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Counting the Omer Counting the Omer This article was written by Eric Bonnell for Religious Living on the Web. Pesach is over. We have celebrated our release from bondage in Egypt. We look toward Shavuot, the celebration of Adonai’s gift of Torah to all Israel in all time. There is time, expressed in weeks, counted in days, between the two. For the days of the Omer, toward what do we turn ourselves? Many times in our lives, we experience sorrow, frustration, helplessness, inadequacy,... Once in a while, we are released from these situations and feelings. Where do we go from here? Perhaps one day, we will understand: “why it had to be that way…” or “wow, what we have achieved since then…” But for now we are in between. We are learning. We are reaching. We are failing. We are recovering. We are becoming better. We are counting the Omer, the days in between release from hardship and understanding of purpose. Symbolically, this can be a time of healing. This can be a time of reflection of what has happened and what is to come. It can be a time of denials, affirmations, speculations, rejoicing, regret. It is that time in between gaining the right to be happy and finally obtaining happiness. Individually and communally, we can use this time to better ourselves. We can grieve the way things were. We can plan for things to come. We can express our ambivalence between the two – our joys and fears of pending change. Counting the Omer is a piece of Judaism for us to use as we see fit if we feel we should. We can count the days as we would have in the desert had we known about the awesome blessings of Torah we received from Adonai at Sinai - How we would have yearned for that moment had we only known. How we should yearn for it now that we do know that awe. Our lives are so full of events and things that pull us away. We are constantly pulled from our need to attach to the one God and to each other. The Zohar illustrates how much we would yearn for Torah if only… Human beings are so confused in their minds! They do not see the way of truth in Torah. Torah calls out to them every day, in love, but they do not want to turn their heads... To what can this be compared? To a lovely princess, beautiful in every way and hidden deep within her palace. She has one lover, unknown to anyone; he is hidden too. Out of his love for her, this lover passes by her gate constantly, lifting his eyes to every side. She knows that her lover is hovering about her gate constantly. What does she do? She opens a little window in her hidden palace and reveals her face to her lover, then swiftly withdraws, concealing herself. No one near the lover sees or reflects, only the lover, and his heart and his soul and everything with him flow out to her. And he knows that out of love for him she revealed herself for that one moment to awaken love in him. [Trans. Daniel Chanan Matt] How would it be if we could see the wonder of Torah like the look in a lover’s eye every day? What would you do to count the time until you saw it again? Leviticus 23:15-16 prescribes that we count the Omer – it is a mitzvah. There is a proper ritual (if you choose to observe it traditionally) that may be found in Conservative and Orthodox siddurim. The basic blessing (as can be found in “To Pray As A Jew” [Donin, Hayim, 1980, Basic Books, ISBN: 0-465-08633-0]) is as follows (in a gender-neutral form): Bah-ruch a-tah Adonai, Eh-lo-hay-nu meh-lech hah-o-lahm, ah-shehr kee-d’shah-nu b’meetz-vo-tahv v’tzee-vah-nu al s’feey-rat hah-o-mehr. Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Ruler of the universe, Who has sanctified us with mitzvoth and commanded us concerning the counting of the Omer. Begin from the second night of Pesach until the night before Shavuot. You will have 49 days (7 weeks) to count. You may reflect on your own “in between” state or meditate on the awe of being a Jew who received Torah at Sinai. Make this mitzvah of counting special to you as an individual and/or as a group.
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