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 3: Land and Plants and Trees of Every Kind to Fill It
“And God said, ‘Let the earth sprout vegetation: seed-bearing plants, fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.’ And it was so.”
Genesis 1:11
This week, creation takes root. From the soil, life begins to rise-quietly, steadily, with seeds that already carry within them the promise of more. Growth is rarely instant. It unfolds in layers, often hidden beneath the surface. Some days are for planting. Others are for waiting.
This week invites you to slow down and notice what’s growing in you – not what’s finished, but what’s forming. Let each question that follows be a moment to pause, to tend, to nourish the parts of you still reaching toward light. Growth doesn’t need to be loud to be real.
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 3: April 28 – May 4
Day 15 – April 28
Daily Quote:
“Grant me the ability to be alone; may it be my custom to go outdoors each day among the trees and grass – among all growing things and there may I be alone, and enter into prayer, to talk with the One to whom I belong.”
– Rebbe Nachman
Daily Question:
In what environment do you feel most prepared to enter into prayer?
Day 16 – April 29
Daily Quote:
“When one plants a tree they plant themselves. Every root is an anchor, over which one rests with grateful interests, and becomes sufficiently calm to feel the joy of living.”
– John Muir
Daily Questions:
What seeds have you planted in your life?
How are you cultivating your personal growth?
Day 17 – April 30
Daily Quote:
“It is also written in Jeremiah (17:8), ‘For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, that spreads forth its roots by the river.’ In the book for Rab Hamnuna the elder it is called ‘Life’ because life issues from there into the world… We have also laid down that the great and mighty tree in which is food for all is called the Tree of Life, because its roots are in that Life… We have learned that that river sends forth deep streams… to water the Garden and feed the trees and the shoots…”
– The Zohar
Daily Question:
What nourishment do you seek for your soul?
Day 18 – May 1
Daily Quote:
“Open, please, the floodgates of heavens – one floodgate! A cluster of swollen, moist clouds – for which all the seedlings are thirsting. Sent big drops, round and sweet – to the soil, the parched soil. Drive away the evil winds running about, and dry, rustling brambles. Make soft groundsel flowers sprout up for us, yellow as egg yolks, on the plates of the hillsides’ anemones smiling in the wadis, wood sorrel and tulip, among greenish retama bushes, and make the wheat stalks sprout, and the oats turn green, and let there be food for humans and beast, and grasses too for the sparrows so gray, so hungry – wallowing and calling out in the dust. Open the locked gates of the heavens. Send down big, sweet drops, upon the human heart and that of the earth.”
– Esther Raab
Daily Question:
How do you pray for sustenance, physically and spiritually?
Day 19 – May 2
Daily Quote:
“‘Meeting the expectations of the land’ – agrarians know the land, now as an inert object, but as a fellow creature that can justly expect something from us whose lives depend on it.”
– Ellen F. Davis
Daily Question:
How do you care for the world around you?
Day 20 – May 3
Daily Quote:
“When our tradition says not to look at a tree every day to see if it’s growing because you can’t see it happen, it speaks the truth about other growing things, namely us.“
– Rabbi Mark Shapiro
Daily Question:
What in your life is growing in ways you cannot yet see?
Day 21 – May 4
Daily Quote:
“One day, Honi was walking along the road when he saw a certain man planting a carob tree. Ḥoni said to him: This tree, after how many years will it bear fruit? The man said to him: It will not produce fruit until seventy years have passed. Ḥoni said to him: Is it obvious to you that you will live seventy years, that you expect to benefit from this tree? He said to him: That man himself found a world full of carob trees. Just as my ancestors planted for me, I too am planting for my descendants.”
– Taanit 23a
Daily Question:
How do you honor what was planted for you?
