Day 23: Gevurah in Netzach, Strength in Endurance
This week's Torah portion is Emor, where we read about counting the omer. This particular section tells us each of the holidays and the dates on which they fall. We're given a calendar date for each of them...except for Shavuot.
These are the set times of God, the sacred occasions, which you shall celebrate each at its appointed time: In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at twilight, there shall be a passover offering to God, and on the fifteenth day of that month יהוה’s Feast of Unleavened Bread. You shall eat unleavened bread for seven days. (Lev. 23:4-6)
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And from the day on which you bring the sheaf of elevation offering—the day after the sabbath—you shall count off seven weeks. They must be complete: you must count until the day after the seventh week—fifty days; then you shall bring an offering of new grain to God. (Lev. 23:15-16)
We could easily calculate 50 days from the second day of Passover and know that Shavuot falls on the 6th of Sivan, but God doesn't give us that date as God does with all the other holidays. Instead, Shavuot is deliberately tied to Passover by the process of counting the seven weeks of the omer. We count the omer from Passover to Shavuot in order to mirror our leaving Egypt/slavery and reaching Sinai/receiving the Torah. It reflects our movement from slavery to freedom, from the narrow place (Mitzrayim) to God.
Those seven weeks give us time to have the narrow Egyptian/slavery mindset stamped out of us as a people. God recognizes that 400 years of life in Egypt made an impression on our collective mindset, and that it will take time to change ourselves and our thinking. By forcing us year-after-year to count the days from Passover to Shavuot, instead of just putting a date on the calendar, God forces us to be conscious of the connection between the two holidays. Receiving the Torah is all the more meaningful because of what God did for us in Egypt and because of our journey through the wilderness to reach God. It is a reminder that our people endured 400 years of slavery and 49 days in the wilderness before coming into the strength of our relationship with God.
Those seven weeks give us time to have the narrow Egyptian/slavery mindset stamped out of us as a people. God recognizes that 400 years of life in Egypt made an impression on our collective mindset, and that it will take time to change ourselves and our thinking. By forcing us year-after-year to count the days from Passover to Shavuot, instead of just putting a date on the calendar, God forces us to be conscious of the connection between the two holidays. Receiving the Torah is all the more meaningful because of what God did for us in Egypt and because of our journey through the wilderness to reach God. It is a reminder that our people endured 400 years of slavery and 49 days in the wilderness before coming into the strength of our relationship with God.
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