QUESTION

Do you have any guidance on counting sefirat ha’omer at shul on erev Shabbat or erev yom tov when we daven early?

ANSWER

It depends on how early you are planning to count.

If you will be counting after shekiyah, then I think that, given how easy and common it is for people to forget and miss counting, one should definitely count with a berakhah, and say: “If you remember, please count again after X:XX.” This is not to suggest that there is any problem if they do not count again.

This is kal va’chomer true if it is more than 14 minutes after shekiyah, which is tzeit according to the Geonim and the Gra. The simple understanding is that Sefirat HaOmer is derabbanan nowadays (Tosafot, Menachot 66a; Biur Halakha 489 s.v. lispor), and that should guide us here.

If it is before shekiyah, specifically in the window from plag hamincha until shekiyah (but not before plag), the Mishnah Berurah (489:16) and the Biur Halakha (OH 489 s.v. mibod yom) note that, on the one hand, there was a practice in many communities to make the berakhah even then. However, the general assumption is that one is not yotzei at that time.

Accordingly, I would suggest counting without a berakhah, and saying: “Although it is before shekiyah, and according to most poskim it is not yet the proper time for the mitzvah, we are going to count without a berakhah. This way, if someone forgets to count later at home, they can rely on this bedi’eved. However, please remember to count again after X:XX, and do so with a berakhah.”

One may rely on this bedi’eved, such that one may continue counting on subsequent nights with a berakhah for two reasons:

1. One could argue that the possibility that one is yotzei at this earlier time introduces enough of a safek to combine with the uncertainty regarding the requirement of complete counting (temimot), thereby allowing continued counting with a berakhah.
2. More fundamentally, one could suggest that even if one is not technically yotzei when counting before the proper time, the act of counting still creates a form of continuity (temimot) for the subsequent days.

I would add that if you can reasonably assume that by the time people get home and are ready to make kiddush it will already be about 13 minutes after shekiyah, you might say: “Please remember to count, and do so right before kiddush.” Anchoring it to kiddush can go a long way in helping people remember.