Please see the attached itenirary for someone who is travelling from Bangkok Thailand via Seoul on the Sunday after Pesach. It seems that they will be travelling during the night and will be arriving in NY Sunday night at 9pm. Can they count the ninth Sefira like everyone else in NY without counting on the plane?

 

Answer:

On the Seoul (ICN)-JFK segment, the passenger will be flying against the sun, which will cause the passenger to experience evening, morning, afternoon, and the next evening in quick succession. The only reason it is still Sunday evening when the passenger lands in JFK is because the passenger crossed the International Dateline, which moves the date one day backward.

The two Sunday night are regarded as separate, and the passenger will need to count a different Sefirah on each one. In other words, the passenger with count the Sunday night on the plane as the 9th of the Omer, and the Sunday night in New York as the 10th day of the Omer. This will put the passenger one day ahead of the people in New York, who will be counting the 9th of the Omer on Sunday night.

Since the passenger will have experienced this “extra” night, the passenger will now be one night ahead of the USA. This will put the passenger’s Sefirah count one day ahead of those at the destination, and bring Shavuos one day earlier than the locals in New York.

For this reason, the Rebbe strongly urged travellers not to cross the International Date Line during Sefiras Haomer (at least in a case where they are crossing it only in one direction during the period of Sefiras Haomer).

 

 

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