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The
Baal Shem Tov, or Besht — the founder of Chasidism —
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How to count the omer!L'ilui Nishmat Azriel Godel ben Efraim Halevi v'Yedidyah
asher kid'shanu b'mitzvotav v'tzivanu al s'firat ha-omer
After the blessing the day is counted by absolute number and by its number within each week, i.e., "Today is the thirty-third day of the omer, which is four weeks and five days" – that's Lag B'omer (lamed plus gimel = 33). Because there are seven lower Sefirot in Kabbalah associated with days of the week (and probably because of the homonym "sefirah", which also means counting), there is also a custom to say which Sefirah is connected with that day and that week, i.e. for Lag B'omer, the fifth day of the fifth week, or Hod sheb'Hod (Hod within Hod, Majesty squared). For the first night one would therefore add: Chesed sheb'Chesed ~ "Love within Love." We travel from Chesed within Chesed on the second night of Passover, the night of true lovingkindness, to the 49th day of the omer, Malkhut within Malkhut, the radiance of Shekhinah. The significance of Hod within Hod is that it is the point in which physical manifestation (i.e. of the Torah or God's presence) begins. On a mystical level this is about the Torah being prepared to be given to the people, while on the natural level it's about the manifestation of divine blessing in the wheat crop itself. After the count, it's a custom to recite Ana B'khoach, a fantastic mystical prayer that you can print out, download, and/or listen to on neohasid.org. The biggest challenge of counting the omer is that it is one long mitsvah lasting 49 days. What that means is that if you go one whole night and day without counting, the halakhah is to no longer say the blessing. Making it all the way through seven weeks without missing a day is not easy for most of us! Hence, the proliferation of calendars, websites, and widgets for counting the omer. (Actually, this may be the first widget!) Many blessings, in every sense, Rabbi David Seidenberg ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
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Design in progress © Rabbi David Mevorach Seidenberg 2006 |