Daily Recitation and Meditation, adapted for “A Song Every Day”
Here I am, ready and prepared to count the Omer, and to make the Omer count.
It is written —
You shall count for yourself from the day after the day of rest, from the day you brought the sheaf of wave-offering; seven complete weeks shall be counted; you shall count unto the day after the seventh week, numbering fifty days; and you shall present a new meal-offering unto HASHEM. — Lev 23:15-16
— which tells us that Passover is just the beginning of a journey.
Aware that we are on a journey toward knowing God — from liberation to revelation — I undertake to know more today than I did yesterday about the workings of oppression.
I bless and count:
**Blessed are You, God, Ruler/Spirit of the Universe, who has sanctified us with Your commandments and commanded us to count the Omer.
[Insert count, followed by closing prayer]
In the spirit of the Exodus, I pray for the release of all whose bodies and spirits remain captive, and pledge my own hands to help effect that liberation.
**Here is the daily blessing associated with the counting, recited in the evening, beginning on the second night of Passover (Day One) and continuing through the night before Shavuot (Day 49) in Hebrew — with two forms of address for God — and in English:
A) (feminine address for God:) Beruchah at yah, eloheinu ruach haolam, asher kidshatnu bemitzvoteha vetzivatnu al sefirat ha’omer.
Blessed are You, God, Ruler/Spirit of the Universe, who has sanctified us with Your commandments and commanded us to count the Omer.
B) (male address for God:) Barukh ata YHVH, eloheinu melekh ha-olam, asher kidshanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu al sefirat ha-omer.
We praise You, Adonai, Our God, Master of time and space whose commandments add holiness to our lives, Who commanded us to count the omer.
[This translation and transliteration were borrowed from the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and from Jill Hammer’s Omer Calendar of Biblical Women at RitualWell.org. For additional text to accompany the counting, see Five Steps.]
This is followed by —
“Ha-yom yom…”
“Today is the_____ day of the omer, making _____ weeks and _____ days.”
"A Song Every Day" 