Blessing
Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe, who has sanctified us with His commandments, and commanded us concerning the counting of the Omer.
Barukh atah, A-donai E-loheinu, Melekh Ha-ʿolam, asher qid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu ʿal S’firat Ha-ʿomer.
Count
Today is twelve days, which is one week and five days of the Omer.
Meditation
Exodus 2:16-17
16 Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. 17 The shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and saved them, and watered their flock.
Devotional
The life of Moses is the story of transformation across a series of houses: the house of Levi, the house bondage, the house of Pharaoh to the house of Jethro. Moses was nurtured and prepared in each house to deliver his people. Leaving the house of Egypt he comes to the house of Jethro, the priest of Midian, who has seven daughters who kept his flock. One day they came to draw water recalling how Moses was drawn from the water. They were attacked by shepherds. And once again Moses was drawn into the fray. He stood up and saved them. Moses became a deliverer that day foreshadowing the future exodus of his people from Egypt. Interestingly, there are seven daughters. Seven is a very important number in scripture. Seven (7) are the number of days in creation. Six days God worked and on the seventh day God rested. God created the heavens and the earth. Heaven represented by the number 3 and earth by 4. Together, heaven and earth make 7. Seven represents the whole and entirety of something. In Hebrew, there are 22 letters divided into 3 categories: 3 mother letters, 7 double letters and 12 general letters. The 7 double letters form a hexagon and a three-dimensional cube. The cube is like a tent and house that one enters. The seven daughters are representative of the house of Jethro, into which Moses had entered to be prepared by a priest to enter God’s like a priest. Are you ready to encounter God? We have come together to Count the Omer with the understanding we are going to God’s House at Mt Sinai. But along the way we are being prepared to meet God. Hebrews 12:1-2 and 22 says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God… you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering.” Each day we prepare for the last day of Counting the Omer, but God is meeting us each day to sanctify us as we learn to follow the divine instructions (Exodus 19:9-15).