HEBREW TEXTS  .  HEBREW LANGUAGE  .  JUDAISM

During the second seder and on the first evening that begins the period of Hol HaMoed Pesach in Israel all congregations around the world begin the counting of the Omer. Historically, the counting of the Omer represents the commandment from the Torah to count 49 days between Passover and Shavuot. In Temple times, this occurred during the harvest and was marked by offerings made. Spiritually, we know that the counting of the Omer represents the 49-day journey of our ancestors from their liberation from Egypt to the moment they received the Torah at Mount Sinai.

Without a doubt this is a special Friday.

In Israel it is decidedly the last day of Passover, of a Passover that was characterized by extreme tension, which also kept those of us who live with Israel in suspense. A Passover of attacks or consequences for attacks.

The variety of values of the Passover holiday is enormous. Let's choose one to take with us on this Kabbalat Shabbat prior to Pesach.

One of the first concepts that comes to mind has to do with freedom. The history of the Haggadah and the Torah itself takes us back to that. And that awareness, which the Hag invites us to carry out these nights, this week, has to do with the colossal phrase "Each human being in each generation must feel as if he himself had left Egypt." Feeling, experiencing, weighing and evaluating this concept of being liberated—and then feeling that something changed in our lives for our own liberation.

We are beginning the month of Nisan, the month of freedom, the month of Pesach. The festival of freedom par excellence. The one that reminds us that we should feel as if we ourselves have left Egypt. The one that reminds us that for more than a generation, we allowed ourselves to be enslaved by comfort or by the “they will not attack me” and the SAME THING happened on various occasions. Our people sustained themselves in the midst of societies who were hostile to them.

“The Jews accepted and undertook, they and all of their seed and all who were joining them, without fail, to observe these two days, according to what was written, and on their respective dates; year after year. And these days are observed and celebrated in all generations, in all families, in all counties and in all cities. And these Purim days will never cease to be observed among the Jews, and their memory will not be erased in their descendants.”

Megillat Esther, 9:27-28