After 7 weeks, eagerly greeting Shavuot festival

Shavuot begins on Saturday night, and since one cannot begin preparing for the holiday before Shabbat ends anyway, the point being raised here about beginning Shavuot early is a non-issue in 2016. However, the perspective about the significance of the holiday, especially as it relates to the completion of the seven weeks of Sefirat Ha’Omer, is nonetheless relevant.

The verse in Vayikra 23:15 that describes the Sefirat Ha’Omer period expresses that the seven-week counting is supposed to be seven weeks which are temimot.

The word temimot is often translated as “complete,” and is the classic reason suggested for why Shavuot, of all holidays, must begin after the stars have come out. Commentaries on the Shulchan Arukh, such as Magen Avraham (intro to OC 494), note that it is merely Kiddush which must be recited after the stars come out, but nevertheless, the custom has spread widely to wait to pray Maariv until after the stars have come out. (See also Yalkut Yosef 494 who discusses beginning Shavuot early as well, due to how late the stars come out in the almost-summer time.)

The Midrash Rabba (Vayikra 28) says the word temimot has a very different meaning. Unlike the completion of a numerical sense (49 complete 24-hour days), it describes the weeks being “complete” or “full” on a spiritual level: “When are they temimot, Rabbi Chiya asks – when Israel is fulfilling G-d’s will.”

Jumping on the specific terminology used, the Ktav V’Hakkabalah notes that if the verse signified a quantitative measure of time – 49 full 24-hour days – then the verse should have used the word shleimot, which is less subject to reinterpretation.

The word temimot, on the other hand, signifies a qualitative completeness.

He brings a number of examples of how the term shalem means complete on a quantitative level, in which nothing is missing, everything is full and complete in its measurements.