The last day of Passover. But as we leave this holiday we look towards Shavuot. We actually read just a little about Shavuot, which comes 49 days from the second night of Passover.

We are told we should number our days. We are told that we should wave a wave offering. We are told that we should remain vigilant since the Israelites fell asleep at Mount Sinai. All of this so we are ready to receive the Torah.

Like the idea that each of us were free from Mitzrayim, out of the narrow places, each of us stood at Sinai. And we are standing there again, each year, on Shavuot. Shavuot is the wedding between us, the children of Israel, and G-d. Torah is the ketubah. As it says in Hosea, “And I will betroth thee unto Me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto Me in righteousness, and in justice, and in lovingkindness, and in compassion.” That’s the word of the week, lovingkindness, chesed. We’ll get back to that in a minute.

One of the ways we stay vigilant is to count the Omer. All of those 49 days. It isn’t easy. It is possible to forget. Shabbat was the7th day of the counting of the omer. Today is the 9^th day.

There are many systems for counting. You can just use a counter like this one. Some use a book, like we used last year by Rabbi Karyn Kedar. That one is now available as a set of cards and as an app you can download to your phone. Chabad also has a mobile app.

You can use a sticker counter, which kids seem to especially enjoy. My favorite one was designed by Sharon Cores who had kids puts stickers of feet on for each day as we “marched” through the wilderness towards Sinai. Others have used a calendar almost like an Advent Calendar where each day you received a Hershey’s Kiss. Another kid pleaser!

At Temple Emanuel of the Merrimack Valley, under the direction of Rabbi Everett Gendler we always planted winter wheat at Sukkot. Lying fallow over the winter and then beginning each day during Passover, Everett would cut a small portion and we would see the growth. At each congregation I have worked I have continued the tradition, reflective of the wave offering, and even in the hardest of winters, it also works, to the amazement of all.

There are Omer Counters with a particular theme. Rabbi Jill Hammer, my professor at the Academy for Jewish Religion has one that examines Biblical Women. http://www.ritualwell.org/ritual/omer-calendar-biblical-women In some circles, each day corresponds to a Biblical (male) character. In her counter, we get a better appreciation of many of the women.

Kolot, a progressive synagogue in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn is having different people write about anti-racsim each of the weeks, as an act of chesed and repairing the world. http://www.kolotchayeinu.org/Omer_Week_

Rabbi Katy Allen is continuing her commitment to the environment, a theme I introduced again last week talking about the intersection of Passover and Earth Day and our need as Jews to repair the environment. She calls herself a nature chaplain, and her congregation Mayan Tikvah does one each year about the earth. http://mayantikvah.blogspot.com

The blessing for counting the omer is “Al s’firat haomer, on the counting of the omer.”

In the 16^th century, the Kabbalists started counting based on the attributes of G-d, also sometimes call the Sefirot, which we usually read as part of the Torah reading on Shabbat Pesach but not this morning. That was indeed my Bat Mitzvah portion and they have been endlessly fascinating to me.

In the Torah portion, there are 13 Attributes of the Divine, The Lord, The Lord, G-d, merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness (chesed) and truth, extending kindness to the 1000^th generation, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin.

In the Kabbalistic world there are 10 Sefirot, Keter (crown), Hokhmah (wisdom), Binah (understanding), Chesed (mercy, lovingkindness), Din (justice), Tiferet (beauty), Netzach (eternity), Hod (glory), Yesod (foundation), Shechinah (G-d’s Presence). As you can see, there is some overlap between these and the 13 outlined in Exodus 34:6-7.

As Simon Jacobson says in his introduction to counting the omer, “With the mitzvah of counting the 49 days, known as Sefirat Ha’Omer, the Torah invites us on a journey into the human psyche, into the soul. There are seven basic emotions that make up the spectrum of human experience. At the root of all forms of enslavement, is a distortion of these emotions. Each of the seven weeks between Passover and Shavuot is dedicated to examining and refining one of them.”

We are on that journey together. As we count , as we journey, we are building holy individuals who make our holy community. It is about intention. It is about spirit. It is about love.

So the first week is chesed, the second gevurah, etc. Each day is the intersection of two of those traits. So the first day is chesed shel chesed.

What is mussar?

I think there is a another way to count the omer and that is by using the framework of Mussar. Since each week has a theme, according to the Kabbalists, can we tie them to the Mussar traits? That is what we are going to explore as a congregation as we “march” towards Shavuot as Sharon Cores would say.

In some congregations it is traditional to study Pirke Avot between Passover and Shavuot. This year, we will study mussar, one attribute each week. This is something that I am not an expert in. It is something that Simon and I, and Rabbi Steve Peskind and his wife Judy have been studying together, once a week for over a year.

What is Mussar? It was developed in the 19^th century Lithuanian Orthodox Jews as a way to look at characterlogical traits and master them for ourselves by being aware of how we relate to them or be triggered by them. The  term Mussar, is derived from a verse in Proverbs 1:2 meaning moral conduct, instruction or discipline. The term was used by the Musar movement to refer to efforts to further ethical and spiritual discipline. So that is what it is, a tool to self-improvement of spiritual discipline and ethics. A way to hold ourselves accountable in community. A way to strive to become like G-d, and G-d’s attributes like the Kabbalists counted the omer. There are many books within the tradition of Mussar, that include Tomer Devorah (The Palm Tree of Deborah), Duties of the Heart, and Orchos Tzaddikim. We will look at selections from them on our journey to Sinai.

Said Alan Moranis who leads Mussar workshops all over the country,

Mussar is a path of contemplative practices and exercises that have evolved over the past thousand years to help an individual soul to pinpoint and then to break through the barriers that surround and obstruct the flow of inner light in our lives. Mussar is a treasury of techniques and understandings that offers immensely valuable guidance for the journey of our lives.

If we focus on one trait a week, we will develop a tool of self-improvement. In fact, some people actually journal while going through a mussar class. But the Mussar movement was not alone in this idea. Benjamin Franklin did a similar thing. Each week he closely examined a different virtue in his journal. 13 of them. They are different ones from the 13 Attributes http://www.thirteenvirtues.com but a very similar project.

“I propos’d to myself, for the sake of clearness, to use rather more names, with fewer ideas annex’d to each, than a few names with more ideas; and I included under thirteen names of virtues all that at that time occurr’d to me as necessary or desirable, and annexed to each a short precept, which fully express’d the extent I gave to its meaning.” – Benjamin Franklin

So let’s begin!