emor
parasha emor, leviticus chapters 21—24
menu
and thoughts …
emor
speak
… and count
In addition to a long list of rules for the Kohanim, Parasha Emor speaks of the holy days we’re to observe—Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur—and of the three festivals we’re to celebrate—Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot. We’re given instructions on when and how to observe them, and the meaning of these celebrations.
Curiously, we’re given the specific dates for Passover and Sukkot, but not for Shavuot.
Instead, we’re told to count 49 days from the day we brought the Omer, which is the second day of Passover.
So how do we count them? Audibly. Not as a passing thought. A mental acknowledgment, a brief awareness isn’t good enough. We’re to count each day audibly. We state out loud, “today is the (insert number here) day of the omer.”
A thought is a thought, but a word is a thing.
Why did we need to trek through the wilderness for 49 days before being given the Torah on the 50th day? Why weren’t we handed the Torah on the day of our redemption?
Let’s unpack.
During the Passover Seder, we journey from darkness to light, from slavery to redemption and freedom.
It’s a journey that we aspire to complete in the four or five hours we spend at the Seder table.
Our travel through the Haggadah should teach us, inspire us, raise us to new spiritual heights. The concept of the Seder as a journey is a nice one. But in reality, the Seder is the introduction to the journey, a summary of what to expect and what we are hoping to achieve on our quest. It’s the briefing.
Once we’ve been inspired by the Seder, it’s time to begin, to take our first steps. It’s not easy to leave behind our slave mentality, to go from spiritual infancy to maturity. It’s a process.
God didn’t give us the Torah the day after we left Egypt because, excited as we were by the miracles of the plagues and the splitting of the sea, we weren’t ready to receive it. The fireworks and fanfare woke us up, got us motivated, and got us ready to buckle down to brass tacks and do the work. But they didn’t give us jet packs to simply zoom to the top of the ladder.
It’s the day after the Seder that we take the first step of our mystical journey.
Of the Torah King Solomon wrote in Proverbs, “It is a tree of life to those who grasp it ... Its ways are ways of pleasantness, and all its paths are paths of peace.” The Kabbalists use the imagery of the tree of life as an allegory for creation. The tree is made up of ten sephirot, vessels that formed at the moment the universe came into being. Each one of these vessels is an aspect of God. As we climb this tree, traveling upward through the four worlds of existence, from the base material plane to the highest spiritual dimension, we encounter these sephirot as gates through which we must pass.
Mystics explain that each of the seven weeks of the Omer relates to a particular divine energy, each one expressed as one of the seven lower sefirot on the Tree of Life.
And as the universe is built on the concept of microcosm to macrocosm, or as above so below, each day of the week also corresponds to one of these seven sephirot. As each sephirot relates to an aspect of the Divine, each one also relates to a particular aspect of the human personality.
So we have seven weeks of seven days, creating 49 permutations, or gates, through which we must pass and make manifest in ourselves. Only when we refine ourselves by passing through these gates will we be ready to receive Torah on the 50th day, the festival of Shavuot.
This chart will give you the basic idea of how it works:
Week 1.
Day one of the omer is Chesed of Chessed—lovingkindness within lovingkindness
Day two of the omer is Gevurah of Chessed—discipline within lovingkindness
Day three of the omer is Tiferet of Chessed—compassion within lovingkindness
Day four of the omer is Netzach of Chessed—endurance within lovingkindness
Day five of the omer is Hod of Chessed—humility within lovingkindness
Day six of the omer is Yesod of Chessed—bonding within lovingkindness
Day seven of the omer is Malkut of Chessed—nobility within lovingkindness
Week 2.
Day eight of the omer is Chesed of Gevurah—lovingkindness within discipline
… and so on.
As you count each evening, meditate on how each concept expresses itself in your thought patterns and your life, and examine how you can perhaps elevate the way you respond to it.
There are many resources for an in depth exploration of the subject. The Daily Omer Meditation at Aish.com is a great place to start.
There are also free apps that you can download, that will remind you to count and lead you through the process.
OK, but what, exactly, is an omer?
An omer is an ancient measurement of grain. The Omer that’s brought to the Temple on the second day of Passover is the first of the barley harvest.
So what shall we eat?
Obviously, barley. Barley is a super-grain that’s often overlooked in this country. It’s delicious and nutty in flavor, tender yet pleasantly chewy.
I’m offering two menus that feature barley this week—a hearty beef and barley stew, and a roasted bell pepper stuffed with barley, beluga lentils, and other vegetarian goodies. Make either, or make both.
It’s spring, and that means that Whole Foods is featuring some gorgeous rhubarb. I am compelled to make Grandma Ethel’s strawberry rhubarb pie.
But first I’m going to start with a smooth and creamy carrot and ginger soup. The soup is vegan—it gets its creaminess from coconut milk.
Either entrée will be nicely enhanced by some sautéed greens. Use whatever looks good at the market, or whatever tickles your fancy. Feel free to combine several. One of my favorite mixes for sautéing is mustard greens, dandelion greens, and spinach. Just pour a glug of good oil into a pan, add lots of chopped garlic, and then add your greens with a sprinkle of salt. Bear in mind that what looks like way too much will cook down to almost nothing.
Once they’re nicely wilted, they’re ready to serve as is, but you can gussy them up with a splash of balsamic or other flavorful vinegar, some red pepper flakes—my personal choice is Aleppo pepper for its mild heat and smoky flavor—and/or some chopped nuts.
The market near my house is currently selling a mélange of colorful fingerling potatoes. I’ll leave the skins on, drizzle them with olive oil and garlic powder, and roast them in the oven until they’re tender. Some hearty fresh herbs, such as rosemary and thyme, will be nice here. I’ll chop some up and sprinkle them over the potatoes before they hit the oven.
The soup is easy and fast to make. Both the stew and the peppers take some play-time in the kitchen, but the sides are also quick and easy.
I bid you a happy omer counting!