6504 —הבהרה על ספירת העומר וחגיגת חג השבועות מעבר לקו התאריך

Shalom u'Vrachah! [Summer 5718?]

… The comment regarding Sefiras HaOmer^[2] — that it should not become “like two Torahs” — I have not merited to understand. For the Torah states explicitly that each and every individual must count on his own (along the lines of “u'safrah lah” — “and she shall count for herself” (Vayikra 15:28) — and not like the counting of shemittos and yovlos^[1] — see Tosafos s.v. u'sefartem, Menachos 65b), and to fix Chag HaShavuos on the fiftieth day; and this is the only way Shavuos can be fixed (the count of the individual).

And you object — that it cannot be so, for then one man would celebrate Shavuos on the forty-ninth day by his own count (since he is certainly not exempt from Sefiras HaOmer), a second on the fifty-first by his count, and a third on the fiftieth by his count! — along with many further difficulties, more than can be counted (a count falling short of temimus (completeness), a count exceeding temimus, and so on).

The Lechem Mishneh (ch. 7 of Hilchos Lulav) that you cite — that itself is its refutation. See there.

In my humble opinion, as to your calling my conclusion a “great chidush” (novel ruling) — the novelty here is the sheer obviousness of the matter, and what is it that it comes to teach us?

My letter in reply concerning tefillin — surely it arrived in due time.

Summary

Replying to a correspondent who challenged his ruling on one who crossed the International Date Line during Sefirah, the Rebbe holds that Sefiras HaOmer is by its very nature an individual count — the Torah obligates each person to count for himself, unlike shemittah and yovel, which the beis din counts for everyone. Since Shavuos is fixed by nothing other than the completion of a person's own forty-nine days, two Jews legitimately observing it on different days is not “two Torahs” but the plain reading of the mitzvah — so plain, the Rebbe writes, that the only novelty in his conclusion is how obvious it is.