Photo by Argenberg (c) Creative Commons Attribution
Hmm….after last night’s meal I could use a 49-day trek, or at least a good walk. Tonight many of us will embark on a second seder and, of course, the counting of the omer. The whole “omer” thing was a total mystery to me until about 2 years ago. Why on earth would we count sheaves of barley? I mean, I get it on a historical level and I understand that it’s to mark the time time between Passover and Shavout. I get the “wandering in the desert before arriving at Mt. Sinai, but what exactly am I supposed to get out of saying “today is Day 10.”
Then I discovered Rabbi Jill Hammer’s omer calendar of biblical women and I started to get it. I had seen the kabbalistic versions, but they really were too esoteric for me at the time. The biblical women calendar was more tangible and approachable. She still uses the kabbalistic approach of assigning a sephirot within a sephirot to each day — but she also assigns a bibilical woman who is representative and a teaching. Rabbi Jill also has a great counting of the omer in her Jewish Book of Days.
This year she has presented the Kohenot with the Netivot version. Along with the traditional daily sephirot within Sephirot, she has assigned a Netivah. I’m very much looking forward to exploring the Kohenet Netivot in this new and exciting way over the next 49 days. If you’d like to take this journey with me — just let me know (leave a comment). R’Jill has given me permission to share her Netivot Omer Calender. She’s also assigned both a female and male counterpart to the Netivah so it’s gender-balanced and this is the first time we’ve seen the masculine equivalents of the Netivot.
What do I have to offer you for the counting of the omer? Well, I’ve made this little calendar template so you can cross off the days. Each day has the assigned sephira within sephira. It starts at the top right and reads to the left (like Hebrew). I’ve been playing with fun things to do with this, like printing it on fabric and tying ribbons on each day, to make it reusable. Let me know if you come up with something creative, and I actually have several of the fabric printed version. If you would like one to experiment with — leave a comment or email me.
PeelaPom Omer Calendar Template (pdf)
I also have to share this link to the “Homer Calendar” created by the folks at JVibe.com. It’s a Simpsonized version of the omer calendar and it’s darn funny. It also provides a pretty decent explanation of the whole thing, just with an excellent sense of humor.
You can also keep track of what day it is with this handy-dandy widget from R’David at NeoHasid.org.
Technorati Tags: passover, pesach, omer, omer calendar
חג שמח, קצירה!
counting the omer using the netivot calender with you sounds great!
I don’t know how is it in the US, but here in Israel, the whole Omer deal is quite clear: everywhere I go I see the golden fields being harvested. to me, the counting of the omer is like a crescendo of the land’s abundance - leading to the climax in Shavu’ot, and then the anticlimax in the form of the dead summer. (I hope I’m making any sense here. I think in Hebrew, and I’m not sure that I succeed in translating coharently my ideas…).
The only thing that bugs me in counting the Omer, is that in modern era, due to geneting engeneering and modern agriculture - the harvest is taking less than 7 weeks…
Thanks for sharing these Omer counting great resources.
It must be very cool to live in Israel (or even places with similar climates) where all of the nature-based/seasonal aspect of Jewish rituals make sense in a very tangible way. But maybe the value of the Diaspora experience is that it forces us to look for other (perhaps deeper) meaning behind these rituals–to explore the more intangible.
One of the things I love about your blog is that you try to connect the symbolic/mystical part of Jewish ritual with the practical nature-based/earth-based aspect. Your Kohenet experiences are so inspiring. Thank you for sharing your journey!
Dotan — I love when you share your thoughts! As always your English is amazingly good. I don’t live anywhere near wheat/barley fields, so the whole Omer thing is super intangible for me. I’m lucky that although I live in a major city, I’m pretty connected to my food supply. I know a lot of people that the entire idea of “harvest” is completely abstract. I’ll email you the Kohenet Omer calendar as soon as I get a chance.
I just thought of something — maybe Asparagus season is a good parallel to the barley for me. It’s coming up right now and it lasts about 7-8 weeks. I’ll have to keep an eye on the timing right now.
Kineret — I feel your pain on the strange experience of Diaspora some days. I think the Washington, DC region is similar enough to Israel (seasonally) that the holidays don’t feel totally out of whack. But — I can’t imagine what it would be like to be in Israel and actually have them line up the way they are supposed to. I hope I do get to experience it some day!
I would love to be included in your counting and meditations, please!
Rabbi David at http://www.neohasid.org has published more fabulous Omer Counting goodies.
Check out these pretty daily reminders by Pauline Frankenberg
And he has plenty more resources at: http://neohasid.org/resources/omer/ It’s a little hard to see, but look just above the widgets!