One last thing and then I will let you enjoy this fabulous G-dCast video. Starting on the second night of Passover, we say some special prayers, every night for 49 nights... until Shavuot. An actual omer is a biblical measurement of grain. On the second day of Pesach we were to bring an offering to the Temple of an ‘omer' of barley. There is lots of history behind this but in the interest of expediency (the video below is very funny) and actual practice, let's talk about what we do today for the Omer.
Every night we should say: "Baruch atah A-donai E-loheinu Melekh Ha-olam asher kid'shanu b'mitzvotav v'tzivanu al S'firat Ha-omer." "Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe, Who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us to count the Omer." (Thank you Wikipedia for having transliterated it already...)
Then we state what day of the Omer it is. The first day we say, "Today is one day of the Omer." Then on and on... When we get to bigger numbers, we say, "Today is twelve days, which is one week and five days of the Omer." I recommend using a counter to help you. I like Chabad's. One thing I love about this counter is that it gives you the Omer relating to the sephirot (the ten attributes of G-d... similar to the chakras). This leads us through these attributes and relates them to the day's count. The attributes used are -- Chesed, Gevurah, Tiferet, Netzach, Hod, Yesod, Malchut. Why seven and not ten? These are the emotional states. Here is a list of them relating to the Omer.
Questions? Just ask in the comments below!
The Passover Seder...With the Four Sons! from G-dcast.com
More Torah cartoons at www.g-dcast.com
A special thanks to G-dcast for the weekly parasha cartoon.
Talia Davis is the daughter, granddaughter, and great-grandaughter of rabbis. She directs the Jewish Portal at Patheos and manages the site's online community.
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