An Omer Meditation
Counting Up and Counting Down
We are four weeks into the Counting of the Omer, the period of seven weeks between Passover and Shavuot.
Galilee Diary: Hearing Torah
On the third new moon after the Israelites had gone forth from the land of Egypt, on that very day, they entered the wilderness of Sinai. -Exodus 19:1
Galilee Diary: Standing at Sinai?
by Marc Rosenstein
(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary)
Living Lag BaOmer
The Hebrew letter equivalent of 33 is pronounced Lag (lamed gimel), giving rise to the name Lag BaOmer for this particular day. There is no one particular reason that this day stands out from the other 48 days counted between Pesach and Shavuot, yet many fascinating traditions surround the special nature of this day.
Milkshakes at Mt. Sinai
Who Needs Shavuot?
by Rabbi Rick Schechter It’s the black sheep of the Jewish calendar—unfortunately. Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks, is a holy day often overshadowed and overlooked in the contemporary Jewish world. How could this have happened? It had such an auspicious start.
Divine Revelation and Processed Food?
In the world of nutrition and health today, there is a lot of talk about the difference between whole and processed foods.
Counting Our Blessings
An omer is a measure of grain, in this case, barley. In the days of Temple worship, we were to bring the first sheaf of barley to the Temple, followed by other items, as a sacrifice (Leviticus 9–14).
S’firat HaOmer: The Omer Period in Jewish Life
The mechanism to connect the Exodus with the giving of the Torah is a simple one-counting the days.