The counting begins!

Welcome to The Omer Journey, charting a sacred, spiritual path between liberation and revelation.

Counting the Omer is a seven-week festival where we embody the Torah story of the Exodus: At the Passover seder we eat the symbolic foods— the matzah (the bricks), the maror (the bitterness of the labor), the charoset (the mortar that combines with the bricks to build the cities of constriction and containment). By the end of the telling we have been released from the narrow place — the place of absolutes, of bondage, and constriction — into the wilderness of possibilities.

But the path to Sinai, the fiery mountain of revelation, is not a straight road. Spiritual journeys rarely are. There are twists and turns. And sometimes it seems that we are going backwards, in the wrong direction. But, like any good labyrinth, the path may seem round-about, but the goal is assured.

Counting the Omer is a deeply personal seven-week journey that we take in the company of others — people all over the world will be walking on this path at the same time, at the same pace.

Here, I will use the seven days of creation (Genesis 1:1 – 2:3) as the primary template for counting, incorporating the traditional combinations of the seven lower sephirot/qualities of the kabbalistic tree, as well as other pieces of scripture that lend themselves to counting (verses of Genesis, chapters of Genesis, Torah portions, psalms). Your comments, insights, and suggestions are welcome!