The Jewish count-downs – Shavu’ot
The countdown to Shavu’ot is the 49 days of the Omer. Beginning on the second evening of Pesach we formally count the days that link the two festivals.
Not that this is the only count-down in Jewish practice and philosophy. Every time we are on the road to a culminating moment we count the days one by one. Like a little child counting how many sleeps there are to their birthday, we confirm that we are en route, and we declare where we have got to so far.
We have so many time-counts in Judaism – 7 days making up each week, 3 weeks linking the fasts of Tammuz and Av, 10 days starting with Rosh HaShanah and culminating in Yom Kippur, 7 years making up the cycle from one Shemitah year to the next… and so on.
Three things feature in every count – where we have come from, where we are heading, where we are at this moment. Where we have come from shows where we have been, where we are heading announces what destiny we hope for, where we are enables us to judge whether we are on the right track.
