Counting the Omer: Cycles of Seven

Who knows seven? I know seven: seven are the days of the week, six are the orders of the Mishnah, five are the books of the Torah, four are the mothers, three are the fathers, two are the tablets of the covenant, One is our God in the heavens and the earth.

(15) 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: (16) you must count until the day after the seventh week—fifty days; then you shall bring an offering of new grain to ה'. (17) You shall bring from your settlements two loaves of bread as an elevation offering; each shall be made of two-tenths of a measure of choice flour, baked after leavening, as first fruits to ה'.

(8) You shall count off seven weeks of years—seven times seven years—so that the period of seven weeks of years gives you a total of forty-nine years.

It is a positive commandment to count seven complete weeks from the day the omer is brought, as [Leviticus 23:15] states: "And from the day after the Sabbath, you shall count... seven weeks."

It is a mitzvah to count the days together with the weeks, as [ibid.:15] states: "You shall count 50 days."...

Description at Sefaria: Chovat HaTalmidim (lit. 'Students' Obligation') is an ethical work and self-development guide for young students, authored by the Piaseczno rebbe, R. Kalonymos Kalman Shapira. It is the only work that was published during his lifetime and has become a standard textbook in contemporary yeshivot.

Composed: Warsaw (c.1928 – c.1932 CE)

If you don't know, have you not heard that there are holy traits and emanations (sefirot) above, in which the light of God and His holiness are encased, and through which He is revealed and acts in the worlds that He created? And if you do not know what the emanations are - since is not for your age to study the books of Kabbalah - do you not say in your prayers,

"Yours, LORD, are greatness [=גדולה or חסד], might [=גבורה or דין], splendor [תפארת], triumph [נצח], and majesty [הוד] [—yes, all [=כל or יסוד] that is in heaven and on earth; to You, LORD, belong kingship [=הממלכה or מלכות or שכינה] and preeminence above all.]" (I Chronicles 29:11)

And which one of you does not say after the counting of the Omer, "That which I have damaged in the emanation of kindness in kindness; kindness in power; kindness in splendor, etc.?"

It is from these holy emanations [Sefirot / ספירות] that the Holy One of Israel brings light within us, the people that is close to Him. And just like with the traits above, so too with the traits with which He has given us light - His will is to be encased in them and to reveal His holiness through them.

[For example,] the trait of kindness [חסד] inside us, which flows down from the emanation of kindness and supernal love - God's love for Israel, the love of the angels in doing the work of their Creator, as it is written (in the morning prayers), "and lovingly give permission, etc." - only holiness can be found there. So we should only use it for holiness - to love God, His Torah and the Jewish people.

And with the trait of power [=גבורה ], we should fear Him with true fear. And this is not just latent love and fear that a Jew naturally has in his essence for God - a love and fear that he does not feel, such that his heart does not quake nor tremble from them. Rather a person must at least make times to arouse his love for God with yearning and longing for Him, may He be blessed. He should pray, "Please, God, bring me close to You. Why do You hide Your face from me; and why have You distanced me from Your holiness?"...

Master of the Universe,..

So, may it be Your will, Adonoy, our God, and God of our fathers, that in the merit of the Omer which I counted today,

may any defect I have caused be rectified.

[Rabbi Sacks' siddur: ...there may be rectified any defect on my part in the counting of (insert the appropriate sefira for this day)....

May I be purified and sanctified with sublime holiness, and thereby may abundant bounty be bestowed upon all the worlds. May it rectify our being, our spirit and our souls from every baseness and defect, and may it purify us and sanctify us with Your sublime holiness. Amen, Selah.