Count for your benefit – Emor
Why does the law of the Omer say “count for yourselves” (Lev. 23:15)?
In grammar it is the ethical dative, also used in the Torah in phrases like “Go for yourself”, “Send for yourselves”.
Homiletically it is explained – e.g. in Parashat Lech-L’cha – as meaning “for your own benefit”. If you are Abraham and God tells you to go to a new country you need to be assured that the move will bring you blessing.
When the people are told us’far’tem lachem – “count for yourselves”, it recalls Psalm 90 where we are told, “Teach us to number our days”: every day is a blessing and you can enhance its quality by being thankful.
