We as a Jewish people have always had an obsession with numbers. Our holidays are filled with them, our Tanakh, our Hebrew Bible seems addicted to numbers as it uses them in great detail and on a constant basis with regard to the years people live and the years our people journey through the desert. One of the beautiful customs that remains from the Biblical Period with regard to numbers in our tradition is the "counting of the Omer" which I spoke about in last month's bulletin. The counting of the Omer is one of the 613 Mitzvot that is easily forgotten because it is only present for 7 weeks out of the year and is a brief 10-second ritual done each evening between the second Night of Passover and the Holiday of Shavuot. Traditionally this was a period of time for the Spring Harvest where each day for seven weeks, a measure of grain (called an Omer) was brought to the Temple every day leading up to the end of the harvest season and the receiving of the Torah, which according to custom occurred on Shavuot. For some, during the counting of these seven weeks, it is a custom to engage in a period of mourning by not shaving and not attending weddings or other venues of entertainment as the Temple is no longer present.
But the Mitzvah of counting the Omer can be seen differently rather than simply a period of time where we count days and where we restrict our lives by refraining from certain activities. The period of time when we count the Omer is a fragile moment within our Jewish calendar when we prepare ourselves to relive the moment when we, the Jewish people marry God, when we receive the Torah, our wedding contract with God, which occurs on the Holiday of Shavuot. Typically we tend to count off days by counting down towards something, however the Omer counting goes up as each day moves forward. The idea is that we constantly elevate ourselves in holiness each day as we prepare for our moment par excellence with God when we stand again at Mount Sinai, this year on Thursday Evening June 1, 2006.
As we count the Omer each evening, be it as a community or as individuals, may it be a command that is not simply a technical, mandated and elementary opportunity for us to prepare ourselves for Shavuot, but as we approach the number 49, the total number of days between the Second day of Pesach and Erev Shavuot, may the counting of the Omer uplift us and prepare us to once again stand at Sinai with a feeling of life, with a feeling of joy and with a feeling of a holy and deeply committed relationship to our precious gift of Torah and to God.
Chag Shavuot Sameyakh V'Kol Tuv,
Rabbi Micah Caplan
