Why Am I Doing This??

So, you may be wondering why this blog is here in the first place.  Much of this will be revealed in the coming weeks, as we travel through the omer together. But it's an attempt to make this time period special - a time to reflect on how not only to count days, but more importantly to make our days count.  And to offer an invitation for you to do the same in your life.

Last Friday night, I offered a sermon about the omer in preparation for Passover, which sums up a bit of what is so special about this time period.  Since I can't figure out how to attach a file to the blog (and I'd rather not just paste the whole thing here), I'm pasting a bit of the highlights below:

Often we count down the days until something is happening – 30 days until vacation.  15 days until my big presentation.  3 hours until the Cubs game starts!  It is natural to look at the time we have until an exciting event and count in anticipation and preparation. . .

But what is unique about this time period of the omer is that we do not count down the days until the giving of Torah.  Rather, each day we count up.  On the second night of Passover: 49 days away from the receiving of Torah, we say, “Today is the first day of the omer.”  This is a different way of viewing time.  

When we count down, we devalue all of the intermediate days between the huge events.  But this in-between space is where the majority of our lives exists . . . 

Time seems to move faster and faster with each year we spend.  Which is why we have the charge of our omer: a reminder to count up our days, so that we take less for granted and make each day count.  It is an invitation to find a way to fill our time, not take it for granted as wasted space between special times.  It calls upon us to experience each of our days with the same kind of joy and excitement and newness that we experienced when we first learned to count. 

May we each take up this challenge to count up our days.  And in doing so, in not skipping past the days we often consider to be routine, may we find that our days count more for us, as well.

  So, there you have it.  Tonight, we'll get to the second day of the omer.  If you're journeying with me during this period of time, I hope it will help us all to find a way to make our time more meaningful.

Getting Ready to Count the Omer

I've never followed-through with this process before, but that does not mean it is ever too late to start.  I thank you for joining me along this journey of counting the omer - doing a bit of self-reflection on our values over the 49 days between Passover and Shavuot. 

So, how are we going to do this?
Well, 49 is a perfect square, and there is a tradition to assign each week of the omer to one of seven kabbalistic values, or sephirot, and to assign each day of the week to one of these seven sephirot.  Each day is a chance to reflect on how the various values intersect with one another.  As we get closer, I'll try posting a chart (tech-savvy skills-dependent) or at least a list of the values, so we can start getting inspired! 

I'm excited to embark on this spiritual journey, and I hope you will feel free to journey along, as well.  Feel free to post your own responses to each of these days, as well.

N'siyah Tovah - May we each have a wonderful journey!