Evening Begins The Day

For many Jews around the world, Passover prep is well under way. With all that cleaning and cooking going on, it can be easy to forget about a much lesser known Jewish custom that occurs this time of year – counting the Omer. Starting on the second night of Passover, Jews count the days until the holiday of Shavuot when we receive the Torah. If done properly, the Omer can be viewed as a kind of spiritual cleansing mirroring the physical process we just finished when purging our homes of leaven. Last year, BookishlyJewish ran a special Omer program (you can read more about it, and the Omer, HERE). Response was tremendous, with many reading hearing of the Omer for the very first time, and others finding new meaning in their established practice. Which is why I almost fell off my chair when I saw the premise for Evening Begins The Day, a recently released novel from Jessica Brilliant Keener.

In Evening Beings the Day, several linked characters find meaning and purpose through the Omer. Rachel, who kicks the story off, has just found out that her husband had an emotional affair. While weighing her options, she moves out into a small home near her work colleague Cynthia. When Cynthia’s husband tells her about the concept of the Omer, Rachel decides it might be just what she needs to get herself sorted, and even signs herself up for a week long women’s retreat built around the Omer. Cynthia, meanwhile, is having a crisis of her own. Her daughter Lauren is flunking out of school due to depression that presents with components of rage. In a last minute attempt to get her to graduate, to mend fences in the family, and to foster healing, Lauren’s English teacher – who also happens to attend their temple – suggests a homeschool curriculum involving counting the Omer.

The counting in the book follows the same Kabalistic schedule we use here at BookishlyJewish. Each week represents one of the seven sefirot, or attributes, while each individual day is used to consider how each sefirah interacts with the others. Kind of like one sefirah enfolded into another. Through the course of seven weeks the characters embrace concepts like lovingkindness, strength, harmony, endurance, humility, foundation, and regality. While I do not suggest this as a replacement for therapy, I do think it is a very good framework from improving as a person and together as a community. Counting begins at night since in Judaism the day actually beings with the night – as referenced in the title of the book.

There are multiple POV characters in Evening Begins The Day, but only Rachel’s chapters are told in the first person, making her the most visceral. You may or may not agree with her choices in the end, but I found her journey very compelling. The women’s retreat was the kind of thing I would never sign myself up for but sort of wish I would. Cynthia has her own journey, and I found it easy to sympathize with her even when I could spot her missteps with her daughter from a mile away. The one character I struggled to connect with was Lauren. It is possible I was simply not meant to connect with her, as I suspect she’s having trouble connecting with herself during the timeline of the story, but I really, really wished she showed some modicum of ability to be self reflective. She is literally critical of every single thing in the world – especially her mother – but seems to have lost all sense of self perception. Which I suppose resembles many teenagers. Unlike many teenagers though, she still uses “word” as an affirmation. I’ll have to leave it to our teenage audience to weigh in on if kids these days still do that.

We are told many times that Lauren is a smart and mature young woman struggling with how to relate to a world in crisis. We definitely see her being distressed by the world’s crises, and she is obviously struggling, but mostly what sets her off is her mother. I did not get the sense that she was in any way smart or mature, despite literally spending entire chapters in her head. Instead, she came off as a very stereotypical teenager looking to blame the entire world’s problems on her mother, over glorifying her father, and having an almost too close relationship with her English teacher. Unlike the other characters, she didn’t have much of an arc. I left the book worried about her future, and was desperately hoping she would receive some actual therapy to supplement her Omer work.

Rachel’s time at the retreat serves as an excellent overview of the Omer ritual. I even found myself wandering into a Judaica shop to buy my first seder plate much like Rachel does in the book. (Side note, this is a beautiful scene in which Rachel confronts some of her own stereotypes about Orthodox Jews. Top notch stuff.) I’ve always just used a random plate. This year, I wanted it to be special. Mine, completely owned and decided on by me for this purpose. Just like Rachel felt about her solo Seder. If you are thinking of being inspired to count the Omer along with us this year, I would highly suggest reading through Evening Begins The Day as a primer. We’ll be posting a book rec every night that we think brings out the message in the particular sefirah pairing of the evening. However, we know you’ll likely only pick a handful to actually read. Most people don’t have time to read a book a night. Choose what feels meaningful to you. Hopefully, you’ll feel more fulfilled at the end, just like the characters of Evening Begins The Day.

BookishlyJewish received a copy of this book from the author after we reached out and asked for one.

---

Find It: Amazon | Bookshop