On the second night of Passover, Jews begin a practice called counting the Omer, which enumerates the 49 days between the beginning of  Pesach and Shavu’ot. Along with Pesach and Sukkot, Shavu’ot is one of the Jewish calendar’s three major agricultural festivals. Just as the first day of Passover marks the day B’ney Yisra’el left Mitzrayim, Shavu’ot commemorates the day the Jewish people received the Torah at Mount Sinai. 

The counting of the Omer is not just the act of watching time tick by. It is more than the rote calculation of days. In many ways, the antithesis of counting the Omer is a prisoner scratching tallies on their cell walls to keep track of the “empty, homogenous time” they are forced to spend behind bars. The seven weeks leading up to Shavu’ot are filled with eager antici- pation of the ‘re-giving’ and renewal of the Torah. Counting the Omer is an act of spiritual preparation. As Moses said, “Teach us to number our days, so we may gain a heart of wisdom.” (Psalm 90:12) Let us unlearn the capitalist’s carceral idea of time as a homogenous void. Let us open our eyes and see the revolutionary potential of each moment. 

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יי אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם
:אֲשֶׁר קִדְשָׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו וְצִוָנוּ עַל סְפִירַת הָעֹמֶר
Baruch atah Adonai eloheynu melech ha-olam, 
asher kidshanu be-mitzvotav ve-tzivanu al sefirat ha-omer.

Blessed are you, who makes us holy with your mitzvot, 
and commands us to count the Omer.

Today is the __ day of the Omer.
 


haggadah Section: Hallel