Counting

based on the teachings of Rabbi Simon Jacobson

Leviticus 23:15-21; Deuteronomy 16:9-12

During this time, we are supposed to be working on our selves. We are to see the forty-nine days as if we were ascending to Sinai.

After the miraculous Exodus from Mitzraim (Egypt), the B’nai Yisrael spent 49 days preparing for the most awesome experience in human history, the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai.  Just as the B’nai Yisrael’s’ redemption from Mitzraim teaches us how to achieve inner freedom in our lives; so too, this 49-day period, called ‘Sefirat Ha-Omer’ the Counting of the Omer, is a time of intense character refinement and elevation.

What are the forty-nine steps and how do I make them?

The following Seven characteristics form the basis for the forty-nine attributes if the inner man. When combined they form an order that elevates us to the level that prepares us to receive the Torah.

1.  Loving-kindness
2.  Justice and discipline
3.  Harmony, compassion
4.  Endurance
5.  Humility
6.  Bonding
7.  Sovereignty, leadership

Week One LOVING-KINDNESS

1. Loving Kindness with loving-kindness
Exercise for the day: Find a new way to express your love to a dear one.

2. Discipline with Loving-kindness
Exercise for the day: Help someone on their terms not on yours. Apply yourself to their specific needs even if it takes effort.

3. Compassion, Harmony in Loving-kindness
Exercise for the day: Offer a helping hand to a stranger.

4. Endurance in Loving-kindness
Exercise for the day: Reassure a loved one of the constancy of your love

5. Humility in loving-kindness
Exercise for the day: Swallow your pride and reconcile with a loved one with whom you have quarreled.

6. Binding in loving-kindness
Exercise for the day: Start building something constructive together with a loved one

7. Nobility and loving-kindness
Exercise for the day: Highlight an aspect of your love that has bolstered your spirit and enriched your life…and celebrate.

Week Two JUSTICE, DISCIPLINE, RESTRAINT, AWE

8. Loving-kindness in Discipline
Exercise for the day: Before you criticize someone today, think twice: Is it out of concern and love?

9. Discipline in Discipline
Exercise for the day: Make a detailed plan for spending your day and at the end of the day see if you’ve lived up to it.

10. Compassion in Discipline
Exercise for the day: Be compassionate to someone you have reproached.

11. Endurance in Discipline
Exercise for the day: Extend the plan you made on day two for a longer period of time listing short- term and long-term goals. Review and update it each day, and see how consistent you are and if you follow through.

12. Humility in Discipline
Exercise for the day: Before judging anyone, insure that you are doing so selflessly with no personal bias

13. Bonding in Discipline
Exercise for the day: Demonstrate to your child or student how discipline is an expression of intensifying your bond and commitment to each other.

14. Nobility of Discipline
Exercise for the day: When disciplining your child or student, foster his self-respect

Week Three HARMONY, COMPASSION

15. Loving-kindness in Compassion
Exercise for the day: When helping someone extend yourself in the fullest way; offer a smile or a loving gesture.

16. Discipline in Compassion
Exercise for the day: Express your compassion in a focused and constructive manner by addressing someone’s specific needs.

17. Compassion in Compassion
Exercise for the day: Express your compassion in a new way that goes beyond your previous limitations: express it towards someone to whom you have been callous.

18. Endurance in Compassion
Exercise for the day: In the middle of your busy day take a moment and call someone who needs a compassionate word. Defend someone who is in need of sympathy even if it’s not a popular position.

19. Humility in Compassion
Exercise for the day: Express compassion in an anonymous fashion, not taking any personal credit.

20. Bonding in Compassion
Exercise for the day: Ensure that something eternal is built as a result of your compassion.

21. Nobility in Compassion
Exercise for the day: Rather than just giving charity, help the needy help themselves in a fashion that strengthens their dignity.

Week Four ENDURANCE

22. Loving-kindness in Endurance
Exercise for the day: When fighting for something you believe in, pause a moment to ensure that it is accomplished in a loving manner.

23. Discipline in Endurance
Exercise for the day: Break one bad habit today.

24. Compassion in Endurance
Exercise for the day: Be patient and listen to someone who usually makes you impatient.

25. Endurance in Endurance
Exercise for the day: Commit yourself to developing a new good habit.

26. Humility in Endurance
Exercise for the day: When you awake, acknowledge God for giving you a soul with the extraordinary power and versatility to endure despite trying challenges. This will allow you to draw energy and strength for the entire day.

27. Bonding in Endurance
Exercise for the day: To ensure the endurance of your new resolution, bond with it immediately. This can be assured by promptly actualizing your resolution in some constructive deed or committing yourself to another.

28. Nobility in Endurance
Exercise for the day: Fight for a dignified cause.

Week Five HUMILITY

29. Loving-kindness in Humility
Exercise for the day: Before praying with humility and acknowledgment of God, give some charity. It will enhance your prayers.

30. Discipline in Humility
Exercise for the day: Focus in on your reluctance to commit in a given area to see if it originates from a healthy, humble place.

31. Compassion in Humility
Exercise for the day: Express a humble feeling in an act of compassion.

32. Endurance in Humility
Exercise for the day: Demonstrate the strength of your humility by initiating or actively participating in a good cause.

33. Humility in Humility
Exercise for the day: Be humble just for its own sake.

34. Bonding in Humility
Exercise for the day: Use your humility to build something lasting.

35. Nobility in Humility
Exercise for the day: Teach someone how humility and modesty enhance human dignity.

Week Six BONDING

36. Loving-kindness of Bonding
Exercise for the day: Demonstrate the bond you have with your child or friend through an act of love.

37. Discipline of Bonding
Exercise for the day: Review the discipline in your bonding experiences to see if it needs adjustment.

38. Compassion in Bonding
Exercise for the day: Offer help and support in dealing with an ordeal of someone with whom you have bonded.

39. Endurance in Bonding
Exercise for the day: Demonstrate the endurance level of your bonding by confronting a challenge that obstructs the bond.

40. Humility of Bonding
Exercise for the day: When praying acknowledge God specifically for helping you bond with others.

41. Bonding in Bonding
Exercise for the day: Begin bonding with a new person or experience you love by committing designated time each day or week to spend together constructively.

42. Nobility in Bonding
Exercise for the day: Emphasize and highlight the strengths of the one with whom you bond.

Week Seven SOVEREIGNTY, LEADERSHIP

43. Loving-kindness in Nobility
Exercise for the day: Do something kind for your subordinates

44. Discipline in Nobility
Exercise for the day: Before taking an authoritative position on any given issue, pause and reflect if you have the right and the ability to exercise authority in this situation.

45. Compassion in Nobility
Exercise for the day: Review an area where you wield authority and see if you can polish it up and increase its effectiveness by curtailing excesses and consolidating forces.

46. Endurance in Nobility
Exercise for the day: Act on something that you believe in but have until now been tentative about. Take the leap and just do it!

47. Humility in Nobility
Exercise for the day: Acknowledge God for creating you with personal dignity

48. Bonding in Nobility
Exercise for the day: Actualize your sovereignty by intensifying your bond with a close one.

49. Nobility in Nobility
Exercise for the day: Take a moment and concentrate on yourself, on your true inner self, not on your performance and how you project to others; and be at peace with yourself knowing that God created a very special person which is you.

After the 49 days of counting the Omer, after having fully achieved inner renewal by merit of having assessed and developed each of our 49 attributes, we arrive at the fiftieth day. On this day, we celebrate the Festival of Shavuot, the giving of the Torah (Matan Torah). After we have accomplished all we can through our own initiative, then we are worthy to receive a gift (matan) from above which we could not have achieved with our own limited faculties. We receive the ability to reach and touch the Divine; not only to be cultivated human beings who have refined all of our personal characteristics, but divine human beings who are capable of expressing ourselves above and beyond the definitions and limitations of our beings.