13 Days of the Omer. That is 1 Week and 6 Days.
The clock at Buchenwald. Stopped at 3:15.
Thirteen Days of the Omer
Yesod of Gevurah
Bonding and Connection within Discipline
Sunday evening and Monday
Evening May 5 and Day of May 6
Yom HaShoah
“Did you know that the clock over Buchenwald doesn’t count time?” asks Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie, quietly. He hands me a yellow candle.
“I didn’t,” I murmur. “Not until just now.”
Rabbi Lau-Lavie tips his candle toward mine and lights it.
“My father was there. He was 19. His 7 year old brother, Israel, too. At 3:15pm on the 11th of April 1945, the American Army’s 9th Armored Infantry Battalion stormed through the barbed wire gates of the Buchenwald Concentration Camp in Germany. 21,000 prisoners were liberated,” Rabbi Lau-Lavie says. “Two of them were my father and my uncle. The clock is frozen at 3:15.”
I nod.
We walk.
The sun sets.
My candle flickers.
His candle flickers.
“My uncle says he held on for the moments when one of the Russian prisoners took pity on him and gave him a bit of jam to lick. My father says he held on for his little brother. Every day was another victory. Time counted at Buchenwald.”
Rabbi Lau-Lavie slips through the dusk, hands a candle to someone else, and lights it with his own.
Yesod within Gevurah, the strength and discipline that comes from connecting with the strength and discipline of those around us.
Everyone is walking in a hush tonight. It’s Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. Israeli lawmakers chose the 27th of Nissan for its proximity to the launch of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, Passover, and the Israeli Days of Remembrance and Independence next week. The memory of those who fought, died, and survived is held during this period of destruction and renewal. I wonder how many of those around me . . . they aren’t all survivors. That’s the thing about this journey.
A man’s candle has blown out. He steps closer to me, eyebrows raised in question. Of course, I nod. Cupping my hand around my flame, I reignite the wick of his yellow candle and in the light I recognize his face. It’s Sid Fleishman, author of The Entertainer and the Dybbuk and about sixty more books. His Avrom Amos wouldn’t be a dybbuk here. He’d just be a boy, and he’d be with his sister. Which means . . .
I look at the sea of flickering candles.
They are all here. Each of the children, all of their grown ups.
I stumble a little on the uneven ground beneath my feet.
I keep walking toward Sinai.
See you there.
How to say the blessing:
Choose the language that resonates with you the most.
Non-gendered Hebrew based on grammar system built by Lior Gross and Eyal Rivlin,
available at www.nonbinaryhebrew.com
Gender Expansive:
הִנְנִי מוּכָנֶה וּמְזֻמֶּנֶה …
Hineni muchaneh um’zumeneh …
Here I am, ready and prepared …
Feminine:
הִנְנִי מוּכָנָה וּמְזֻמֶּנֶת …
Hineni muchanah um’zumenet …
Here I am, ready and prepared …
Masculine:
הִנְנִי מוּכָן וּמְזֻמַן …
Hineni muchan um’zuman …
Here I am, ready and prepared …
All Continue:
… לְקַיֵּם מִצְוַת עֲשֵׂה שֶׁל סְפִירַת הָעֹמֶר כְּמוֹ שֶׁכָּתוּב בַּתּוֹרָה וּסְפַרְתֶּם לָכֶם מִמָּחֳרַת הַשַּׁבָּת
מִיּוֹם הַבִיאֳכֶם אֶת עֹמֶר הַתְּנוּפָה שֶׁבַע שַׁבָּתוֹת תְּמִימוֹת תִּהְיֶנָה. עַד מִמָּחֳרַת הַשַּׁבָּת
הַשְּׁבִיעִית תִּסְפְּרוּ חֲמִשִּׁים יוֹם וְהִקְרַבְתֶם מִנְחָה חֲדָשָה לַיי
… lekayyem mitzvat aseh shel sefirat ha-omer, kemo shekatuv batorah: us’fartem lakhem mimacharat hashabbat, miyom havi’akhem et omer hat’nufah, sheva shabbatot temimot tih’yena, ad mimacharat hashabbat hash’vi’it tis’peru khamishim yom, vehikravtem minkha khadasha l’adonai.
… to fulfill the mitzvah of counting the Omer, as it is written in the Torah: And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Shabbat, from the day on which you bring the sheaf of the wave-offering, you shall count seven full weeks. Until the day after the seventh Shabbat, you shall count fifty days, until you bring a new gift to the Eternal.
Gender-Expansive Language for God
בְּרוּכֶה אַתֶּה יי אֱ-לֹהֵינוּ חֵי הָעוֹלָמִים אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשֶׁנוּ בְּמִצַוְּתֶהּ וְצִוֶּנוּ עַל סְפִירַת הָעֹמֶר
Brucheh ateh Adonai, Eloheinu khei ha’olamim, asher kidshenu bemitzvoteh v’tzivenu al sefirat ha’omer.
Blessed are You, Eternal, Life of all worlds who has made us holy with Their commandments, and commanded us to count the Omer.
Feminine Language for God
בְּרוּכָה אַתְּ יָ-הּ אֱ-לֹהֵינוּ רוּחַ הָעוֹלָם אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָׁנוּ בְּמִצְוְּתָהּ וְצִוָּנוּ עַל סְפִירַת הָעֹמֶר
Bruchah at Yah, ru’akh ha’olam asher kidshanu bemitzvotah v’tzivanu al sefirat ha’omer
Blessed are You, Yah, our God, Spirit of the universe who has made us holy with Her commandments, and commanded us to count the Omer.
Masculine Language for God
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יי אֱ-לֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו וְצִוָּנוּ עַל סְפִירַת הָעֹמֶר
Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu melekh ha’olam asher kidshanu bemitzvotav v’tzivanu al sefirat ha’omer.
Blessed are You, LORD, our God, ruler of the universe who has made us holy with His commandments, and commanded us to count the Omer.
Count the day and week
Today is the _________ day, which is _________ weeks and _________ days of the Omer.
Today:
הַיּוֹם שְׁלֹשָׁה עָשָׂר יוֹם שֶׁהֵם
שָׁבוּעַ אֶחָד וְשִׁשָׁה יָמִים לָעוֹמֶר.
Hayom shlosha asar yom shehem
shavua echad v’’shishah yamim la’omer
Today is thirteen days of the Omer.
That is one week and six days of the Omer.
Sefirat HaOmer Blessing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8hCiPI1tMQ