What day is today?
I feel like that question has been asked more and more in these recent weeks. With kids staying home from school, and many adults working from home, it’s possible that there hasn’t been much to differentiate one day from another.
But Judaism teaches that our days are not the same. And tonight, I want to share two lessons from our Jewish calendar that reinforce this inspirational idea. It also so happens that both of them occur tonight and in the days ahead.
The first is of course, Shabbat. By its definition, Shabbat is a day of rest. This distinguishes it from the rest of the week, reminding us that each day shouldn’t blur into the other without some kind of realization at the end of the week. It’s also a day to step back and to see what we’ve done. Did I have a good week? Could I have done more? Should I have done something different? In this way, Shabbat is akin to a mini Yom Kippur, a way to take stock of our lives and evaluate, and then bring those observations to our actions in the week to come. And of course, Shabbat forces us to be grateful and joyful. Regardless of how bad your week has been, there is Shabbat - an obligation to praise God for creating the heavens, the earth, and us.
The second lesson from our Jewish calendar is the period of time that started one week ago. Starting on the second night of Passover, we enter into the counting of the omer. We count the days, one at a time, and group them into weeks. After seven weeks of counting, 49 days, we celebrate the 50th with the aptly-named holiday of Shavuot, which literally means weeks.
Our tradition teaches that during these 49 days, we are supposed to work on ourselves, in order to merit the giving of the Torah on the 50th day. In this way, the Counting of the Omer is a Jewish self-help curriculum of sorts. During these weeks, there are 7 different qualities that we are supposed to work on. These are called middot. These are the English translations to those seven qualities: compassion, strength, beauty, power, thankfulness, mindfulness, and the present moment.
If you can, picture a 7 by 7 grid of 49 squares. Each square has its own combination of these qualities, and each day during the counting of the omer is assigned to that combination of qualities. For example, the first day of the omer is hesed of hesed; compassion in compassion. The second day is gevurah of hesed; strength in compassion … and so on. Each week has its theme of sorts, and each day in that week contains the combinations of the other qualities with that central one.
That was a lot to go over in just a short D’var, but the point is this: The Omer forces us to look at each day uniquely. This is true even now … especially now.
Tonight, which is the 9th night of the Omer is a unique day that can never be repeated. And thankfully, the same is true for tomorrow, and the day after that … As the Psalmist says, It is important not to number our days, but rather, to make our days count. During these weeks that might seem to be filled with “sameness,” I hope that we are able to learn from this important message. Shabbat Shalom.
