This Time Will Change You: Pandemic and the Jewish Tradition of Counting the Omer

This Time Will Change You:

Pandemic and the Jewish Tradition of Counting of the Omer

Introduction

I grew up celebrating Passover - the Jewish holiday starting this Wednesday evening, which commemorates the Jewish liberation from enslavement in ancient Egypt. I loved the food, the family, and the spiritual obligation to re-tell, year after year, the story of exodus (mass escape) from misrayim (the narrow place), until I felt in my bones what a miracle it is to be free. However, despite my technical freedom, I still experienced suffering - doubts about my worth, loneliness and fears about belonging, a raging inner critic. How could I have everything I need, but still feel so scared?

I hadn’t known about a second Jewish tradition - The Counting of the Omer - until a few years ago. The Counting of the Omer is a seven week process in which every day a combination of spiritual themes are considered. It starts the second evening of Passover and goes until the holiday of Shavuot. It honors the time between the physical escape of bondage in Egypt up until the Jews received the Torah, our holy book and a general metaphor for intimacy with God.

The idea is this - Just because you got out of misrayim doesn’t mean misrayim got out of you. The physical conditions of bondage may have changed, but the internalized oppression lingers. It takes time, and active work, to become as internally liberated as we are externally free. If Passover celebrates the physical achievement of liberation, The Counting of the Omer ritualizes the internal process to get truly free.

One thing that strikes me about this ritual is that Passover only takes a week (for many, only one night) to celebrate, but Counting of the Omer takes over a month and a half. The process of internal transformation takes time! There’s no way around it. The you who begins the journey will not, cannot, be the same you who ends it. And you can’t force your way through it - the only move is to surrender to the process and let it do its work on you. People observe each day in a variety of ways, but the only thing you technically have to do is simply count which day it is. Literally - just notice that you’re in this process of transformation right now.

This time of pandemic will fundamentally transform us. The “us” that began in this global experience will not be the same “us” at the end. The question is - will we learn from it? Will we let this be a teaching, or will we try to maintain the status quo, return to business as usual, and harangue ourselves for not being able to “keep it together” like we used to?

My suggestion, as inspired by the Counting of the Omer - Let this time change you. It already is, might as well accept it. Let yourself be worked by the collective reality we are facing by gifting yourself the opportunity to learn from it. Humans are so resilient, and many of us are born into lineages who survived despite tremendous odds.

That means you don’t have to struggle to maintain things as they were before - in fact, the way things were headed before spelled disaster for our planet! One of the many unreasonable demands of the status quo is that things always stay the same. Let us put down our efforts to stay productive, purchase, or imagine ourselves as separate from one another. Let us put down the voice inside that says “you’re not enough, you’re not doing enough, what you’re doing is wrong.” That voice is internalized capitalism, white supremacy, and patriarchy. Just as the outer trappings of unrestricted capitalism are crumbling before us, let us crumble those internalized outposts as well. Instead, learn the lessons that are yours to learn in this time: The relationships that are being revealed as most important to you. Who are the most vulnerable in your community. Your fears, and your desires. What your basic needs are. How much you love and cherish life.

I have found poetry a powerful tool for honoring and noticing what is true. When I write a poem, my focus settles and I feel I have permission to speak about what feels most alive, not what I think should feel most alive. For this devotional I will share poetry prompts for the first seven days of the Counting of The Omer. Feel free to use those prompts for free-writing, dancing, creating an impromptu altar from found objects - any creative medium that would give you pleasure.

May you be blessed with health and protection in this time. May you know in your bones that your experience is valid and that you are not alone. May we collectively come out at the end of this time having transformed into beings too free to go back to the way it was.

To learn more about Counting of the Omer, google it to your heart’s content and maybe try this great book.

Annie-Rose London

Introduction

Finish reading this 8-day devotional in the app. Find it on the Featured shelf.