In this lecture, Rabbi Akiva Wagner delivers a pilpul (Talmudic investigation) which delves into the precise language used by the Alter Rebbe in his code of Jewish law, which resolves some of the great questions posed with regard to the obligation of counting the omer nowadays and whether women are obligated to count, or not.
Rabbi Wagner also discusses many approaches taken by the Achronim, the later commentators on the Talmud, in discussing whether counting the omer nowadays is rabbinic in nature or biblically obligated. Rabbi Wagner explains that this depends on the uniqueness of this mitzvah nowadays which commemorates the Omer offering, a practice that we no longer perform, whereas with the lulav for example, we actually take the lulav even though it is also a commemoration of the service that was performed in the Temple.