First sheaf cut during the barley harvest; it was offered in the TEMPLE on the second day of PASSOVER (Lev. 23:15). Until the SACRIFICE had been offered, it was forbidden to eat the new grain. The period of seven weeks between the second day of Passover and SHAVUOT is known as the counting of the omer.
Reprinted
with permission from A
Concise Encyclopedia of Judaism,
by Dan Cohn-Sherbok. Oneworld Publications