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Sefirat ha-Omer

This is an archive of prayers composed for, or relevant to, the Sefirat ha-Omer, the forty-nine days of counting between the second day of Pesaḥ and Shavuot.

If you have composed or transcribed and translated a prayer for the Sefirat ha-Omer, please share it here.

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Sorted Chronologically (old to new). Sort most recent first?

📄 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.

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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 and Aharon N. Varady

יְחִיד עֶֽרֶץ | Yeḥid Erets — an ofan piyyuṭ for the second Shabbat after Pesaḥ and the Shabbat between Yom Kippur and Sukkot in the liturgical custom of Bohemia and Moravia

An ofan piyyuṭ for the second shabbat after Pesaḥ, as well as the Shabbat between Yom Kippur and Sukkot, recited in the minhag of Pehm and Bruna (Bohemia and Moravia). Signed with the name “Yaakov,” this ofan is of uncertain origin but has been attributed to R. Yaakov ben Meir, more well known as Rabbeinu Tam. Also included is Seligman Baer’s German translation, as well as an original English translation.

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Sefirat ha-Omer, Rosh Ḥodesh Iyyar (אִיָּר), Rosh Ḥodesh Tishrei (תִּשְׁרֵי)

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Acrostic signature, minhag bohemia, ofanim, פיוטים piyyuṭim, יוצר אור yotser ohr

Contributor(s):

Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut), Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation), Isaac Seligman Baer and Yaaqov ben Meir

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.

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Sefirat ha-Omer

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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.

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Sefirat ha-Omer, Travel

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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)

Courageous Faith, a prayer in the face of challenges known and unknown (CCAR 1923)

“Courageous Faith” is the thirty-eighth prayer found in ברכה ותהלה Blessing and Praise: A Book of Meditations and Prayers for Individual and Home Devotion (CCAR 1923), pp. 127-129.

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Sefirat ha-Omer

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20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., במדבר Bamidbar, ביתחון bitaḥon, אמונה emunah, English vernacular prayer, teḥinot in English

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Unknown and Central Conference of American Rabbis [CCAR]

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.

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Sefirat ha-Omer, Pedagogical Essays on Jewish Prayer

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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.

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Sefirat ha-Omer, 🇺🇸 National Brotherhood Week

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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)

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Sefirat ha-Omer

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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 piyyuṭim, 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.

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Sefirat ha-Omer, Counting Days, Nirtsah

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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 and Aharon N. Varady

Days of the Omer 5786/2026, by Karen Levine

This is an annually updated chart that I have been creating and sharing for 10+ years. This grid for counting the omer includes the secular date for 2026 as well as Hebrew dates and the sefirot associated with each day of the omer. More information can be found on my website.

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Sefirat ha-Omer

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

Contributor(s):

Karen Levine

הָרַחֲמָן לְכָל אָדָם וְהמְרַחֵם עַל־הַבְּרִיּוֹת | Haraḥaman for all humankind and all living creatures following the Sefirat haOmer, by Jonathan Schachter

A prayer offered immediately following the Omer count for those who find it difficult or problematic to simply ask for a return to the days of animal sacrifice in the Beit HaMiqdash, and who long for reconciliation, sensitivity and peaceful coexistence between and among all Jews and the other Peoples of the Earth (as well as all living creatures!), as envisioned by the Prophets.

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Sefirat ha-Omer

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21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., grain offering, HaRaḥaman, post-Temple animal slaughter, Temple restoration

Contributor(s):

Jonathan Schachter

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."

(This image is set to automatically show as the "featured image" in shared links on social media.)

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו׃ (תהלים צ:יז) · "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)

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