Re-Counting the Omer

היום יום אחד בעמר
Today is the first day of the omer
חסד שבחסד
A day of loving kindness in a week of loving kindness

We drank the wine, ate the matzah, maror, charoset, and all the other tasty dishes that come with the Passover seder. We asked the questions, re-enacted the story of liberation from Egypt, Mitzrayim, our narrow place, and find ourselves now on the road to revelation. To guide us on our journey, tonight we start the counting of the omer--49 steps of mindfulness.

You can find the how, when, what, and origin of this ritual in this article by Rabbi Jill Jacobs and in this entry in the Judaism 101 online encyclopedia. For a brief explanation of the Kabbalistic counting method, you can read this article from Rabbi Simon Jacobson.  In the proverbial nutshell, we count 49 days from the second day of Passover to the day before Shavuot, based on the teaching from the Torah--Leviticus 23:15-16. The Kabbalists added a layer of using 7 Sephirot, attributes that can serve as a connection to the Transcendent spirit, giving us a way to internalize the counting. Each day is assigned an attribute; each week is assigned an attribute. So the counting is not just a number, but a unique couplet of awareness.

I will once again take up my practice of blogging the omer, writing a post each day. As I remarked last year, I add to the count with an accounting of my life. This year I realize another obvious connection that I have manage to miss in this context until now. In Hebrew, the word for counting - ספ'רה - and the word for recount, tell a story - לספר – have the same root. And so, it all comes together.



For those of you who participate in the counting, I'm glad once again to count along with you. For those who have never counted, I invite you to come along for the ride. You are all welcome to download the simple chart you see to the left to help you keep track. I will also be tweeting out the count each evening, California time, so feel free to follow me, @mdivah.


On this day of double loving-kindness, remember that the counting, like life, is a process. There are often bumps in the road, and sometimes our journey takes us in a different direction. But the beauty of our traditions, these rituals we have followed for so many centuries, through so many generations, is that they remain for us to turn to, if not this year, the next.

Omer 5768 - Day 14; 2 weeks

Today is Malchut she be'Gevurah - a day of majesty in a week of strength.

For the past two years I've taken on alot of the responsibility of keeping the Beth Sholom ritual, spiritual life alive while we've been rootless, without a home; and leaderless, with a rabbi who did nothing to help keep us together. With our move into the building imminent, now led by a rabbi who joyfully and energetically takes the reins, I can relax back into my prayer practice. This morning I read Psalm 30--a psalm I read each morning--and felt the power of its words. This was one of the psalms that I was drawn to when I first started to daven each morning. It draws me still....

Psalm 30
A Psalm of David, a Song for the dedication of the Temple

I extol You, Adonai, for You raised me up.
You did not permit foes to rejoice over me.

Adonai, I cried out and You healed me.
You saved me from the pit of death.

Sing to Adonai, you faithful.
acclaim God's holiness.

For God's anger lasts a moment;
divine love is lifelong.
Tears may linger for a night;
joy comes with the dawn.

While at ease I once thought:
Nothing can shake my security.
Favor me and I am a countain of strength.
Hide Your face, Adonai, and I am terrified.

To You, Adonai, would I call;
Before the Eternal would I plead.

What profit is there if I am silenced?
What benefit if I go to my grave?
Will the dust praise You?
Will it proclaim Your faithfulness?

Hear me, Adonai.
Be gracious, be my help.

You transformed my mourning into dancing,
my sackcloth into robes of joy --
that I might sing Your praise unceasingly,
that I might thank You, Adonai my God, forever

I am glad to start my day with the acknowledgement that there is a higher power, that I am not alone, that I will be thankful for the moments that I have. It puts life in perspective, using the words of my tribe to carry me through.

What a Good Publicist Can Do

I use a personalized excite.com page as my browser home page. I choose to get the AP Entertainment News headlines among the available categories. Today, the headline Israeli Sings for her Estranged People caught my eye. The lead paragraph reads:

"A mainstream pop album is an unlikely place to encounter an ancient tongue known to a total of 705 people in the Holy Land. But tucked between the smooth chords and Hebrew vocals on Israel singer Sofi Tsedaka's debut CD, listeners can hear the lilting language of the Samaritans."

The article goes on to recount the Samaritan background of Ms. Tsedaka, an apparently well-known Israeli actress, seen in soap operas and children's TV. She left the ancient sect, now numbering 705 by their own count, after finishing high school and converted to Judaism. The Samaritans excommunicated her.

My interest was piqued, and I googled "Sofi Tsedaka" to find out more, but the same AP story came up on different sites, with the one from the Boston Herald containing a photo. Now, I'm no where near famous, but there are more hits when you google my name than hers--even when you discard the German pages that deal with Marilyn Monroe and "Some Like It Hot." ("heiss" is "hot" in German). So there was no presence of her as an actress that I could find. And if you want to listen to her, you're out of luck. I couldn't find a place to buy the cd nor could I find a download.

Now, maybe some AP reporter in Israel needed a human interest piece and found her. Excuse my cynicism, but it seems more likely that this story was planted. She knows somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody, etc., at the AP.

I wonder if this will pay off, and news of her music spreads. One piece of advice to her manager. If you're going to plant an article internationally in order to influence people to listen to her music, you shouldn't include this quote from Ms. Tsedaka, "I'm not a great singer - I'm not Whitney Houston." I'm glad she's no Whitney Houston, but I don't know how smart it is to admit your failings as a singer when you're publicizing your new cd. . .