It’s that time of the year. Since we are in Pesach (Passover), we at the Jewish Enrichment Center started to think about how we were going to count the Omer this year. The Omer is the period of 49 days that some Jews count between Pesach (Passover) and Shavuot. Pesach (Passover) is the way in which we celebrate the Jews’ exodus from slavery in Egypt and Shavuot is a commemoration of when Jews received the Torah at Mount Sinai. The Omer is a period of transition in between. It can represent many different transitions in the year, not only the Jews’ time of waiting to receive the Torah after newly found freedom.
One additional way of interpreting this time is that these 49 days move us through the transformation of spring into summer. And that is the theme we decided to go along with to create our Omer calendar for this year, 5775. We constructed a calendar out of black poster board and cut 49 flaps or windows that can be pulled back. Then, each child at the JEC painted a tiny picture with tsva’im (colors) that reminded them of summer or spring. Once we collect 49 of these fabulous little paintings, we will use them to fill up the calendar. Pulling back the pieces black poster board, we will reveal one new colorful painting each day to show the change of spring into summer. Our calendar will become more and more colorful as the days go on!
Here is an additional link to a previous blogpost about the Omer if you are interested in reading further.
