Shalom Chaverim,
I hope the blossoming trees and joyous bird songs are warming your heart at least as much as they indicate warmer (mostly!) spring weather. That we humans can sense the exuberant pulse of life’s energy at this season strongly and positively connects us with the natural world. Hopefully, at this season we feel more attuned to the unique – though ephemeral – moment that is each day.
The Jewish calendar, fittingly, is filled with special “yomeem” – “days” – for this season that focus our attention and give an overlay of added meaning to the springtime each year.
Earlier this week we commemorated “Yom HaShoah”, Holocaust Memorial Day. Next week (Tuesday) is “Yom HaZikaron”, Memorial Day in Israel followed on Wednesday by “Yom Ha’Atzmaut”, Israel’s Independence Day.
These are also the days of “Sefirat HaOmer”, the Counting of the Omer in which we literally count the 49 days, one by one, from Passover until Shavuot.
When else do we count days? This week’s Torah portion Tazria-Metzora, begins by telling us to count 8 days from a baby boy’s birth until the bris. Numbers of days to count for other reasons are also announced in the portion, none particularly pleasant (having to do with quarantine times for those stricken with skin ailments, for example).
We are, though, unfortunately all too familiar with having counted days of shiva and shloshim for our beloved family and friends over the years. Our newspapers give a daily count of how many days a war has been going on, or how many days remain in a ceasefire until the unknown after that.
So what or whom are we “counting on” during these days?
Are we counting quickly down towards the end of something, wishing the days pass more quickly? Or are we counting up towards something in anticipation?
Do we account the days with the perspective that Kohelet – Ecclesiastes – gave us: “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven”… That is, that each day is in its right time if only we could recognize it that way? Or also like Kohelet, who says, – וְאֵין כׇּל־חָדָשׁ תַּחַת הַשָּֽׁמֶשׁ – ein col chadash tachat hashemesh – “there is nothing at all new under the sun?”
Our morning prayer makes this grand statement of appreciation in praising God, who…
בְטוּבוֹ מְחַדֵּשׁ בְּכָל יוֹם תָּמִיד מַעֲשֵׂה בְרֵאשִׁית…
b’tuvo m’chadaish b’chol yom tamed ma’aseh beresheit
…in goodness renews each day the act of Creation…
If all of creation is renewed each day, then certainly you can be renewed each day. Perhaps the best reason to count days is in order to try to ensure that we make them count.
SHABBAT SHALOM and CHODESH TOV – may the new Hebrew month of Iyar (which begins on Shabbat tomorrow) be a month of health, goodness, and renewal!
Rabbi Michael Schwartz