I’m John, the creator of LetsCountTogether.com. This site is designed to serve for my students and community. In 2022 I introduced Counting the Omer to my Hebrew class. In 2023 our group grew larger. This may happen again in 2024. So in anticipation, I create this site to provide an introduction to Counting the Omer as well as why and how. The content will increase during the Omer-period. I hope you find the site useful and you decide to join us in Counting the Omer.
We are a “Christian” community growing out of study of scripture. Although we are not a Jewish community, we know that Jesus and his disciples were not making a new religion, but rather they were very much working within their Jewish faith and community. In our attempt to make sense of who we are, what is reality and the world we live in, we found wisdom and answers from these ancient writers.
Our scripture is both the Jewish Bible and Christian New Testament, but also learning from the Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha and other ancient texts of those times. Respectfully, we understand ourselves as “grafted in” as described by Apostle Paul in Romans 11:17-24. We are not ethnic Jews, nor Israel, nor her replacement. But like Abraham we believe (Galatians 3:26-28) and we seek to learn and to be the best humanity possible. We read ourselves into scripture as Paul did (1 Corinthians 10:1-5). Scripture is breathed out by God for our “instruction, correction and training” (2 Timothy 3:16).
We believe the Creator God is known through what has been made (Romans 1:18-20). Hence God can be known through scripture that when read closely, carefully and respectfully, a non-violent loving God is revealed. God is the God of the oppressed although sitting high looks low and comes to deliver the downtrodden (Exodus 2:23-25). All nations are called to come to God’s House in exodus like Israel. There God will teach us to do war no more (Isaiah 2:1-5, Micah 4:1-5, Revelation 22:1-5). Humanity, freed from the endless cycles of theft, violence and war, will become the gardeners God always desired (Genesis 2:5-7, 15-17).
We believe that in Jesus, the son of Abraham, the son of David, the Son of Man, the Son of God (Matthew 2:13-15), this prophetic message and promise is reiterated. In Jesus the story of Israel and the Exodus are recapitulated and made accessible for all families of the earth (Genesis 12:1-3). In Jesus those outside of Judaism come to know the God revealed to Moses and encounter the Living Torah and the Divine Wisdom that was with God in the beginning now dwelling among humanity revealing God’s light and glory (John 1:1-18; Matthew 13:34-35, 17:1-8; Luke 24:44-48). Like Moses Jesus comes to save his people and all who believe in a new Exodus from oppression and death (Matthew 1:17, 21, 28:16-20). In his murder and crucifixion it is revealed what we know not what we do, specifically scapegoating. We have been living off the sacrifice of each other since Cain killed his brother Abel (John 11:45-53; Matthew 23:34-38, Luke 23:34; 1 John 3:11-18).
So as a community we cannot and do not wish to be the ancient cultures out of which scripture came. We cannot and do not seek to legislate ourselves with ancient rituals, prohibitions and ideas we know little about. But rather, guided by the principles of a non-violent God, a forgiving-victim, and “do no harm” we seek in scripture the wisdom with which God created and bids us request (Proverbs 3:18-19, James 1:5) so that we might be better humans that “love our neighbors as ourselves.” We bring to bear on our endeavor the body of knowledge and understand that humans have accumulated in the sciences, arts and humanities. Our mission, vision and goal is to foster non-violent loving, forgiving and healing wise communities that make “temples,” that is institutions where a knowledge of God can be found, where forgiveness and restorative justice is available to both “sinner” and “sinned-against” and where no one is left behind (John 10:7-11, 27-28).
In scripture, there are two fundamental experiences and paradigmatic events, exile and exodus. In between there is wandering in the wilderness. These are fundamental human experiences called migration. The story sets the stories of Israel’s exile and exodus within that of the human stories of exile beginning with the first parents Adam and Eve. The story of the Exodus under Moses is the paradigm for all divine salvation in scripture. Its themes, motifs and imagery repeat throughout scripture and give us a reading strategy and a guide to understanding human experience. In their story of deliverance from bondage in Egypt, there are so many lessons to discuss. When the people escape Egypt and arrive at Mt Sinai they are told to prepare for God’s arrival in the clouds. But because they are afraid, they stand far off and watch Moses enter the dark cloud. Moses goes up the mount where God will give him Torah, that is, instruction and wisdom. Moses is told to make God a house exactly as God shows him (Exodus 25:1-8). God wants to dwell and live among the people as God always intended from the beginning (Genesis 17:7, Exodus 6:7, Jeremiah 31:33). But after forty days of waiting, the people believe Moses is dead atop the mount. They demand that his brother/cousin Aaron make them a god. Here are some patterns and lessons. We don’t want a religion that produces a violent God and justifies our violence towards other. But rather, we want to be like Moses looking and listening for God’s voice to show us the divine nature and to guide us in wisdom showing us how to make better communities not built upon fear and scapegoating but upon God’s caring presence.
Scripture commands us to seek wisdom (Proverbs 8:10-11). Together we count the Omer, not because we were directly commanded, but rather because it is wise. “So teach us to number our days so that we may get a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12). We believe that in such daily mindfulness we will have the wisdom which was with God and with which God made the world (Proverbs 8:12-36). God will teach us how the world works and how to live in it wisely (Wisdom of Solomon 7:17-30). Counting the Omer corresponds with the Christian calendar beginning with death of Christ at the time of Passover. Forty days later, Jesus ascended into heaven (Acts 2:1-8) like Moses ascending Mt Sinai. On the final day, the Day of Pentecost, the Spirit descended upon Jesus’ disciples and followers (Acts 2:13). Fulfilling the words of Moses and the prophets, the Spirit circumcises our hearts and writes Torah upon them so that we will love God and love our neighbors as ourselves (Deuteronomy 30:6, Jeremiah 31:30, Ezekiel 36:26, Colossians 2:11). We welcome you to Count the Omer with us.
For our daily devotion the English Standard Version (ESV) is shared.