From the second night of Passover we begin “The Counting of the Omer.” The Torah writes:”And you shall count for yourselves from the morrow of the Shabbat, from the day you bring the Omer (offering) that is raised, seven complete weeks there shall be until the morrow of the seventh week you shall count fifty days.”(Levicitus 23:15-16)
This verse commands us to to count seven weeks from the time of the Omer, the new barley offering, was brought in the Temple.
We count from the night of the 16th of Nissan to Shavuot, which is the fiftieth day after the offering.
We actually count 49 days, for our Sages teach that fifty means until the fiftieth day.
The “Counting of the Omer” is a spiritual journey into the human psyche, into the soul. There are seven basic emotions that make up the spectrum of human existence. These seven weeks should be focused into refining our distorted emotions. Each week we work on one emotion by blending it with one attribute. For example this week we work on the attribute of “Chesed” (love and kindness). The first night was Chesed within Chesed. Today we work on “Gevurah within Chesed” (Discipline within Love and Kindness).
Each day we will explore the counting of the Omer so we can refine our emotional attributes in preparation to the receiving of the Torah on Shavuot.
#countingoftheomer
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