A Season that Counts

During a recent trip to visit relatives, I was enjoying my 4 year old grand-nephew.  At one point he started counting something on his fingers and finished counting to ten before he was done with his fingers!!   I am happy to report that later that same day he coordinated his counting with his fingers and ended on “ten” when he reached his tenth finger!  (This was not a remarkable feat as he is a very bright child, just an amusing observation.)  It was even exhilarating probably for him and definitely for me; there was something very satisfying about the little counting exercise! 

Counting is a fundamental way to organize, categorize, quantitate, exchange, even label things in our heads.  It’s a way for us to keep from becoming overwhelmed perhaps.  Counting is kind of cool if you actually think about it.  In Judaism we count 10 Jewish adults in a minyan, the quorum needed for many Jewish rituals and prayer.  We love counting songs: think of the Passover Seder with “Who Knows One” or even the “Four Questions” and cumulative songs like "Had Gadya” at the end of the Seder.  The number seven has all sorts of significance in Judaism (7 days of creation, 7 days of festivals, see a whole list of seven associations in Judaism).

And here we are … did you know that as we speak (so to speak), we are in the midst of counting each day of 7 weeks from the second day of Passover to the approach of the holiday of Shavuot (the 50^th day), the holiday of revelation of Torah at Mount Sinai.  It is a really demanding, fun, disciplined activity with which to engage your whole family.  In our family the unspoken question is, who will remember to ‘count the omer’ (as this ritual is called) each day (see more explanation below)?  Usually it is my husband that remembers but he always gets a kick out of me and my daughter when we shout out OMER at random points in the day or night so that we will remember to count that day!  Why do we do it?  It is true that it is a commandment in the Torah – it serves to remind Jews of the passage of time from our exodus and freedom on Passover to the gift of receiving Torah on the holiday of Shavuot.  It is also true that there is some satisfaction in this ritual especially avoiding missing a day of counting, just like my grand-nephew counting his fingers successfully.  There is also the process and communal aspect, gathering the family or community (on Shabbat, for exampe) to make sure we count together.  For our family, there is a bit of joviality in the process ‘aha, we remembered!’.  So it reminds us, organizes us, ritualizes us, gathers us, satisfies and humors us, as well as disciplines us and readies us.  That is pretty neat and simple family ritual! 

 PS. An omer is a particular quantity of barley or grain that would be used in ancient Israel as an offering to the Great Temple in Jerusalem on the second day of Passover.  Counting the omer is a verbal counting starting with a commandment blessing and then stating the days/weeks within the 49 day period.

From Wildolive web page