Passover, 7th Day
This week, with the second night of Passover, we began the period called “the omer” which continues until Shavuot. The omer (literally “a measure") was an offering of the first of the new grain harvest which was brought to the temple on the sixteenth of Nisan. The Torah commanded that seven weeks be counted from the time of the offering of the omer. In fact, Shavuot does not have a fixed calendar date in the Torah, but simply falls on the day after the completion of the omer count. This period also became known as s’firah - the counting - because of the nightly ritual of s’firat ha-omer, counting the days of the omer. This is also a period when one traditionally observed the laws of mourning: one could not marry, have one’s hair cut, or attend concerts.
So, if we do not observe the mourning practices and we feel no connection the agricultural components, how do we today relate to this period? Each day of the omer brings us closer to the moment at Sinai. Rabbi Michael Strassfeld likens it to a form of countdown (except in Judaism, everything is a “countup”!). It is also a reminder of the liberation of Passover that has just passed and a reminder that it is easy to slip back into slavery. The Israelites complained in the desert and yearned for the Egyptian way of life. Liberty is easy to lose as we hurry back to the comfort of the old and familiar iniquitous ways, especially when someone else tells us what to do, where choosing and responsibility lie in other people’s hands. Liberty is also easy to lose when temporary measures are taken that soon reverse the freedom that was gained. The easiest route out of Egypt can often lead us back to it or else into a new Egypt.
Instead at this time, we can turn to Sinai, where we are given the handbook of a new order that calls for choice and responsibility instead of slavery. The Torah demands justice and mercy for others. We must be like Moses. He beheld a bush that was on fire and yet not consumed: a symbol of the commandments that free rather than enslave, a people that burns with conviction and yet does not consume its constituents or others.
In order not to lose the liberation of Passover and to prepare for the revelation of Shavuot, we count each day. We use the counting of the omer as a reminder that to mark not only this important period, but let it serve as a reminder that we should mark all of time’s passage. The Psalmist writes, “The span of our life is seventy years,” or in the case of the Omer, symbolically seven weeks.
Shabbat Shalom,
Cantor Korn
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