22 April 2022

49 days of preparation and growth,
of leaving slavery and getting
ready for social responsibility

Omer Counters (לוּחַ סְפִירָת הָעוֹמֶר‎) in synagogues and homes are seen in various decorative forms

Patrick Comerford

Last Friday was Pesach or the Feast of the Passover. Now, this 49-day period that follows Passover and leads up to Pentecost or Shavout is marked with the Counting of the Omer.

The Counting of the Omer begins on the second day of Passover (16 Nisan) and ends the day before the holiday of Shavuot, the fiftieth day. This year (2022), the Counting of the Omer began last Saturday evening (Saturday 16 April), and ends in the evening of Saturday 4 June.

The idea of counting each day represents spiritual preparation and anticipation for the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai at the beginning of the month of Sivan, at the same time as the holiday of Shavuot.

The former Chief Rabbi, the late Lord (Jonathan) Sacks, writes: ‘The 49 days, connecting the Exodus from Egypt with the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, are a time of preparation and growth – of leaving a world of slavery and getting ready to enter a world of social and special responsibility.’

The Counting of the Omer (סְפִירַת הָעוֹמֶר‎, Sefirat HaOmer), sometimes known simply as ‘Sefira’ or ‘the Omer,’ is an important verbal counting of each of the 49 days. This mitzvah or commandment derives from the Torah commandment to count 49 days beginning from the day on which the Omer, an omer-measure of barley, was offered in the Temple in Jerusalem, until the day before an offering of wheat was brought to the Temple on Shavuot (see Leviticus 23: 9-21, Deuteronomy 16: 9-12).

On the 50th day after the beginning of the count, corresponding to the holiday of Shavuot or Pentecost, two loaves of wheat were offered in the Temple to signal the wheat harvest.

The Sefer HaChinuch in 13th-century Spain says the slaves were only freed from Egypt at Passover in order to receive the Torah at Sinai, an event now celebrated on Shavuot, and to fulfil its laws.

However, the obligation after the destruction of the Temple is a matter disputed. Rambam (Maimonides) suggests that the obligation is still biblical, but most other commentaries assume it is of a rabbinic origin in modern times.

Some later rabbinic sources link the Omer count to the experience of the freed people in the desert. They say at the time of the Exodus, Moses announced that 50 days later they would celebrate a religious ceremony at Mount Sinai. The people was so excited that they counted the days until that ceremony took place. Later, when the Temple was destroyed and the Omer offering ceased, the rabbis instituted Omer counting to remember the counting up to Sinai.

Jonathan Sacks says ‘the Jewish mystics attached special significance to this period of the year as one in which the various facets of the soul were cleansed, one by one.’

In keeping with the themes of spiritual growth and character development in this time, Rabbinic literature compares the process of growth to the two types of grain offered at either end of the counting period: barley was simpler food while wheat was more luxurious.

The Exodus was an unearned gift from God, like the food of simple creatures who are not expected to develop their spiritual potential. Receiving the Torah created spiritual elevation and active cooperation. In this way, the Shavuot offering is ‘people food.’

As soon as it is definitely night – about 30 minutes after sundown – the person who is counting the Omer recites a blessing: ‘Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the Universe, who has made us holy through his commandments, and has commanded us about counting the Omer.

Then that person states the count in terms of both total days and weeks and days. For example, on the seventh day of the count, the words in Hebrew declare: ‘Today is seventh day, making one week of the Omer.’

‘Omer-counters’ (לוּחַ סְפִירָת הָעוֹמֶר‎) in synagogues and homes can range from decorative boxes with an interior scroll to posters and magnets with tear-off pieces of paper, calendars, pegboards, reminders on tablets and laptops, and even SMS messages.

Psalm 67 is selected for this time because the psalm, excluding the superscription, contains 49 words in Hebrew, corresponding to the days of the counting of the Omer.

The period of counting the Omer is also a time of semi-mourning, during which traditional Jewish custom forbids haircuts, shaving, listening to instrumental music, or conducting weddings, parties, and dinners with dancing. Traditionally, the reason cited is that this is in memory of a plague that killed the 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva ca 137 CE.

Lag BaOmer, the 33rd day of the Counting of the Omer (18/19 May 2022), marks the day the plague was lifted, and so on that day all the rules of mourning are lifted. However, some Sephardi Jews continue the mourning period until the 34th day of the Omer.

The period of the counting of the Omer is considered to be a time of potential for inner growth – for a person to work on one’s good characteristics (middot) through reflection and development of one aspect each day for the 49 days of the counting.

In Kabbalah, each of the seven weeks of the Omer-counting is associated with one of the seven lower sefirot: Chesed (loving kindness), Gevurah (might), Tipheret (beauty), Netzach (victory), Hod (acknowledgment), Yesod (foundation) and Malchut (kingdom).

Each day of each week is also associated with one of these same seven sefirot, creating 49 permutations. Symbolically, each of these 49 permutations represents an aspect of each person’s character that can be improved or further developed.

Some rabbis suggest this time also recalls the Jews who were murdered during the Crusades and the pogroms across Europe. In modern times, the Holocaust is also included among those events that are recalled: Yom Hashoah or Holocaust Memorial Day is observed during the Omer, and begins this year on Wednesday evening next (27 April) and continues until Thursday evening (28 April).

Shabbat Shalom

Praying with the Psalms in Easter:
22 April 2022 (Psalm 58)

‘The wicked go astray from the womb … they have venom like the venom of a serpent’ (Psalm 58: 3-4) … a sculpture overlooking Howth Harbour (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

During this season of Easter, I have returned to my morning reflections on the Psalms, and in this Prayer Diary on my blog each morning I am reflecting in these ways:

1, Short reflections on a psalm or psalms;

2, reading the psalm or psalms;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

Psalm 58:

Psalm 58 is the third in a series of five psalms in this section of the Psalms that are referred to as Miktams. Miktam or Michtam (מִכְתָּם) is a Hebrew word of unknown meaning in the headings of Psalms 16 and 56-60 in the Hebrew Bible. These six psalms, and many others, are associated with King David, but this tradition is more likely to be sentimental than historical. They may have formed one of several smaller collections of psalms which preceded the present psalter and on which it was based.

Miktam corresponds to the Babylonian nakamu, lid, a metal cover for a vessel, but efforts to derive a meaning for the term in the psalms have not been convincing. In modern Hebrew, the word has come to mean epigram, and numerous collections of Hebrew epigrams have used that word in their titles.

In the slightly different numbering found in the Greek Septuagint (LXX) and the Latin Vulgate, Psalm 58 is counted as Psalm 57. In Latin, it is known as In finem ne disperdas David.

Psalm 58 is a companion piece to Psalm 57, which also describes David’s difficult relationship with Saul, and both psalms in their headings declare, ‘Do Not Destroy,’ possibly an ancient song whose tune was to be used in singing the psalms.

The Midrash Tehillim connects the words al taschet (אַל-תַּשְׁחֵת, ‘do not destroy’) in the Hebrew verse 1 to the episode when David took Abishai into Saul#s camp and had the opportunity to kill Saul as he slept. David said, ‘Al tashhitahu’ (אַל-תַּשְׁחִיתֵהוּ) or ‘do not destroy him’ (I Samuel 26: 9), which echoes these words, setting Saul’s animosity toward David as the theme of this psalm.

The psalm also alludes to Abner, the chief of Saul’s army, who would not admit to David’s righteousness when David refrained from killing Saul in the cave. Perhaps that David composed Psalm 58 after Saul used the force of law to brand David as a traitor to the crown.

David speaks out at length against either wicked people or wicked judges, the latter possibly referring to those who sided with Saul. David uses highly descriptive language comparing the wicked to snakes, serpents, cobras, and lions, and implores God to ‘break the teeth in their mouths; tear out the fangs of the young lions’ (verse 6).

In an early example of antisemitism among Patristic writers, Jerome claimed that the depiction of the wicked judges refers ‘to the proceedings of the Jews against Christ,’ and argued that the psalm condemns ‘hypocrites’ and ‘detractors.’

Because this is an imprecatory Psalm, the 1962 Canadian Book of Common Prayer omits Psalm 58, as well as Psalm 137. A number of other imprecatory Psalms are omitted from a number of lectionaries, or redact Psalm 58. However, Evangelicals tend to disagree and see a value in these passages.

In traditional Judaism, this psalm is often recited as protection from an aggressive dog.

‘Let them vanish like water that runs away; like grass let them be trodden down and wither’ (Psalm 58: 7) … today is International Earth Day (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Psalm 58 (NRSVA):

To the leader: Do Not Destroy. Of David. A Miktam.

1 Do you indeed decree what is right, you gods?
Do you judge people fairly?
2 No, in your hearts you devise wrongs;
your hands deal out violence on earth.

3 The wicked go astray from the womb;
they err from their birth, speaking lies.
4 They have venom like the venom of a serpent,
like the deaf adder that stops its ear,
5 so that it does not hear the voice of charmers
or of the cunning enchanter.

6 O God, break the teeth in their mouths;
tear out the fangs of the young lions, O Lord!
7 Let them vanish like water that runs away;
like grass let them be trodden down and wither.
8 Let them be like the snail that dissolves into slime;
like the untimely birth that never sees the sun.
9 Sooner than your pots can feel the heat of thorns,
whether green or ablaze, may he sweep them away!

10 The righteous will rejoice when they see vengeance done;
they will bathe their feet in the blood of the wicked.
11 People will say, ‘Surely there is a reward for the righteous;
surely there is a God who judges on earth.’

Today’s Prayer:

The theme in this week’s prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel) is ‘From Death to Resurrection,’ and was introduced on Sunday by the Revd Dr Rachel Mash, Coordinator of the Environmental Network of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. The USPG Prayer Diary this morning (22 April 2022, International Earth Day) invites us to pray:

Today we pray for the Earth. May we work together to protect and sustain creation, rather than damage and destroy it.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org