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Sefirat Haomer written in hebrew in a wheat field

A Spiritual Guide to the Counting of the Omer: Forty-Nine Steps to Personal Refinement

A Spiritual Guide to the Counting of the Omer: Forty-Nine Steps to Personal Refinement

Jacobson, Rabbi Simon
April 14, 2022

“With the mitzvah of counting the 49 days, known as Sefirat Ha’Omer, the Torah invites us on a journey into the human psyche, into the soul.

 

There are seven basic emotions that make up the spectrum of human experience. At the root of all forms of enslavement, is a distortion of these emotions. Each of the seven weeks between Passover and Shavuot is dedicated to examining and refining one of them.

The seven weeks, further divide into seven days making up the 49 days of the counting. Since a fully functional emotion is multidimensional, it includes within itself a blend of all seven attributes.

 

… we arrive at the 50th day — Mattan Torah. After we have achieved all we can accomplish through our own initiative, traversing and refining every emotional corner of our psyche, we then receive a gift (‘mattan‘ in Hebrew) from above.

 

We receive the gift of true freedom — the ability to transcend our human limitations and touch the divine.”