The ritualistic parameters and constraints that I select afford me greater creative freedom.” The omer binds the notion of Passover’s freedom to Shavuot’s practice of ritual. For the duration of the omer I became the proverbial ‘wandering Jew,’ and the drawings chronicle my journey. Using events of Jewish concern as a parameter, I created a drawing each day throughout this period. Each week is sequentially represented by a Star of David, containing seven geometric elements. “The seven drawings that comprise Sephirot are a ‘game piece’ that take my ongoing time-based work into an exploration of omer, the seven-week period between Passover and Shavuot. The case would be fitted with rods, and the parchment was affixed to those rods, in order to allow the user to roll and unroll the calendar to the appropriate date of the counting.Ī contemporary Omer calendar titled Sephirot, created by Martin Wilner in 2007, proposes a more personal way of keeping track of the counting. Delicate calendars, such as this one, were usually kept within a wooden case. Interestingly, although the Hebrew inscriptions are read from right to left, the counting increases from left to right as in a non-Hebrew text. For instance, the count for the 17th day (see far left column) reads: “Today is seventeen days of the omer, which is two weeks and three days” (as indicated in the Hebrew inscriptions below the corresponding numbers). Traditionally, every night from the second night of Passover to the night before Shavuot, Jews recite a blessing followed by the omer count. The number on the upper row is the actual day in the counting the number in the middle row indicates the amount of weeks that have elapsed since the beginning of the counting and the number in the lower row states the additional days past the number of weeks. The counting progresses from left to right, one column at a time. The illustrated section of the calendar features days 17 through 24 of the counting. In an eighteenth-century Dutch example, the numbers of the counting are decorated with exquisite tulips and a variety of birds. There are a range of historical and contemporary omer calendars in the Jewish Museum’s collection. In today’s digital age, many Jewish people may sign up for daily email or text message alerts as reminders to count the omer. ![]() Special calendars can be used for counting and marking the passing of time from the first to the forty-ninth day. The period concludes with the arrival of the wheat harvest on Shavuot. Agriculturally, an omer is a sheaf or a measure of barley that was offered at the ancient Temple in Jerusalem on the second day of Passover - the first day of the counting. ![]() The forty-nine days from Passover to Shavuot is referred to as the counting of the omer. ![]() Celebrating the gift of the Torah every Shavuot fulfills Passover’s promise of redemption. ![]() Symbolically, this time frame traces the path from the physical liberation of Exodus to the spiritual freedom attained by the acceptance of the Torah. 1999–85Ĭeremonial counting marks the seven-week interval between the holidays of Passover (the Exodus from Egypt) and Shavuot (the Feast of Weeks), which commemorates the giving of the Law (Torah) at Mount Sinai. Gift of the Oscar and Regina Gruss Charitable and Educational Foundation, Inc. Shavuot (Pentecost) (Das Wochen- oder Pfingst-Fest), 1880. Moritz Daniel Oppenheim, German, 1800–1882.
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