Counting the Days

Anyone following me on social media will know that during Spring, immediately following the first night of Passover, I begin posting daily counting posts. This is my way of sharing my daily Omer counting with you. In Judaism, the seven weeks between Passover and Shavuot are known as the Omer, and we count these days to mark the passage of time from one holiday to the other. 

We don’t, however, count the days between every holiday. This counting is specific to these two holidays. As with all of Judaism, it has a literal ancient meaning, as well as a spiritual one. Omer literally means a unit of measure equal to a tenth of an ephah. In biblical times, on the second day of Passover the grain offering (an omer of grain) was to be given at the Temple. Beginning that day and continuing for seven weeks, Israelities were to count each day. The day after the seven weeks was Shavuot, the holiday commemorating the giving of the Torah and the birth of the Israelites as a nation. The seven weeks were to be a time of introspection and preparation for remembering receiving Torah. 

In the Jewish mysticism known as Kabbalah, each of the 49 days as well as each of the seven weeks of this period corresponds to one of the lower divine emanations (sephirot) of the Tree of Life. The lower sephirot represent the conscious emotions of humanity. Each week represents one sephira (lovingkindness, discipline, harmony, endurance, humility, bonding, and leadership) that is in need of correction and each day within that week represents a sephira used to correct the one of the week. I have included a chart below to show how this works out. 

This seven week correction of our emotions helps to prepare us for remembering the giving of Torah and our transition from slavery into peoplehood. Passover marks our freedom from slavery, but just because we are no longer bound doesn’t immediatly mean we are free. Freedom is a mentality and that isn’t developed overnight. I wrote about this in  some depth last year, and you can read that here. 

Counting the Omer can and should be an alchemical transformation of self. The actual counting, when done with purpose and passion, becomes a meditative practice. When you take the practice beyond the actual count and apply the soul correction of each day and week, it becomes a deep dive of shadow work. It’s a seven week period of embracing the dark aspects of our soul and bringing them into the light. 

Make your days count as you count your days.