From Counting the Omer to Shavuot

Today's Readings:
Waskow:
"Trek Through Anxiety and Hope - Counting the Omer"
"Peak Experience - Shavuot"

Over the many generations of its celebration, the Counting of the Omer has undergone considerable transformation. The holiday began simply as a forty-nine day link between the two harvest celebrations of Pesach and Shavuot. As religious meaning was attributed to the two holidays, the Counting of the Omer became an integral connection between the political freedom of Pesach and the spiritual freedom of Shavuot. During these forty-nine days, an air of mild mourning presides except for on Lag B’Omer, the thirty-third day, and modern added celebrations. Each night, the omer is counted, symbolizing a wave-offering of barley made each night of this period before the destruction of the Temple. The days of the Counting of the Omer now include Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Memorial Day), Yom Hazikkaron (Remembrance Day), Yom Ha-atzma-ut (Israel Independence Day), and for many, the controversial Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day).

The task of providing a nightly offering of barley to God over a forty-eight day period of time has become the richly liminal, spiritual journey that the Counting of the Omer is today. With generations of reinterpretation, new meanings and beliefs have been attributed to the practices of the Counting of the Omer, from counting the forty-nine possible combinations of the seven S’phirot, to origins stemming from a Roman period of mourning, to simply mourning for the inability to wave the omer as an offering. By performing the orderly prayers and customs of mourning, Jews place themselves in a liminal state of being, thus creating a distinct community for themselves.

The Counting of the Omer leads into Shavuot, the festival of the spring harvest and of God’s gift of Torah to Moses. Shavuot begins on the afternoon of the last day of the omer with a cleansing ritual bath and then proceeds with a true prayer of Shechechiyanu after forty-nine days of preparatory Shechechiyanu. Afterwards, families proceed to synagogue and stay there, reading and studying Torah, for the entire night. Children are first introduced to Torah on the first morning of Shavuot, and today, many congregations have confirmation ceremonies for sixteen-year-old students of Torah on Shavuot. The Bible readings of Shavuot all emphasize personal relationships with God. Many kibbutzim in Israel celebrate Shavuot by parading the first fruits of the season. This season of first fruits has become a celebration of personal identity and education of Torah. With strong dialectic, a seemingly simple harvest thankfulness has turned into a community-building embrace of liminality, an exploration of each individual’s possible connection with God.