Sefirat ha-Omer • the Open Siddur Project ✍ פְּרוֺיֶקְט הַסִּדּוּר הַפָּתוּחַ

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📄 Scaling the Walls of the Labyrinth: Psalms 67 and Ana b’Khoaḥ

Psalms 67 is a priestly blessing for all the peoples of the earth to be sustained by the earth’s harvest (yevulah), and it is a petition that all humanity recognize the divine nature (Elohim) illuminating the world. Composed of seven verses, the psalm is often visually depicted as a seven branched menorah. There are 49 words in the entire psalm, and in the Nusaḥ ha-ARI z”l there is one word for each day of the Sefirat haOmer. Similarly, the fifth verse has 49 letters and each letter can be used as a focal point for meditating on the meaning of the day in its week in the journey to Shavuot, the festival of weeks (the culmination of the barley harvest), and the festival of oaths (shevuot) in celebration of receiving the Torah. Many of the themes of Psalms 67 are repeated in the prayer Ana b’Koaḥ, which also has 49 words, and which are also used to focus on the meaning of each day on the cyclical and labyrinthine journey towards Shavuot. . . .

Tags: 42 letter divine name, a red ribbon, acrostic, אנא בכח Ana b'Khoaḥ, anxiety, barley, captives, cyclical, Divine name acrostic, first fruits, labyrinth, Psalms 67, Raḥav, shalmah, walled cities, wheat

Contributor(s): Unknown Author(s) and Aharon N. Varady

In der Sephira | Prayer during the Sefirat ha-Omer, a teḥinah by Yehoshua Heshil Miro (1829)

“In der Sephira” was translated/adapted by Yehoshua Heshil Miro and published in his anthology of teḥinot, בית יעקב (Beit Yaaqov) Allgemeines Gebetbuch für gebildete Frauen mosaischer Religion. It first appears in the 1829 edition, תחנות Teḥinot ein Gebetbuch für gebildete Frauenzimmer mosaischer Religion as teḥinah №25 on pp. 32-33. In the 1835 edition, it appears as teḥinah №24 on pp. 37-38. In the 1842 edition, it appears as teḥinah №27 on pp. 40-41. . . .

Categories: Sefirat ha-Omer

Tags: 19th century C.E., 56th century A.M., German Jewry, German vernacular prayer, Jewish Women's Prayers, Spring, תחינות teḥinot

Contributor(s): Andreas Rusterholz (transcription), Yehoshua Heshil Miro and Aharon N. Varady (translation)

שִׁירַת הַדֶּרֶךְ הָרְחָבָה | Song of the Open Road, by Walt Whitman (1856), Hebrew translation by Shimon Halkin (1952)

The famous poem by Walt Whitman in its original English with its Hebrew translation. . . .

Categories: Sefirat ha-Omer, Travel

Tags: 19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., first person, invitation, Prayers as poems, prayers for the road, שפע shefa, Swedenborgian

Contributor(s): Shimon Halkin (translation), Walt Whitman and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Emma Goldman on “Everybody’s Right to Beautiful, Radiant Things” (1931)

A teachable moment in the life of Emma Goldman to reflect upon whether our practice is liberating or in need of liberation. . . .

Categories: Sefirat ha-Omer, Pedagogical Essays on Jewish Prayer

Tags: 20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., political and religious anarchism, first person, Freedom, Humanist, Jewish liberation, liberation, liberation from mitsrayim

Contributor(s): Emma Goldman and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

[Children’s] Prayer for a Youth Service during World War Ⅱ, by Lilian Helen Montagu (11 April 1942)

This “Special Prayer” for a Youth Service (11 April 1942) by the Hon. Lily H. Montagu (1873-1963) from the archives of the Liberal Jewish Synagogue, London, was published in, Lily Montagu: Sermons, Addresses, Letters, and Prayers (ed. Ellen M. Umansky, 1985), p. 351. April 11th that year would have corresponded to the 24th of Nissan, i.e., a day following Passover 5702. . . .

Categories: Sefirat ha-Omer, 🇺🇸 Brotherhood Week

Tags: 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., British Jewry, children's prayers, English vernacular prayer, World War Ⅱ

Contributor(s): Lilian Helen Montagu and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

אֶחָד | One, a song by Harry Nilsson (1967)

A Hebrew translation of the lyrics to Harry Nilsson’s “One” (1967) as sung by Aimee Mann (1995) . . .

Categories: Sefirat ha-Omer

Tags: 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., counting songs, English vernacular prayer, דע לפני מי אתה עומד Know Before Whom You Stand, loneliness, love-sickness, love your fellow as yourself, non-dual theology, פיוטים piyyutim, Prayers as poems, שכינה Shekhinah, זמירות zemirot

Contributor(s): Harry Nilsson and Aharon N. Varady (translation)

סֵדֶר סְפִירַת הָעֹמֶר | Seder Sefirat ha-Omer :: the Order of Counting the Omer between Pesaḥ and Shavuot

Each day between the beginning of Passover and Shavuot gets counted, 49 days in all, 7 weeks of seven days. That makes the omer period a miniature version of the Shmitah and Yovel (Jubilee) cycle of 7 cycles of seven years. Just as that cycle is one of resetting society’s clock to align ourselves with freedom and with the needs of the land, this cycle too is a chance to align ourselves with the rhythms of spring and the spiritual freedom represented by the Torah. . . .

Categories: Sefirat ha-Omer, Counting Days, Nirtsah

Tags: apprehension, barley, counting, eco-conscious, ecoḥasid, growing, growth, neo-lurianic, ספירת העומר sefirat haomer, ספירות sefirot, trepidation, watchfulness, wheat

Contributor(s): Lieba B. Ruth, Unknown Author(s) and Aharon N. Varady

מִרְיָם קִבְּלָה תּוֹרָה מִסִּינַי | Miriam received the Torah from Sinai, by Rabbah Rinat Safania

A summary of the lineage of the Mesorah, as it passed through generations of Israelite and Jewish women. . . .

Categories: Sefirat ha-Omer, Mussar (Ethical Teachings), Minḥah l'Shabbat

Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Avot and Imahot, Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism

Contributor(s): Rabbi Lior Nevo (translation) and Rabbah Rinat Safania

Days of the Omer 5784/2024, by Karen Levine

This is an updated version of a chart that I have been creating and sharing for ten years. This grid for counting the omer includes the secular date for 2024 as well as Hebrew dates and the sefirot associated with each day of the omer. More information can be found on my website. . . .

Categories: Sefirat ha-Omer

Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Gregorian, Jewish Calendar, ספירת העומר sefirat haomer

Contributor(s): Karen Levine

Stable Link: https://opensiddur.org/index.php?cat=1237

Associated Image:

"Sefirot HaOmer" by Aharon Varady derived from the color correspondences of Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, and the design concept of Lauren Deutsch. Each of the seven weeks and days of the Omer is represented by one of the seven lower sefirot: Ḥesed, Gevurah, Tiferet, Netsaḥ, Hōd, Yesod, and Malkhut, the creative emanations all the worlds were created and continually sustained, as taught in the cosmology of esoteric Jewish tradition. The first day of the Omer at the top left signifies "Ḥesed within Ḥesed." The circle below representing the second day signifies "Gevurah within Hesed," and so forth. The forty-second circle on the bottom row marks the 42nd day of the Omer, Yom Qeshet, Rainbow Day, which is "Malkhut that is in Yesod."

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established." –Psalms 90:17