millennium BC. It is one of the cradles of c ...

ian '' mina'', which was itself defined as one sixtieth of a '' maris'';Weights and Measures
, ''Jewish Encyclopedia'' (1906) the ''omer'' was thus equal to about of a ''maris''. The ''maris'' was defined as being the quantity of water equal in weight to a light royal talent, and was thus equal to about , making the ''omer'' equal to about . The ''Jewish Study Bible'' (2014), however, places the ''omer'' at about . In traditional Jewish standards of measurement, the ''omer'' was equivalent to the volume of 43.2 chicken's eggs, or what is also known as one-tenth of an ''ephah'' (three ''seahs''). In dry weight, the ''omer'' weighed between , being the quantity of flour required to separate therefrom the

dough offering In Judaism, the dough offering (or ''mitzvat terumat challah'', "commandment of separating ''challah''" he, מצוות תרומת חלה) is a positive commandment requiring the owner of a bread dough to give a part of the kneaded dough to a ko ...

. The word ''omer'' is sometimes translated as "sheaf" — specifically, an amount of grain large enough to require bundling. The biblical episode of the

manna Manna ( he, מָן, mān, ; ar, اَلْمَنُّ; sometimes or archaically spelled mana) is, according to the Bible, an edible substance which God provided for the Israelites during their travels in the desert during the 40-year period follow ...

describes God as instructing the Israelites to collect ''an omer for each person in your tent'', implying that each person could eat an omer of manna a day. In the Torah, the main significance of the ''omer'' is the traditional offering (during the Temple period) of an ''omer'' of

barley Barley (''Hordeum vulgare''), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains, particularly in Eurasia as early as 10,000 years ago. Globally 70% of barley pr ...

on the day after the Sabbath, or, according to the rabbinical view, on the second day of

Passover Passover, also called Pesach (; ), is a major Jewish holidays, Jewish holiday that celebrates the The Exodus, Biblical story of the Israelites escape from slavery in Ancient Egypt, Egypt, which occurs on the 15th day of the Hebrew calendar, He ...

during the feast of unleavened bread, as well as the tradition of the

Counting of the Omer Counting of the Omer (, Sefirat HaOmer, sometimes abbreviated as Sefira or the Omer) is an important verbal counting of each of the forty-nine days starting with the Wave Offering of a sheaf of ripe grain with a sacrifice immediately following ...

(''sefirat ha'omer'') - the 49 days between this sacrifice and the two loaves of wheat offered on the holiday of

Shavuot (''Ḥag HaShavuot'' or ''Shavuos'') , nickname = English: "Feast of Weeks" , observedby = Jews and Samaritans , type = Jewish and Samaritan , begins = 6th day of Sivan (or the Sunday following the 6th day of Sivan i ...

. During the Temple period, the offering of the ''omer'' was one of twenty-four priestly gifts, and one of the ten which were offered to priests within the Temple precincts, when Jewish farmers would bring the first of that year's grain crop to Jerusalem. Jews in

Lancaster, Pennsylvania Lancaster, ( ; pdc, Lengeschder) is a city in and the county seat of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. It is one of the oldest inland cities in the United States. With a population at the 2020 census of 58,039, it ranks 11th in population amon ...

used an ''omer'' board from about 1800 to keep track of harvest days between Passover and Shavuot. An example of such a board survives at the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

References

{{reflist Obsolete units of measurement Jewish sacrificial law Units of volume Passover Hebrew words and phrases in the Hebrew Bible

See also

References