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 2: Separating Land and Water
“God said, ‘Let there be an expanse in the midst of the water, that it may separate water from water.’”
Genesis 1:6
In the second day of Creation, God made space—between the waters above and the waters below. A firmament, vast and open, inviting movement, breath, and becoming. We, too, are invited to make space: between what we know and what we wonder, between the rhythms we follow and the dreams that call us forward. The journey through the Omer flows like water—sometimes steady, sometimes rushing, always shaping us.
Let this week invite you to pause, to take your time. Each question that follows can be its own day, its own ripple. Move through them slowly, like the tides, letting each one reveal something just beneath the surface.
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 2: April 21-27
Day 8 – April 21
Daily Quote:
“All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full; to the place from which they flow, the streams flow back again”
– Ecclesiastes
Daily Questions:
What part of your life feels like an endless cycle?
How do you navigate its flow?
Day 9 – April 22
Daily Quote:
“I will greatly bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars of the sky and like the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will inherit the gate of their enemies.”
– Genesis 22:17
Daily Question:
How do you see yourself as part of something larger than yourself?
Day 10 – April 23
Daily Quote:
“When I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that everything will change for the better..”
– Anne Frank
Daily Question:
Where are you looking for a change?
Day 11 – April 24
Daily Quote:
“Wisdom is innate in a man’s being, in his nature and faculties of perception, like water that is hidden in the depths of the earth. The intelligent and understanding individual will strive to investigate what is in his potential and inward faculties in order to discover and expose this wisdom, and will draw it forth from his heart, just as one searches for water that is in the depths of the earth.”
– Rabbi Yosef Sebag
Daily Question:
How are wisdom and water both mysterious to you?
Day 12 – April 25
Daily Quote:
“Even if our mouths were full of song as the sea, and our tongues full of joy in countless waves, and our lips full of praise as wide as the sky’s expanse, and were our eyes to give off light like sun and moon; if our hands were spread out like heaven’s eagles and our feet swift like young deer, we could never thank you adequately, Adonai, our God and God of our ancestors, or bless Your name for one thousandth of the many thousands or tens of thousands, the countless times that you granted good things to our ancestors and to us.”
– Psalm 121 (Mishkan Tefillah)
Daily Question:
What do you see as infinite as the sea?
Day 13 – April 26
Daily Quote:
“Water is the driving force of all nature.”
– Leonardo da Vinci
Daily Question:
What is your driving force?
Day 14 – April 27
Daily Quote:
“Just as water is forever-living, as it is written, a fountain of gardens, a well of living waters [Song of Songs 4:15], so is Torah is forever-living, as it is written, for they are alive to those that find them [Proverbs 4:22], and also come, buy and eat [Isaiah 55:1].”
– Song of Songs Rabbah
Daily Questions:
In what ways does Torah live within you?
How do its teachings nourish you?
