Counting The Omer – Leading with Love

Posted on April 16, 2025

By Hazzan Jacob Sandler.

One of my favorite times of year is the counting of the Omer. We march on a journey toward Mt. Sinai to receive the Torah once again, and, just like the first time, we start by leaving Egypt. It should come as no surprise to those who know me well that the mystical interpretation of this mitzvah animates me like on other. The kabbalists pick up on the sanctity of the number 7 throughout the cycles of Jewish life.

The seventh day – Shabbat. The seventh year – Shemitah. The year after the 7th set of 7 years: the Jubilee! And so Shavuot, the festival of weeks, celebrates a micro-Jubilee. From the second night of passover we count seven complete weeks, each seven days. Seven is the number of completeness and of holiness.

Each week of the Omer takes us on a trip through the kabbalistic “Tree of Life” – known as the 10 Sefirot. The uppermost 3 are considered intellectual and separated from the lower 7 emotional sefirot. Each of the lower 7 sefirot are interrelated. So, the first week is a chance to examine Chesed from every angle. Each day we look at the week’s sefirah from the angle of the other sefirot. It’s a little confusing at first but imagine:

Day 1 – Chesed of Chesed, Day 2 – Gevurah of Chesed, Day 3 – Tiferet of Chesed and so forth.
By Day 8 it’s Chesed of Gevurah, etc.

The weeks are:

Chesed – Love, Kindness
Gevurah – Strength, Discipline
Tiferet – Balance, Truth
Netzach – Endurance, Ambition
Hod – Gratitude, Surrender
Yesod – Bonding, Connection
Malchut – Dignity, Leadership, Manifestation

And each day of each week follows the same order. I hope you’ll join us for counting the omer at evening minyan, where we will share brief questions for self-reflection that correspond to the daily and weekly mystical theme of the sefirot.

I’m always so delighted that during this Passover week, we begin with love and kindness. Surrounded by loved ones at seders and our community at shul, it’s a wonderful reminder of how much love is in our lives. And reciting Hallel each morning for Yom Tov and Chol HaMoed, we are reminded of God’s eternal Chesed too. The first step to making our freedom worthwhile is to spread love and kindness. “Let all who are hungry come and eat” as they say. May this week be a week to pay extra attention to the kindness we show and receive. And let’s make an extra effort to embody that love and kindness this week, and throughout our lives.