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From: rhendel@mcs.drexel.edu (Russell Hendel)
Date: Wed, 30 Apr 1997 19:11:21 -0400
Subject: IN vs TOWARDS the OMER

A few years ago I was priveleged to hear from the Rav, Rabbi Joseph
Soloveitchick, why in counting the Omer we use cardinal numbers(e.g.
today is 8 days in the Omer) vs ordinal numbers (today is the 8th day in
the omer). The Rav explained that the underlying conceptual issue is
whether there is one mitzvah to count a group of 49 days(and hence we
would count 1st, 2nd, 3rd...) or whether there is a separate Mitzvoh to
count each night (and hence we would count "today is 8 days.." "today is
7 days..." etc since each night is a separate Mitzvoh without required
connection to the preceding night).

I have been searching for a similar succinct conceptual explanation for
the two versions of counting: "Today is 8 days IN the Omer" vs "Today is
8 days TOWARDS the Omer."

The question was intensified to me recently when I reminded myself of
the statement by the Radack in the Book of (Grammatical) Roots that the
Hebrew Prepositions "IN" and "TOWARDS" often interchange in meaning in
Biblical Hebrew.

Another reason I am asking is because I traditionally count in English
(i.e.  I say the blessing in Hebrew, but (using my own reasoning) I
count in the language I feel most comfortable "to count in"--which is
English).

Can anyone provide a succinct conceptual difference between the TO and
TOWARDS version.

Russell Jay Hendel, Ph.d,ASA::rhendel @ mcs drexel edu