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 two days, which is five weeks and seven days of the Omer.
Meditation
Exodus 20:15
15 “You shall not steal.
Devotional
What we call sin is best understood as stealing. Adam’s sin was theft. He desired what belong to God and rather than ask God for it, he took it. What he desired was the knowledge of everything, that is divine wisdom. But God gives wisdom and desires to give wisdom to all (James 1:5). Stealing is what we do that gets us in trouble. We engage in taking things all the time. Sometimes with permission; other times without. Stealing begins in the heart when we desire what belongs to our neighbor. Follow and chart where your desire is leading you. When we steal we are saying that I have become the person to whom it belongs. What we really wanted is to become that person. As children we learn boundaries and lines that separate ourselves and what belongs to us from what belongs to others. Things that are prohibited does not mean we will not have them one day. Often we must learn to possess them correctly. “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want/desire” (Psalm 23:1, Philippians 4:13, 19). Cain wanted the approval of God that was given to Abel. The woman who crushed her child wanted the child of the woman beside her. Our neighbors’ grass will always seem greener. Have you ever noticed that things we really want, once we possess them, we usually forget about them and move on to the next object we learn to desire from others. To help a theft, show them and help them possess what they want without harming themselves and others. To solve crime, address poverty. People with resources are less likely to engage in rivalry and stealing.