I have always found numbers to be soothing. Something about the laws and rules of numbers
have a calming influence on me. I think
it’s for that reason that I find Sudoku puzzles to be something quite relaxing
to do and occasionally, in certain situations, I will count things in
rooms as a way of keeping myself calm.
It’s no wonder, therefore, that I’m attracted to the
instruction that we get in this week’s Torah portion of Emor, to count. In the Torah portion of Emor, we get the
first full telling of our festive calendar.
We’re given the festivals of Pesach, Shavuot, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur
and Sukkot. And for 4 of those 5
festivals, we’re given a date. Pesach gets
a date, Rosh Hashanah gets a date, Yom Kippur gets a date and Sukkot gets a
date.
But, Shavuot is left in a slightly
strange position where no date is given by God to Moses. Instead, the text says, “ and from the day in
which you bring the sheaf of elevation offering, the day after the Sabbath, you
should count off 7 weeks. They must be
complete. You must count until the day
after the 7th week, 50 days, then you shall bring an offering of new
grain to Adonai.” In this way, Shavuot
is not introduced with a date, but rather by a duration of time, from Pesach
until Shavuot. 7 weeks, or 7 sets of 7
days for 49, making the 50th day the festival of Shavuot.
In many ways, 7 is Judaism’s lucky number and so I like the
fact that we count 7 sets of 7 to reach the festival of Shavuot. But more than this, there is significance in
the fact that we have to count up.
Normally, when we’re excited for an event, a birthday, or going away to
summer camp, we count down so that we reach to zero and at that point, the fun
thing has arrived.
But for Shavuot instead we count up. The Counting of the Omer involves us each and
every day, numbering the day, so that we add days on days until we reach 49 days
and on the 50th day we celebrate.
Counting up reminds us that every day matters. That every day is significant and not
something to be taken for granted with only the destination in mind. The counting toward Shavuot reminds us that
the journey is equally important. And
this is so apt and appropriate for the move and transition from the festival of
Pesach to Shavuot. Our festival of
freedom from slavery in Egypt to our festival of Torah. Shavuot gives Pesach purpose. But we don’t just get that purpose
immediately, we have to work for it. We
have to go through 49 days to be ready to receive the gift of Torah. We count up, knowing that each and every day
matters and at the end we receive God’s most precious gift. As we stand together at Mt. Sinai as one
people accepting the gift of Torah.
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