Today is Day 48. Tonight’s count is below.
This thought is from Amy Brookman [5770]:
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks’ wrote in The Koren Siddur — First Hebrew/English Edition (Jerusalem: Koren Publishers Jerusalem, 2009):
The number seven is…significant and always indicates holiness, as in
the seventh day, Shabbat; the seventh month, Tishrei with its Days of Awe;
the seventh year, the “year of release”; and the fiftieth year, the Jubilee,
which follows seven cycles of seven years…
– p. xxviii, “Understanding Jewish Prayer, I. Numerical Structures”
We make a bridge in time between Passover and Shavu’ot by counting the omer
for 49 days (7 x7). We arrive at the celebration of Shavu’ot on the 50th
day. The pattern of our omer bridge reminds me of the pattern of the
observance of “the seventh year, the year of release”; and the fiftieth
year, the Jubilee, which follows seven cycles of seven years.
The omer period is like a very narrow bridge rising above despair and doubts
about God’s promise of redemption. The section of prayer that serves as a
bridge between the Shema and the Amida also reminds me of the omer period.
During the omer we join our remembrance of past redemption with our hope for
future redemption. And then we begin the descent from the peak experience
of Shavu’ot to ordinary daily life, similar to our descent back into
ordinary life after we reach the peak of the Amida prayer.
The supreme expression of love in Judaism is the Shema with its
injunction: “Love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul,
and with all your might.” The supreme expression of awe is the Amida
prayer, when we stand consciously in the presence of God. The basic
movement of the morning and evening prayers is first, to climb to the peak
of love, the Shema, and from there to the summit of awe, the Amida.
– Sacks, ibid. p.xxx, “Understanding Jewish Prayer, From Love to Awe”
Representative John Lewis Commemorates 45th Anniversary of Selma, Alabama
March; posted to YouTube by RepCohen – March 10, 2010 [This video clip is 7:41 long]
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During evening prayers, add:
A) (Address for God:) Barukh ata YHVH, eloheinu melekh ha-olam, asher kidshanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu al sefirat ha-omer.
We praise You, Adonai, Our God, Master of time and space whose commandments add holiness to our lives, Who commanded us to count the omer.
B) (Address God as feminine:) Beruchah at yah, eloheinu ruach haolam, asher kidshatnu bemitzvoteha vetzivatnu al sefirat ha’omer.
Blessed are You, God, Ruler/Spirit of the Universe, who has sanctified us with Your commandments and commanded us to count the Omer.
Ha-yom tishah v’arba’im yom, shehem shivah sh’vuot la’omer.
Today is day forty-nine, making seven weeks of the omer.
[This translation and transliteration was borrowed from the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and from Jill Hammer's Omer Calendar of Biblical Women at RitualWell.org. For additional text to accompany the counting, see Five Steps.]
