When God began to create heaven and earth—the earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep and a wind from God sweeping over the water—God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
Genesis 1:1-3
In the Beginning…
Something about these first words of Torah—about beginnings—feels especially fitting for this moment in the Jewish calendar.
Each spring, we begin again. We move from Passover to Shavuot, liberation to revelation, Egypt to Sinai. And in between? We count—forty-nine days, known as the Omer.
The Omer began as an agricultural practice—each day, a step closer to the wheat harvest and the sacred offering brought to the Temple. But over time, it became something deeper. The Omer became spiritual, personal, and a daily practice of noticing where we are and who we are becoming.
The journey from slavery to Sinai wasn’t immediate. It took time to unlearn the habits of fear, time to build trust, and time to become a people ready to receive Torah. So too for us—these seven weeks invite us to move slowly and intentionally through a process of growth and transformation.
The Torah’s creation story reminds us that the world began in chaos—tohu vavohu, formless and void. But the Holy One didn’t leave it that way. With each new day, God added light, shape, and meaning. The Omer invites us into a similar process: to bring order and illumination to the places inside us that feel uncertain or unformed. To look at the raw material of our lives and ask, “What do I want to create with this?”
Rabbi Dalia Marx writes:
In moments of great stillness, when we contemplate things which no mouth can utter—
At that hour, let us deepen the insight that we have.
Let us look inward.
Let us lift our lives as if we were lifting a bucket from a well.
It is incumbent upon us to strive for self-understanding.
It is incumbent upon us to balance the forces working in our souls.
Each day of the Omer is a chance to pause, reflect, and lift something from within us. This is not just a countdown—we count up because this is a journey of ascent.
Just as God created the world in seven days, we are given seven weeks to shape the inner landscape of our lives. Week by week, we move from chaos toward clarity, from wilderness toward wisdom.
The Omer mirrors the rhythm of creation, inviting us to bring light where there is darkness, boundaries where there is overwhelming, and beauty where there is barrenness.
This year, we invite you to count the Omer with us through the lens of creation and recreation—not only of the world but of ourselves and our community.
Beginning Monday, April 14, you will receive weekly emails containing a guiding quote for each day—rooted in Torah, spirituality, and personal growth—and a question to carry with you. These offerings are meant to open space for reflection, guide our steps through the wilderness, and help us shape not only who we are but who we are becoming—individually and together.
Let these days be filled with meaning, intention, and discovery. We invite you to count them with us—with open hearts, willing spirits, and deep faith in what might be born from the wilderness.
So, when we arrive at Shavuot, we do so not only as recipients of Torah, but as its co-creators—having written it into our lives, our relationships, and the sacred story we are building together.
