Counting the omer

Upsheren. Lag Ba'Omer. Counting the Omer. Shavuot in the Community. Shavuot, Receiving the Torah. Featured Articles on Shavuot. Jewish Holidays.

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I know I don’t write about it on this blog much, but I love needle crafts and I use to be quite the avid quilter and embroiderer. Despite having not picked up a needle in ages, I still think of it qui

As holidays go, we're most accustomed to seeing countdowns at Christmastime. However, the days between Early* and Latter Firstfruits (Shavuot) are known as the "Counting of the Omer" (Omer is an old Hebrew word for "sheaves," so it's the "counting of the sheaves.") and

Discover creative ways to count the Omer from Passover to Shavuot with your children. Whether through crafting a colorful Omer countdown or introducing a 'Number of the Day' during bath time, here's how to make the Omer count an interactive and memorable experience for your family.

Color in the days as they pass - this free printable countdown calendar and progress tracker are so much fun - when it's colored in the big day is here! Use it to track progress (count up) - days sugar-free, diet calendar, or even to count the Omer (sefirat haomer). Use the countdown to anticipate your travels or to count toward a holiday...

Counting the Omer is keeping the commandment to count 50 days (seven Sabbaths plus one day) between the offering of the first fruits of the barley harvest (often called First Fruits) until the feast of Shavuot (Pentecost) (Leviticus 23:15-21). This year The Barking Fox is counting the omer with modern pictures of places named in […]

When the omer count finally makes it to fifty it's Shavuot! Then what? Here are a few ways you can celebrate this year. -Watch the wheat harvest. Shavuot is about the wheat harvest and celebrating the bread of life. Get in touch with a local farm or farmer to see when they will be harvesting their wheat, and if you can visit. Seeing cows and beehives would also be fitting. If nothing else, go for a drive or bike ride to see if you can find a farmer gathering their wheat. Usually the timing…

The special period between Passover and Shavuot is called sefira, meaning “counting.” The name is derived from the practice of counting the omer, which is observed from the night of the second of Passover until the eve of . The counting of seven weeks from the 16th day of (i.e., the second day of Passover), on which the omer offering of the new barley crop was brought to the Temple, until Shavuot, serves to connect the anniversary of the exodus from Egypt with the festival that commemorates…

Each day between the beginning of Passover and Shavuot gets counted, 49 days in all, 7 weeks of seven days. That makes the omer period a miniature version of the Shmitah and Yovel (Jubilee) cycle of 7 cycles of seven years. Just as that cycle is one of resetting society's clock to align ourselves with freedom and with the needs of the land, this cycle too is a chance to align ourselves with the rhythms of spring and the spiritual freedom represented by the Torah. . . .