From Liberation to Revelation | Counting the Omer

You must count until the day after the seventh week—fifty days; then you shall bring an offering of new grain to יהוה.   Leviticus 16

Have I ever told you that I am the child of accountants? And the grandchild of people who made their living accounting for other people's assets — running the numbers, keeping the books, checking the manifests? I am also a drummer. Is it then a wonder that I might enjoy counting, numbers, rhythm, and patterns?

Also, I was born close to the festival of Shavuot and some years (like this one) Shavuot falls directly on my secular birthday.

And so, by nature or nurture, I am drawn to this ancient practice of counting the 50 days from the second day of Passover, the 16th of Nisan, to the sixth of Sivan, the festival of Shavuot.

Shavuot, along with Passover and Sukkot, the great pilgrimage festivals in the Hebrew calendar, has roots in the agricultural cycles of the land of Israel. On Shavuot, the Torah commands that an offering of new grain be brought to the the place of centralized worship, eventually the Temple in Jerusalem.

After the destruction of the second Temple in 70 CE, and the dispersion of Jews away from Jerusalem and the land of Israel, each of these agriculturally-based festival was re-invented. For Shavuot, the sages of the talmud took a close reading of the Exodus story and counted the days of the journey of the Children of Israel as they left Egypt, crossed the sea, arrived at Mount Sinai, and added the days that Moses spent on the mountain. They then deduced that the revelation at Sinai, the giving of the ten commandments, occurred on the 50th day after the liberation. Thus a new context for an old agricultural festival was born.

I love the adaptability of Judaism, that it can stretch and reinvent itself, and speak to new situations with ancient wisdom.

Our holiday cycle has served Jewish survival over many centuries, over many lands. While most of us gather with other Jews for prayer at Yom Kippur and around seder tables at Passover, how many of us observe the rituals around counting the Omer? It is a bit "niche."

I invite you to join me, to walk the path between Pesach (the liberation) and Shavuot (revelation). Our steps synchronize and an awareness builds that we are together, in time. What songs might we sing along the way? What can we do to keep ourselves focused and aligned as we prepare to accept the responsibilities of freedom and open ourselves to new understandings?

One of the traditions for counting that has become widespread developed amongst the kabbalists of Sefad in the 17th–18th centuries. In this practice, each week of the Omer is associated with one of the seven lower sephirot, the mystical gates of emanation. Each day is also assigned an associated a sephira, a quality, that, when combined with the quality of that week, offers opportunities for contemplation and spiritual practice. For example, this first week of the Omer is associated with the quality of Chesed/lovingkindness. Today, as I write, is the third day of the Omer, with the quality of Tiferet/beauty, harmony, balance. So, today is understood to be Tiferet Sh’b’chesed, beauty within love. My practice today will be to lovingly plant some flowers in my front yard, to bring a little beauty forward in my neighborhood.

I have developed other counting practices over the years, particularly connected to my study of Torah. For example, each of the weeks of the Omer can also be associated with one of the seven days of creation. I have counted/each day read one of the verses of the creation story in the first two chapters of Genesis. I have counted the chapters of Genesis (there are 50!). I have also associated the first 49 parashiot (weekly Torah portions) with the 49 days of the Omer, culminating with the 50th parasha (Ki Tavo) on Shavuot, which begins with the description of bringing the Shavuot offering of first fruits to the Temple. Each of these counting practices brings me close to these ancient texts but in a different pace than when they are read as part of the annual reading cycle. And each year new understandings emerge.

My practice has also included the creation of Omer counting books. (Here is an example of this practice from Italy, c. 1850.) And, adapting to 21st century digital consciousness, I have also built a website for this practice.

I offer this chart, which you can download. It includes Hebrew dates, secular dates for 2025, associated sephirot for the weeks and days, and associated Torah portions for each day.

I also invite you to visit the website each evening (the tradition of counting is for after sunset for the next day) for the daily count.

See what emerges for you as you explore this mitzvah of counting!


Shabbat Shalom,
Chag Pesach Sameach,

Karen