QUESTION

Can I have my students count the Omer with a berakhah during the daytime, each day of class during the Omer?

One potentially complicating factor is that they will have already heard the count earlier in the day during loudspeaker morning announcements without a berakhah. However, most students talk over those loudspeaker announcements or are otherwise not paying attention then.

My thought is that this is a valuable chinukh moment because the students, by and large, don’t even know yet what Sefirat HaOmer is, nor what it looks like to do it, and/or have little background. So, unless we make a point of saying it while everyone is attentive in class with a berakhah, they won’t even know that a berakhah is part of it or what that berakhah is.

ANSWER

I fully agree. They are not yotzei when they hear the count over the announcement without any intent to fulfill their obligation. Even if mitzvot do not require intent, it requires intent to fulfill through shome’a ke’oneh. Regardless, even if they were yotzei unwittingly, which they are not, you can still make the berakhah for the sake of chinukh to teach them about the mitzvah and how it is done.

The only question would be the fact that the berakhah is not done in the day. You can explain to them that you’re training them about this mitzvah, but when done in the standard way, it would be done at night with the berakhah at night.