[Avodah] sephira question

[Micha Berger]

On Sun, May 10, 2009 at 12:53:41PM -0400, hankman wrote:
: There are only 49 counts (either in arrears or in advance)...

This isn't quantum mechanics, it's computer programming. Called the
"fencepost problem" from the question: If you have a split-rail fence
that's 100 yards long, and you have posts every 10 yards holding up the
rails, how many posts are there in all?

The answer is 11. (Not 100 yd / 10yd = 10.) There is a post at 0, the
begining of the fence, at 10 yd is the 2nd post, at 20 yd is the 3rd,
... and at 100 yd is the 11th.

In programming, when iterating down a collection, you often have to be
very aware whether you want to count up to x or ad velo ad bichlal --
for this very reason. The fence is counted at ve'ad bichlal, so that
0, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, and 100 is a set with 11
elements.

Does "lispor" here mean "to count" or "to measure"? Your "in arrears"
doesn't really capture what I mean.

Translate "Hayom yom echad b/lao'mer" as time since. Thus, we're not
counting day 1 in advance, we're measuring one day since. If you want
to say we're counting anything, we're counting the day of the first
seder in arrears, after the day is complete.

Tisperu 50 yom, the Maadanei YT explains, includes day 0 -- Nissan
15. It's like the first fencepost at 0 yards. The first day is at the
start, we don't have any time to measure. A day later we measure being 1
day in, but it's the 2nd day of the series. (Cardinal -- 1 day passed,
ordinal - 2nd day.)

Our sefirah is like the yardage -- a measurement of length of time.
"One day passed so far in the omer" is something you say at the beginning
of the second day of the period.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Today is the 33rd day, which is
micha at aishdas.org        4 weeks and 5 days in/toward the omer.
http://www.aishdas.org   Hod sheb'Hod: LAG B'OMER - What is total
Fax: (270) 514-1507               submission to truth, and what results?