The Omer is the 49-day period between the celebration of Passover and the Festival of Shavuot. 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.
You will receive a weekly email with guiding quotes 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.
Week 1: Separating Light and Darkness
“God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness.”
Genesis 1:4
Many journeys begin in the dark. Just like creation began with chaos and shadow, so too does our journey through the Omer. We don’t start with full clarity or understanding—we begin with noticing.
On the very first day of creation, God doesn’t erase the darkness. Instead, God makes space for both darkness and light. Only then does The Holy One separate them, naming each as part of the whole. There’s a gentle wisdom in that order: first, presence. Then, discernment.
This first week of the Omer invites us to follow that same path. To start by paying attention—to the parts of our lives that feel bright and full, and to the parts that still feel shadowed or unsure. Not to judge. Just to see. To notice what’s stirring in us, what’s taking shape.
Let us wonder: what is the light within us? Where might we turn to find more? How might we carry it forward, one step at a time?
We hope you enjoy this video of our cantorial team singing about counting the Omer.
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ אֱלֹהֵֽינוּ מֶֽלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָֽׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו, וְצִוָּֽנוּ עַל סְפִירַת הָעֹֽמֶר
Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu Melekh ha’Olam asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tizivanu al sefirat ha’omer.
Blessed are you, Adonai our God, Sovereign of the Universe, who has sanctified us with your commandments and commanded us to count the omer.
Daily Quotes and Questions
Week 1: April 14 -20
Day 1 – April 14
Daily Quote:
“On January 18, 1915, six months into the First World War, as all Europe was convulsed by killing and dying, Virginia Woolf wrote in her journal, “The future is dark, which is on the whole, the best thing the future can be, I think.” Dark, she seems to say, as in inscrutable, not as in terrible. We often mistake one for the other. Or we transform the future’s unknowability into something certain, the fulfillment of all our dream, the place beyond which this is no way forward.”
– Rebecca Solnit
Daily Questions:
Where are you now, beginning your Omer practice?
How does the unknown shape your journey?
Day 2 – April 15
Daily Quote:
“A prayer at night can help us embrace sleep instead of fighting it. It can help us to learn from darkness instead of fearing it. It can bring comfort to our minds and hearts. It can transform our worries into awe, our tension into trust, our restlessness into peace.”
– Rabbi Naomi Levy
Daily Questions:
What will bring you comfort through this personal journey?
How might embracing darkness help you find peace?
Day 3 – April 16
Daily Quote:
“The dark does not destroy the light; it defines it. It’s our fear of the dark that casts our joy into the shadows.”
– Brene Brown
Daily Questions:
In what ways do you define light and darkness?
How do your struggles illuminate your strengths?
Day 4 – April 17
Daily Quote:
“The flame of a candle may be small, but it can ignite thousands of others without diminishing its own.”
– Rabbi Simcha Bunim of Peshishcha
Daily Question:
What is your unique light, and how can you share it with the world?
Day 5 – April 18
Daily Quote:
“The Talmud teaches that the days of our lives properly begin with darkness and move to daylight. And thus all genuine creating must originate in the darkness. All transformation must commence during the night… You cannot predict what will happen in the darkness. Now there is a paradox in this image of darkness, unconscious and self, for it is precisely from these ways of being that humanity senses a source of the greatest light.”
– Rabbi Lawrence Kushner
Daily Questions:
How could the brightest light come from the darkness?
Why would it not come from the sun?
Day 6 – April 19
Daily Quote:
“We perceive God by means of that light that He sends down unto us, wherefore the Psalmist says, “In Thy light shall we see light” (Ps. 36:9): so God looks down upon us through that same light, and is always with us beholding and watching us on account of this light. “Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him?””
– Maimonides
Daily Questions:
Where do you look for, and find, light?
How do you experience God’s presence in your life?
Day 7 – April 20
Daily Quote:
“Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart…” (Psalm 97:11-12) What if, in the tradition of the rabbis, we changed one word to reexplore the meaning? Instead of “…for the righteous…” use “…by the righteous…””
– Alden Solovy
Daily Question:
How do you imagine bringing light into the world?
