Sefirat Ha’Omer – The Inner Count by Shira Smiles
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Sefirat HaOmer
Sefirah 5773/2013 – Print Chart and Sign Up!
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Harvesting the “Omer”
The following is the text of the RAMBAM with regard to the harvesting of the “Omer:” [Chapter 7: "Laws of Continual Offerings and Additional Offerings"] “On the Second Day of Passover, which is the Sixteenth of Nisan, a sacrifice in addition to the regular Additional Sacrifice of the Holiday is brought, and that is the [...]
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Parshat Bamidbar: Desert Prose
Walk on the sands of an hourglass shattered. Bare feet blistered, bleeding as they drag on those little grains of a scorched earth. It is so cold, then so hot: cold because the heart is turned to ice, hot because the feverish mind is burning up. The paradoxes of this place make no sense at [...]
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Parshat Behar-Bechukotai: Heightened Sense
On Mount Sinai… Many metaphors hitchhike along the road that is Life on the hoarse-driven carriage that is the oft-used vocal cords of Language. Heaven and Earth, besides for being what they are, represent our lofty aspirations and pragmatic implementations; High and Low, besides for being notches on the vertical yardstick, depict ones feelings and [...]
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Parshat Emor: Per Say
Say to the… It isn’t easy saying it. Especially when it’s real. We met at one of those crossroads; you know, one of those that are more cross and less road. She was sleeping there. I was awake; thought I knew where I was going. Ha! In retrospect, what a foolish thought. Well, she was [...]
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The “Omer” Controversy
A sect, known as the Tzedukim, after one of its founders, Tzadok, believed in the absolutely literal interpretation of the Torah. Therefore, they said that when the Torah says “on the day after the Shabbat,” it meant “Shabbat” in its regular meaning, the Seventh Day of the week, and therefore, according to this sadly mistaken [...]
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The Omer Offering
What the Torah Says The Torah says, in the context of introducing the commandment of “Sefirat HaOmer,” the following: (Vayikra 23:9-14) “And G-d gave this instruction to Moshe, to communicate: Speak to the Children of Israel and say to them, ‘When you enter the Land which I Am giving to you, and you harvest its [...]
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Two Heroes of Sefirat HaOmer
Two great giants of Jewish History are involved in the observance of the Days of Sefirat HaOmer; they are Rabbi Akiva and his student, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. Rabbi Akiva is involved in the sad aspect of the Days, because, according to tradition, 24,000 of his students perished during this period. The reason generally given [...]
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Expressions of Mourning in Sefirat HaOmer
How does one express mourning during the Period of Sefirat HaOmer? There are a number of ways; let me count them: By not taking a haircut By not getting married (but to get engaged is OK, because Jewish Law views the supreme importance of certain areas of life, such as finding, with G-d’s help, one’s [...]
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