Counting of the Omer
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…)
