33 Days of the Omer. That is 4 Weeks and 5 Days. — Rabbi Amy Josefa Ariel (she/her)

Hod shebe Hod
Splendor/Gratitude in Splendor/Gratitude
Saturday evening May 25 and Sunday May 26
Shavua Tov!
Lag Ba’Omer
With gratitude to Jewish authors and storytellers every where and every time.

As the sun sets I stretch my arms over my head and let them drop.
I take a deep breath.
The Omer is a time of semi-mourning.
No weddings.
No hair cutting.

The Talmud holds this story: During this season a plague killed thousands of Rabbi Akiva’s students.
Thousands.
I’m not given to explain illness by behavior or punishment, but the rabbis did. They wrote that the deaths were because the students failed to treat one another respectfully. We count every Hebrew letter the way we count these days. Every Hebrew letter has a numerical value. The Hebrew letters lamed and gimel combine to become 33 and make up the acronym “lag”. According to a medieval tradition, the plague ceased on this day. Lag Ba’Omer, the 33rd day of the Omer.

The story of this 33rd day weaves into the story of the 49.
The story of this 33rd day is a place to rest and take a breath.
49 is a lot of days.
I’m feeling thankful for a day to catch my breath and for Liddy and I to trim one another’s hair, but of course I’m still walking.

“Forty-nine days is one beat of a sunbird’s wing.”
The voice is gravelly, but not gruff. Round-sounding, and soft.

Palestinian Sunbird Charles Sharp Dana Biosphere Reserve, Jordan
Wikimedia Commons

I look around and see him.
He is resting by himself.
I walk over and sit - not too close, but . . . not too far.
He says, “For forty years we flew like a hoopoe, low to the ground. Slow. Deliberate. Day by day.”

Para, para, says my mind to itself. Cow, cow. An idiom. Slow and steady.
This is Moshe Rabbeinu. Moses our Teacher, our Storyteller.
Born on the 7th of Adar.
The third child of Yocheved and Amram.
The youngest of the siblings after Miriam and Aaron.

Moses is listening to something - maybe someone. He tilts his head considering.
“B’emet. It is true,” he nods, but not to me. “Even forty days can be a lifetime.”

I can see our stories on his face in the crevices and folds of his skin.
The words tangle in his beard, the cadence flows through his steely gray hair.
The chronicles, the archetypes, the heroes, the passions, the grief, the hardships, the joys all sway in the fibers of his tunic.

I match my breath to his.

I see children playing.
Friends are having a late night picnic.
Elders are reminiscing.
Someone is playing a violin.
Someone else is playing a drum.
There is a bonfire.

I close my eyes and colors dance behind my lids, a swirl of a larger self and universal truth, collective meaning and purpose, mistakes, commitment not to repeat them, getting it right, trying again . . . and again.
I open my eyes and Moses sits . . . not silent - still. Not quiet, but also not speaking.
I don’t know, no one does, who the first person was to speak the words,
“When God began to create the heavens and the earth, the earth was astonishingly empty, and darkness was on the face of the deep, and the spirit of God was hovering over the water . . . ” and I don’t know who told them to Moses. Some storyteller told them, and another storyteller heard them and told them again, and on and on until they were told to Moses. Or maybe, as another story goes, God spoke them to Moses at Mount Sinai. However they got to Moses, it was through Moses that they were told to the world, and to us, and to me, passed from storyteller to storyteller like a relay.

He smells of sand, and well, and fire, and sheep.
And . . . strangely . . . of my grandmother’s face lotion. My grandfather’s popcorn.
The evening breeze cools my face, skin made hot by the bonfire.

I think of the Torah’s last words and wonder who brought them into the world:
So Moses the servant of God died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of Adonai. And God buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-Peor; but no human knows his grave till this day. And Moses was 120 years old when he died; his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated. And the people of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days; and the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended. And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom; for Moses had laid his hands upon him; and the people of Israel listened to him, and did as Adonai commanded Moses. And there has not arisen since in Israel a prophet like Moses, who God knew face to face. In all the signs and the wonders, which Adonai sent him to do in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land. And in all that mighty hand, and in all the great and awesome deeds which Moses performed in the sight of all Israel. (Deut. 34:5 to 34:12)

Moses hasn’t moved.
“Tell these stories,” he says, seeing me without looking at me.
Not looking at us and seeing us.
”Tell them and remember what your eyes saw, what your heart felt.”
”Tell them . . . all the days of your life.”

See you at Sinai.

How to say the blessing:
Choose the language that resonates with you the most.
Non-gendered Hebrew based on grammar system built by Lior Gross and Eyal Rivlin,
available at www.nonbinaryhebrew.com

Gender Expansive:

הִנְנִי מוּכָנֶה וּמְזֻמֶּנֶה …

Hineni muchaneh um’zumeneh …

Here I am, ready and prepared …

Feminine:

הִנְנִי מוּכָנָה וּמְזֻמֶּנֶת …

Hineni muchanah um’zumenet …

Here I am, ready and prepared …

Masculine:

הִנְנִי מוּכָן וּמְזֻמַן …

Hineni muchan um’zuman …

Here I am, ready and prepared …

All Continue:

… לְקַיֵּם מִצְוַת עֲשֵׂה שֶׁל סְפִירַת הָעֹמֶר כְּמוֹ שֶׁכָּתוּב בַּתּוֹרָה וּסְפַרְתֶּם לָכֶם מִמָּחֳרַת הַשַּׁבָּת
מִיּוֹם הַבִיאֳכֶם אֶת עֹמֶר הַתְּנוּפָה שֶׁבַע שַׁבָּתוֹת תְּמִימוֹת תִּהְיֶנָה. עַד מִמָּחֳרַת הַשַּׁבָּת
הַשְּׁבִיעִית תִּסְפְּרוּ חֲמִשִּׁים יוֹם וְהִקְרַבְתֶם מִנְחָה חֲדָשָה לַיי

… lekayyem mitzvat aseh shel sefirat ha-omer, kemo shekatuv batorah: us’fartem lakhem mimacharat hashabbat, miyom havi’akhem et omer hat’nufah, sheva shabbatot temimot tih’yena, ad mimacharat hashabbat hash’vi’it tis’peru khamishim yom, vehikravtem minkha khadasha l’adonai.

… to fulfill the mitzvah of counting the Omer, as it is written in the Torah: And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Shabbat, from the day on which you bring the sheaf of the wave-offering, you shall count seven full weeks. Until the day after the seventh Shabbat, you shall count fifty days, until you bring a new gift to the Eternal.

Gender-Expansive Language for God

בְּרוּכֶה אַתֶּה יי אֱ-לֹהֵינוּ חֵי הָעוֹלָמִים אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשֶׁנוּ בְּמִצַוְּתֶהּ וְצִוֶּנוּ עַל סְפִירַת הָעֹמֶר

Brucheh ateh Adonai, Eloheinu khei ha’olamim, asher kidshenu bemitzvoteh v’tzivenu al sefirat ha’omer.

Blessed are You, Eternal, Life of all worlds who has made us holy with Their commandments, and commanded us to count the Omer.

Feminine Language for God

בְּרוּכָה אַתְּ יָ-הּ אֱ-לֹהֵינוּ רוּחַ הָעוֹלָם אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָׁנוּ בְּמִצְוְּתָהּ וְצִוָּנוּ עַל סְפִירַת הָעֹמֶר

Bruchah at Yah, ru’akh ha’olam asher kidshanu bemitzvotah v’tzivanu al sefirat ha’omer

Blessed are You, Yah, our God, Spirit of the universe who has made us holy with Her commandments, and commanded us to count the Omer.

Masculine Language for God

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יי אֱ-לֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו וְצִוָּנוּ עַל סְפִירַת הָעֹמֶר

Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu melekh ha’olam asher kidshanu bemitzvotav v’tzivanu al sefirat ha’omer.

Blessed are You, Lord, our God, ruler of the universe who has made us holy with His commandments, and commanded us to count the Omer.

Count the day and week

Today is the _________ day, which is _________ weeks and _________ days of the Omer.

Today:

הַיּוֹם שְׁלֹשָׁה וּשְׁלֹשִׁים יוֹם
שֶׁהֵם אַרְבָּעָה שָׁבוּעוֹת וַחֲמִשָּׁה יָמִים לָעוֹמֶר.

Hayom shishah u’shloshim yom
shehem arba’ah shavuot va’chamisha yamim la’omer

Today is thirty-three days.
That is four weeks and five days of the Omer.
Sefirat HaOmer Blessing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8hCiPI1tMQ