Counting the Omer is one of the lesser known Jewish traditions, but this year BookishlyJewish is hoping you’ll count with us! So what is the Omer? Well, starting from the second night of Passover we count the days until we receive the Torah during the holiday of Shavuot. It takes 49 days and is a time of personal and spiritual growth as we prepare to receive the Torah.
Traditions surrounding the Omer are numerous – including some that are usually associated with mourning- but the actual process is simple enough. Every day you add a new day to the tally. Sound easy? It is and it isn’t. Jewish days start at night, so every night you can count and make a blessing. If you forget at night, you can still count right up until sundown starts the next day. You simply wouldn’t make the blessing when counting during daytime hours but would be welcome to do so the next night, as you’ve gotten credit for the day and your count is unbroken. Miss an entire day from sundown to sundown and you won’t be able to say the blessing for the rest of the count. Which means lots of kids and adults have fun asking each other if they’re “still in it” – meaning they haven’t forgotten an entire day and are are still eligible to make a blessing. It’s a big accomplishment, and a lot of fun! It’s also kind of hilarious, because you don’t want to accidentally count without intention and before making the blessing, which is why if someone asks you what day it is you promptly respond with “yesterday was…”
Where does the spiritual growth come in? Well, remember those mourning rituals I mentioned? In addition to being the time when the Jews leveled up spiritually by preparing the receive the Torah in the dessert, The Omer is a time that has been associated with the death of a generation of Torah scholars who tradition holds were beset by plague due to not respecting one another. Therefore, we do not have weddings, cut our hair (some men even grow full Omer beards), and other such stringency that is typically part of mourning. Mostly we’re trying to work on ourselves to be better people, and repair what went wrong. In kabbalistic tradition, each of the seven sets of seven is associated with one of the seven aspects of the God – the sefirot. Each day within that seven days focuses on a different feature of that aspect of the divine. Therefore, a person can strive to emulate to God, one day at a time. In this way we prepare ourselves spiritually to receive the Torah while also participating in tikun olam – repairing a broken world.
So where do the books come in? We’re going to feature one book a day that we think pairs well with that days sefirah. Some of those connections may be loose – don’t worry we will explain them! We also don’t expect anyone to be able to read a book a day. That would seriously crush anyone’s Goodreads challenge. Instead, we’re hoping you might pick the book out of each set of seven that most speaks to you. The Omer is counted up rather than down – we track how many days have passed rather than how many we have left to go, because each day is an accomplishment. Each day we get to be better people. Focus on your achievements- each book you have been able to read – rather than mourning the ones you haven’t gotten to yet.
We can’t wait to start counting with you!