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Counting the Omer

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Gevurah: The Strength of Setting Boundaries

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not. Genius will not. Education will not.  Persistence and determination alone will solve the problems of the human race.”  Calvin Coolidge

This second week of the counting of the Omer (taking us from Day 8-Day 14) is connected to the Sefirah of Gevurah. Gevurah literally means strength although in Kabbalah it is usually seen as the strength of setting limits or boundaries. As Gevurah sits opposite Chesed (the Sefirah of unbounded love) Gevurah is often interpreted as love through saying, “No.”  In other words, setting limits can also be a way to express love.
As we are using the counting of the Omer this year to change ourselves—a behavior, attitude, or identity, our learning about Gevurah reflects the intention of this Sefirah as “determination” to change.  Next week, the Sefirah of Tiferet will present the opportunity for making a plan for change.
Our preparation for change during the first week of the count focused on the love we have for ourselves. We looked at how love is an important (starting) aspect of change—love for self is requisite for change to have a lasting impact. If love is one “wing” for change then determination is the other “wing.” (more…)

By Melanie Gruenwald, ago
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Counting of the Omer Week Two: Gevurah

A reminder: As many have asked—we count each day of the Omer starting at nightfall. So, the first day of the week of Gevurah will start this Saturday night (and the entire next day until nightfall on Sunday is Day 8).  If you forget to count one (entire) day you continue to count—each day is a day unto itself (though the tradition is that if you miss a day you don’t count with a blessing but just count the day—this could be seen as a consequence for not being mindful—you missed an opportunity so remember that you missed an opportunity—so count, but without a blessing).

This week is the week of Gevurah. Last year we focused on Gevurah as loss of love, or how one can be self-reliant and determined and not fear independence. As this year our focus is on change—and the following week (Tiferet) will be when we set the stage for change by creating the blueprint/plan for change—this week is still preparation for the plan of change.

We now move from contemplating the feelings of the love of self and others (the first week of Chesed) as a motivation for change to the determination and discipline to change. Gevurah in this way represents our ability to step back, set limits, and create space for change.

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Counting of the Omer Week Two: Gevurah = Strength and focus.

“One has to be determined to change.” (more…)

By Melanie Gruenwald, ago
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What’s Love Got To Do With It?

This current week of the counting the Omer is the week of Chesed (the day to day intention is included in the more detailed blog).

This week of Chesed is a reflection on love—our capacity for love, how we share it, how we can lose our balance in love and how it serves us to change ourselves.

In the book “The Five Languages of Love” author Gary Chapman provides the types of love he sees as vital to relationships and which he sees as the source of mismatches that often can create a block in a relationship—I want to be loved this way and you love me this way. (more…)

By Melanie Gruenwald, ago
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Counting of the Omer: Week One

Our counting of the Omer this year will pick up on a theme we began to address in last year’s count. This year our intent is to develop the idea of the seven week count as a seven week step program for change. With the end in mind, the final week of the count, corresponding to the week of Malchut (manifestation) is realizing the change. Can you begin to change on the first day of the count? Absolutely. Or any time along the count. Yes. The method prescribed by the counting of seven weeks suggests that for change to be lasting it requires emotional preparation, thoughtful consideration and spiritual awareness.

Changing a behavior is often thought of as easier than changing a ‘character trait’. We learn in Kabbalah though, that behaviors always reflect an aspect of character and therefore we should never take lightly the challenge of changing what might seem to be an insignificant behavior. Changing even a ‘small’ behavior can have a deep impact on how we see ourselves. A small behavior change can influence a deep shift and we become a different person. (more…)

By Melanie Gruenwald, ago
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Counting On It

The Basics:

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1. We will be counting 50 days (7weeks plus an additional day—the 50th –which is the holiday of Shavuot—the receiving of the Ten Commandments at Sinai).
2. This count is a recount and a new count. It recounts the process of the Jews leaving Egyptian slavery and journeying 49 days in the desert—their moving from slavery to freedom. It is a new count for each of us every year to expose, examine and express our own freedom from that which limits or enslaves us.
3. The count starts this Saturday night (the ‘day’ starts at nightfall and ends at nightfall).
4. One says a blessing “…on the counting of the Omer” (it is called the Omer count as that was a grain that was brought to the Temple to start this period of counting—Omer means a measurement of grain) and then each day you count that day (today is…the eleventh day).
5. Each week of the count has a theme. This idea is an innovation of the Kabbalists but has been widely accepted into Jewish tradition as it appears in most prayer books. The theme of each week corresponds to different aspects of the Tree of Life (the seven ‘lower’ sefirot). (more…)

By Melanie Gruenwald, ago
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Productive Counting

We are just over a week away from counting the Omer—a fifty day count from Passover to the holiday of Shavuot—commemorating the journey the Jews traversed from Egyptian slavery to becoming a nation with the Torah as its religious covenant. This year we will again look at the fifty day count as a step program for learning to be fully present. In particular, present awareness is leaving behind the constraints of the past (which is different than ignoring the past). We will start the count on the second night of Passover and spend seven weeks working on living in the present by letting go of or altering our relationship with emotions and behaviors mired in the past that constrain (enslave) us. Next week I will suggest some of the basic emotions that constrain us as symbolized by the foods we place on the Seder plate and Passover table. (more…)

By Melanie Gruenwald, ago
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The Counting of 50 days from Passover through Shavuot

We are adding our own way of approaching this 50 day count.   Be mindful that this is a practice of living in the present moment; being aware of just today and the possibilities it presents—without being stuck in the past —  living with regret of the past , or being stuck in the future—waiting for “then” and not living now.

Wonderful teachers have gone before to create a scheme of using the (seven lower) Sefirot and intentions for each day of the week representing one of the seven Sefirot.  Each week is an inter-inclusive teaching with the particular Sefirah defining the week. The Sefirah then is the energy of the week—and the specific combination of the overall Sefirah and its connecting Sefirah a particular energy for that day. Please find below a chart with a synopsis of Rabbi Jacobson’s The Spiritual Guide to the Counting of the Omer (1995) and Rabbi Min Kantrowitz’s Counting the Omer: Kabbalistic Meditation Guide (2010). (more…)

By Melanie Gruenwald, ago
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