THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

TORAH PORTION

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Counting 'Omer' Constant
In Changing Jewish World

Friday, May 10, 1985

The Rabbi Moses Lehrman Memorial

Scholar-In-Residence Weekend
May 11 and 12, 1985

BY RABBI JAMES I. GORDON

Special to The Jewish News

Guest Speaker: Dr. Jonathan D. Fishbane
Historian and principal of United Hebrew Schools

May 1 lth - Shabbat morning sermon
Shabbat afternoon lecture 1:00 pm

Topic: Assimilation — An Historical and Contemporary Problem

May 12th - Sunday morning lecture at 11:00 am

Topic: Jewish Humor

Congregation Bnai Moshe

14930 West Ten Mile Road
Oak Park, Michigan
Phone: 548-9000

No Charge

The public is invited

JOMAR STATIONERS & SUPPLY CO., INC.

1121 Rochester Road •Troy, Michigan 48084
Phone (313) 585-3420

This early 18th Century parchment scroll was used during the counting
of the omer.

"And you shall count for yourse-
lves from the morrow of the day of
rest, from the day that you
brought the omer (sheaf) of wav-
ing, seven complete weeks shall
they be." (Leviticus 23:15).
The seven-week interval be-
tween Passover and Shavout, the
time designated for the counting
of the omer is a significant one in
the Jewish calendar. This is the
period when Jews traditionally
express their personal' ties with
the Jewish historical epic. This is

Emor: Leviticus
21:1-24:23. Ezekiel
16:19-17:14.

the time when Jews express their
solidarity with their community,
their sense of personal participa-
tion in the destiny of their people.
Since the inception of the count-
ing of the omer, these feelings
have found fulfillment in two
widely different moods. During
the period of the first and second
Commonwealths, the counting of
the omer was a joyous season. It
was a healthy, natural, normal
expression of national life.
After the destruction of the sec-
ond temple, with the advent of the
Diaspora and the beginning of 20
dark, brutal centuries of national
suffering that have continued into
the violent upheavals of our own
time, the period of the omer has
become the period of the sefira,
counting stark realities. The
stark realities of Jewish life took
precedence over a brighter, hap-
pier past.
The period of the counting of the
omer has thus ever been the mir-
ror of our national personality.
Our inward feelings, our inward

hopes and aspirations have al-
ways remained the same — it is
only our outward expression that
has changed.
It is interesting to note that
these attitudes, these 'affirma-
tions of one's relationship to his
people that are the substance of
the omer commemoration, are
manifest even in the very
mechanics of the process of count-
ing itself.
In the observance of the count-
ing of the omer, the procedure has
four requirements.
1) Each man must count for
himself. Each man must himself
affirm his bond with his people.
Each man must take his own
place among those who count,
must make his own explicit affir-
mation by counting, by remem-
bering. There are no proxies in
Judaism.
2) Counting, remembering, dec-
laring one's bond with his people
has no meaning unless it is done
completely. One must affirm a
bond with all Jews and all of
Judaism — with all of its past, all
of its tradition with its fate and
destiny. Each man must affect a
unity between himself and the
whole of Jewish life.
3) One must learn to count
aloud. One must learn to
with pride to declare
explicitly his total affirmation of
Judaism, with the stamp of dig-
nity, with the strength of convic-
tion and unflinching courage.
4) Such a man is capable of har-
nessing the power of faith — the
power that enables one to count,
to remember the past and to act in
the present, standing on one's own
feet. For only that man can stand
up who knows what he stands for.
Thus the procedural formula for
the performance of the mitzvah of
counting the omer is in truth an in
depth transference for shaping
the character of the loyal Jew.

29

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