March 27, 2013
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Counting the Omer
“And you shall count for yourselves from the morrow of the Shabbat, from the day on which you bring the Omer offering, seven complete weeks they shall be; until the morrow of the seventh week, you shall count fifty days… And you shall proclaim that very day a holy festival.” Leviticus 23:15-21
There are fifty days between Pesach (Passover) and Shavuoth (Pentecost). In the Bible, we are commanded to count every single one of these days… and I gave the scripture above, just for you. ((wink!)) Anyhow, I (being raised a christchun) have never done this. Like most christchuns, I wasn’t taught that we were supposed to keep His commandments if we claimed to love Him. ((Don’t get me started.)) So I had NO idea there was even such a thing as a counting of the Omer. Thank you, good ol’ Sunday School. They had me waving palm fronds like the fickle unbelieving Jerusalem Jews for ‘Easter’ when I was a kid, but to celebrate in obedience? Hell, no! So imagine my surprise when I grew up and claimed the scriptures for myself… and found out that there’s this really nifty little countdown that we’re supposed to (as Jews) participate in. ((And yes, I said I’m a Jew. See Romans 2:28-29.)) And the nifty little countdown sure as HELL ain’t Lent.
…Here’s what I found out (paraphrased and shortened Anna-style from multiple sites): The counting of the Omer, stems from the biblical commandment to set aside one sheaf of barley on each of forty-nine days between the two largest spring festivals, and then to offer the barley as a sacrifice on Shavuot/Pentecost. The Omer is the time between Pesach/Passover and Shavuot/Pentecost. This was the time from Israel’s exodus from Egypt to their arrival at the foot of Mount Sinai… and what that symbolizes for us…. the journey from bondage to freedom.
This 49-day period is meant to spiritually prepare and refine ourselves. When the Jewish people were in Egypt for 400 years, they had assimilated many of the immoral ways of the Egyptians. The Jews had sunk to an unprecedented level of spiritual defilement. God stepped in and redeemed His chosen people, and they underwent a spiritual rebirth and quickly ascended to the holiest collective state they had ever reached. They were so holy, in fact, that they were compared to angels when they stood at the foot of Mt. Sinai to receive the Torah. From the lowest lows to the highest heights in just seven weeks!
Every year, we retrace this journey by counting the Omer. Beginning on the second night of Pesach/Passover, we count the days and weeks. “Today is one day to the Omer,” we proclaim on the first night of the count. “Today is two days to the Omer,” “Today is seven days, which are one week to the Omer”, “Today is twenty-six days, which are three weeks and five days day to the Omer,” and so on, until: “Today is forty-nine days, which are seven weeks to the Omer.” The fiftieth day is Shavuot/Pentecost.
Chabad.org has a page with daily readings for the Counting of the Omer. It tells you what the short blessing is to recite, and then has a passage to be read that’s a bit longer. I may just read them this year for the sake of doing it, and see what I learn from it and how it might bless me. I know it won’t mean a whole lotta anything to the kids, but I want to LEARN, and learning comes by experience in many situations… so for the sake of experiencing it, that’s my plan.
But how to count in the Omer?
I saw this chart at Davka.org that was really kewl, and decided that this was the way I wanted to do it. Here’s the original color-crayon chart at that site, that I ‘green-lighted’ over. ((<<<—– ))The basic concept here is that you start on the red space at the top right of the chart and wind your way down to the purple, and the colors going from right to left diagonally across the chart are the 7 colors of the rainbow. Everything else is a blend thereof. And every day you put a barley corn on a space.
But I couldn’t really USE this, because it’s so shoddily done, and while she/he called for other people to ‘make it better’ for her with their computer knowledge, every link (and there are like five of them) that people provided to ‘their’ version is either defunct or not workable. So you know me… I went to Word ((I do e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. in Word)) and tried to take the concept and make it better.
So here’s what I did… ain’t it purty? Wha, I do good work! Not sure I got the colors right (hey, look what I was working off!)… but it was my best shot at it. And it only took HALF my bloomin’ life. ((kidding!)) Ah, but I luvvv my work! Anyhow, for the last (five?) years, I’ve told you to click it and print, but THIS YEAR there’s a better option. I’ve uploaded the file to K&S, and all you have to do it click here for an original copy of it:
The colors of the .doc version are slightly different from the one shown here – if you prefer this more brighter version, you can still click the picture, click the image to enlarge, and use that. Both options are available… and options are always nice!
Anyhow, here’s how it works: This whole thang is considered a mitzvah, so the count, which takes place each night, is preceded by a blessing. ((See the Chabad link above.)) However, we may only recite the blessing if we have not missed a single night of counting. If we have omitted the counting even one night during that stretch, we may no longer recite the blessing, but instead must listen as our friend says the blessing and then do the counting. I plan to have each member of our family glue a barley corn to the chart (was afraid I wouldn’t be able to find barley corns and thought I might have to substitute popcorn, but it’s golden). That’ll be five per square, but they’re small, so they’ll fit.
But there you have it. The meaning behind, process of, and Anna-cized version of the Counting of the Omer. Hope that helps!!
