counting the omer

rise and recite:

Praised are you, Our God, King of the Universe whose mitzvot add holiness ro our lives and who gave us the mitzvah of counting the Omer.

Deuteronomy 16:9–12:

9 Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee; from the time the sickle is first put to the standing corn shalt thou begin to number seven weeks.

10 And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks unto the LORD thy God after the measure of the freewill-offering of thy hand, which thou shalt give, according as the LORD thy God blesseth thee. 11 And thou shalt rejoice before the LORD thy God, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, and the Levite that is within thy gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are in the midst of thee, in the place which the LORD thy God shall choose to cause His name to dwell there.

12 And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt; and thou shalt observe and do these statutes.

In Kabbalah, each of the seven weeks of the Omer-counting is associated with one of the seven lower sefirot:

Chesed (loving-kindness), Gevurah (might), Tipheret (beauty), Netzach (victory), Hod (acknowledgment),  Yesod (foundation), Malchut (kingdom).


haggadah Section: Nirtzah