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 forty days, which is five weeks and five days of the Omer.
Meditation
Exodus 20:17
17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”
Devotional
The secret to human nature is revealed in the last commandment, but it is actually the first commandment. The history of Israel (and humanity) since Abraham (and Adam) have been moving from house to house, from slavery to freedom and back again. The reason lies in these words of God in Exodus 20:17. The nature of human desire is the secret. Human desire is imitated, mediated, borrowed and shared (Look up Rene Girard and his theory of Mimetic Desire and the Scapegoat Mechanism). We learn what to desire from others (our parents, siblings, friends, neighbors, nations). We share the same objects of desire. Desire is good because it makes culture, that is, shared values, beliefs and ways of life. But desire is also problematic because shared objects of desire lead to human rivalry, competition, violence, war and murder. This the divine revelation of the commandments beginning with verse 17. The human problem is human violence. From this God is saving the world (Isaiah 2:1-5; Micah 4:1-5; Revelation 22:1-5). Human conflict arises because we desire what belongs to our neighbor. Cain murdered Abel. Human desires that lead to rivalry if not managed can lead to war (James 4:1-3). God is teaching us to respect what belongs to the others, both material and immaterial possessions. How we treat our neighbor is how we will treat God. “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:17-18). Obedience is better than sacrifice.