Last night at the second Seder we began counting the Omer. On one hand the Omer process is rather simple, each night for 49 nights we say a blessing and count off which day of the Omer we are on. Many years ago, when I was studying to be a rabbi I wrote the following essay on the Omer and updated it for this year. So please enter with me into my school days and join with me in: The Omer 101.
--The laws of counting the Omer are specific.
--At nightfall, say the blessing and count
--If you forget to count at night, you can count anytime the following day without a blessing and then, begin to count with a blessing, the following night.
--However, if you forget to count during the day as well, you must count without the blessing for the rest of the Omer.
--Finally, if you are in doubt as to whether you actually had counted on the previous night, and, you did not count during the day, you may continue to count with a blessing that night.
Thus ends our class on Omer Counting. But wait, there’s more.
Welcome to Omer 102.
Most people begin counting the Omer somewhere between the 3rd and 4th cups of wine at the second Seder. If one does not get to that point in the Seder, well… one usually forgets to count the Omer. As often happen in the Berger home this year – but not this year. This year we counted the first night of the Omer at the Fauquier Jewish Congregation’s Second Night Virtual Seder.
The Omer is often an afterthought - partly, because people don’t really understand why we count it; partly, because there is a feeling that it lacks relevance in today’s world where we do not bring grain offerings to the Temple; and partly, well, in part due to the rules surrounding Omer counting –as illustrated in the passage I read a few minutes ago. It makes the Omer seem silly or insignificant. But in fact, the Omer is neither of these things.
So let’s go back to Omer 101 for a moment. Starting on the second night of Pesach, we begin every evening with the counting of the Omer. We count during Maariv (the evening service), right before Aleinu. We find the ritual in our Siddurim/ Prayer Books and also on line here in Hebrew and here in English.
We begin with a kavannah, a line stating our intention “I am ready to fulfill the mitzvah of counting the Omer, as it is ordained in the Torah.”
Then we recite from Leviticus the injunction by God to count the Omer and learn the definition of an Omer, which is a sheaf of grain: “And you shall count from the eve of the second day of Pesach, when an Omer of grain (also translated as a sheaf of the waving) is to be brought as an offering, seven complete weeks. The day after the seventh week of your counting will make fifty days.” (Leviticus 23:15-16a – Parshat Shemini which we read next week)
Now our intent is set – we are counting the Omer, the days between Pesach and Shavuot when an Omer of grain was offered daily – we are remembering that time and the specific injunction. We are ready to recite our prayer: "Blessed are You, Adonai, our G-d, Ruler of the Universe Who sanctified us with Your commandments and Commanded us regarding the Counting of the Omer."
After the blessing we recite the line for the appropriate day. So last night we would have said: “Today is the First Day of the Omer.”
In traditional Siddurim, after this there may be some psalms and prayers praising God and reminding us of the rebuilding of the Temple. There might also be a reference to our desire to embody whichever of the Sefirot are associated with that day.
The Sefirot are often referred to as the emanations or the qualities of God. They play an important role in kabalistic tradition and include both the masculine and feminine qualities of the Divine. The seven weeks between Pesach and Shavuot are associated with 7 of the Sefirot. Rabbi Jill Hammer calls them “The bonds with God that make us human --- the seven expressive aspects of Godliness.”
They are:
chessed, "kindness."
gevurah, "strength" or "empowerment."
tiferet, "beauty."
netzach, "endurance or infinity."
hod, "gratitude."
yesod, "foundation." and
malchut, "kingship."
When counting the Omer, we can meditate on a particular divine characteristic, with each week representing one characteristic and each day representing a nuance of a different Sefirah. So, for example, the Sefirah associated with the first week of the Omer is Chesed, love. And last night which was counted as the 1st day of the Omer, represents Chesed She'b'Chesed or Love within Love.
The Omer entices us to be mindful for 50 days. To that end people have been reclaiming the Omer in recent years. We’ve all seen the trends – the search for spirituality, for a way to connect to the godliness within us and around us. We see it in Hollywood in the red string bracelets on the wrists of celebrities and we see it all over the Jewish world now with meditation practice and the topics of God and spirituality that pepper Adult Education offerings. The renewed interest in the Omer is an example of taking something of traditional Judaism and reframing it – or one could even say “reconstructing it” - and making it relevant for today’s world.
However, this reframing of the Omer is really not new at all; it’s been going on for a long time. Rabbi David Hoffman, in a JTS Torah Commentary, writes: “The rabbis of the Medieval period were the first to articulate that this counting [of the Omer] is not exclusively about the offering of the new grain that was brought while the Temple still stood. We count from Passover to Shavuot because these two holidays are conceptually tied to one another. Passover is the holiday of our liberation and freedom. Shavuot, according to the rabbis, is the holiday of the receiving of the Torah — the holiday where we enter our covenantal relationship with God. Freedom (Passover) without Shavuot (Torah) is incomplete; and Shavuot (Torah) would be impossible without Passover … The freedom of Pesach gives us the opportunity to enter into relationship with God.”
Not only does the freedom of Pesach gives us the opportunity to enter in to a relationship with God, but I would go further and say that it gives us the opportunity to enter into a relationship not only with God but also with the Jewish people as a whole. As Jews we are blessed with the ability to have individual, personal relationships with God. This makes each of us personally responsible for our own relationship with the Divine.
Shavuot, the holiday that comes 50 days after Pesach, is our holiday of revelation and covenant. As the Midrash goes – all Jewish souls stood at Sinai and heard God’s voice. We all received the Torah – it is the glue that binds us together as a people. And it doesn’t matter if you believe that the Torah is divinely written, divinely inspired or totally man made – the Torah is our Etz Chayim, our Tree of Life, without whose guidance we would not survive as a people.
It is up to us, in the myriad decisions that we make each day, to determine how the godliness within each of us manifests and what our relationship with the rest of the Jewish world is going to look like. Counting the Omer is experiencing a resurgence precisely because is it a tool provided to us, either by the Divine, or by some very wise men from long ago, to help us focus in this task of spirituality and peoplehood.
I started with Omer 101, a review of the traditional way to count the Omer. Let me now share some ways the tradition has been enhanced – if this were a class it might be called “Omer 103: Ways to Creatively Count the Omer.” I must admit that I found most of them while searching the internet – but in my defense, I was familiar with the more serious ones before.
First, there is Counting the Omer with the 48 ways of Wisdom which can be found at Aish.com. This site demystifies the sefirot and gives us pithy catchphrases for each day. For example, on the 11th day of the Omer, the way of wisdom is "Be Aware of Every Moment”, and tomorrow it is “Listen Effectively” Then there is Counting the Homer -- a website with a Simpsons’ theme and aids for counting each day of the Omer. It’s pretty scary.
However, my favorite is the Omer Calendar of Biblical Women authored by Rabbi Hammer. This Calendar takes the Sefirot and their associated strengths for each day and attributes them to different women from Jewish history. As an example, let me share the part of the reading for today, the 2nd day of the Omer.
2. Gevurah she'beChesed
Strength within Love
Strength within Love
Miriam (Exodus 2, 15:20-21, Num. 12, 20:1-13)
“Miriam watches over her brother Moses on the shores of the Sea of Reeds, and convinces an Egyptian princess to save her brother. Legend says that Miriam is a midwife to the Hebrews, lovingly coaxing each baby’s first breath. She defies Pharaoh in order to save innocent infants. As she crosses the sea to freedom, she shows her bravery by raising her voice in song even while the sea is crashing down. According to a midrash, a well of water follows Miriam in the desert so that all may drink from it, for Miriam is a giver of life and strength.
“Miriam’s chesed is tempered by gevurah: judgment and limitation. She criticizes Moses for not honoring her leadership of the people, and God punishes her with leprosy. She spends seven days and nights outside the camp, until she is healed and readmitted. Years later, Miriam dies in the wilderness, and her well disappears, but the mystics tell us that in every generation it returns to her people to heal them. When we consider Miriam, we know that to love well we must love with courage and determination. This is the meaning of gevurah shebechesed.”
How relevant is this message of Day 2 of the Omer for us today in a world struggling with a pandemic! Gevurah she'beChesed /Strength within Love – this is the recipe for how to survive the days/weeks/months to come. We must find our inner strength and be strong for ourselves and for others. We temper and enhance this strength with love – again for ourselves and for others.
Through the Omer and to Mount Sinai to receive the Torah and and through to the other side of this world-wide crisis that we find ourselves in. Together as a people we will make it through.
May the remaining days of the Omer bring with them a sense of mindfulness, connectedness and purpose to us all.
Shabbat Shalom and Moadim B'Simcha
For more information see:
10 Best DIY Omer Counters (including Lego, Lollipop and others – just click on links in the article)
