April 2007

Shalom friends,

We are in the Omer season — In the days of the ancient Temple, when many of our people were farmers, we counted the forty-nine days between Pesach and Shavuot as days between the Spring barley harvest and the beginning of the wheat harvest at Shavuot. But once the Temple was destroyed and we scattered to the four corners of the earth, we continued to count the days of the Omer even though most of us were no longer farmers. Why did we continue to count these harvest days? What meaning could they now have for us in a non-agricultural society?

The time between Pesach and Shavuot is also the seven-weeks between our liberation from Egypt and our receiving the Torah at Sinai -- seven weeks, so very little time for a people who thought of themselves as slaves to become a free people -- confident, strong, unified and ready to receive the Torah. These forty-nine days could be a time to prepare ourselves emotionally, spiritually and intellectually for the greatest challenge of our lives as a people and as individuals-- the acceptance of Torah.  Though perhaps our people were not completely ready to accept Torah (who of us ever really is?), though they still had a lot of work to do in their journey towards becoming a truly free people, these seven weeks gave them a chance to begin the work.

Today, when most of us live in our cities far from green farm lands -- we may use each of the forty-nine days to begin (or continue) our own spiritual work. We may use this time to meditate, to reflect, to try to truly understand what personally accepting Torah is all about.

There is also something powerful about conscious counting and the acknowledgement of each day.  Each day as we wake up -- to say: "Today is the 10th day, the 11th day, the 25th day" and so on -- is to say: I am lucky to be alive for this 10th, 11th, 25th day! I am blessed to have one more day to live and breathe and think and meditate and pray and love . . .

In a wonderful way, each day of the Omer offers us the possibility to say "Shehechiyanu" -- we thank God who has given us life, who has sustained us and who has offered us the opportunity to reach this particular day. In Psalm 90:12, we ask God to “teach us to number our days, so that we may acquire a heart of wisdom.”

The Omer offers us a chance to literally  "number our days" and consciously look at each moment of our day  and try to live it to the fullest — with dignity, with integrity, with kindness and love and compassion, for ourselves and for others. The Omer offers us a chance to open ourselves to new wisdom and old teachings, to stand again at Sinai ready, once again, to receive Torah.

I offer you this book for counting the Omer (click here to access). I originally compiled it this year for a Women’s Spirituality retreat I led recently and all the teachings are by women, but the teachings and reflections are equally relevant for all of us – women and men alike. Please accept this book as my gift to you all for this season as we anticipate standing once again at Sinai.

In anticipation of Shavuot, May this Omer season be a time of spiritual, intellectual and emotional growth and openness for each of us.

B’shalom,
Rabbi Leila