Counting the Omer – 4/27/24

Saturday, April 27, 2024 (after dark, the 5th day of the Omer)

Counting the Omer
Each Saturday (after sundown) for seven weeks, before we receive the Torah on Shavu’ot, we’ll email you the text of the blessing one says while counting the Omer. Along with it, a meditation written by clergy or fellow congregants.

The Prayer

Baruch atah, Adonai Eloheinu, Melech haolam, asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu al s’firat haomer.

Praised be You, Adonai our God, who rules the universe, instilling within us the holiness of mitzvot by commanding us to count the Omer.

Today is the _______ day of the Omer.

CHESED—Love…HOW do we make love real?
By Rabbi Sirkman

WHY begin this first week’s Omer Count with LOVE?
For it is foundational for us as people:
The seed of all growth and the hope of all humans…
The power that helps us see the world in all its potential,
As it helps us see ourselves.
In fact, it is everything.

Famed writer and research professor Brene Brown helps us understand:

LOVE is not something we give or get; it is something we nurture and grow, a connection that can be cultivated between two people only when it exists within each one of them. We can love others only as much as we love ourselves.

WHAT teaching is the cornerstone of our Covenant?
“You shall love your neighbor as you love yourself; I am YHVH.”
[Lev 19:18]

The operative word is Kamocha—as your self…
If a person is filled with blame and shame, a self-reproach that leaves little room for self-respect…If the gifts you naturally give are obscured by the critique you continually receive…If you have lost the spark inside, the inner warmth that derives from appreciating the blessing you are/can be just by being you…Remind yourself, every human being is created in the Image of God…Which might just mean that by being your quirky, caring, crazy self, with all of your menschiness and miscues, your spunk and your sweetness…

You are making God’s Image glow…

As a late 19th century Hasidic teaching reveals:
The extent to which a Jew is lacking in observing:
“You shall love your neighbor as you love yourself; I am YHVH.”
[Lev 19:18]

So is that person deficient in fulfilling:
“You shall love YHVH your God.” [Deut. 6:5]
LOVE is our key to living in Covenant, and more.
It starts inside, and if reflected through the lives we daily live,
Can fill the world with a recognition that makes God real.​​​​​​​

–Jeffrey Sirkman