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Alexander A. Winogradsky Frenkel

May 26, 2026, 8:23 PM

The Omer and the Ascents

In Jerusalem, ascents never entirely end. They overlap, interrupt one another, descend in order to rise again, or remain suspended somewhere between stone and breath. One counts them not only in prayers or calendars, but in stairways, terraces, elevators,...

Michael Zoosman

May 6, 2026, 11:31 PM

Knesset’s Second Death Penalty Bill Debases Israel’s Lag Ba’Omer Revelry

The Knesset’s obsession with the death penalty in Israel once again collided with the Jewish liturgical calendar in yet another telling synchronicity, highlighting how that legislative body has upended the Jewish value of life. Many in Israel and across...

Lila Shoshana Chertman

May 1, 2026, 8:49 AM

Parshat Emor and the Counting of Holy Days

In Parshat Emor, God issues the commandment of the counting of the Omer. We are commanded to count 49 days or 7 complete weeks starting from the day after Pesach until Shavuot. The Ramban explains that the days between...

Sharona Margolin Halickman

Apr 28, 2026, 12:15 AM

The Mitzva of the Omer which is commanded in Vayikra 23:9-21 is explained in the Talmud, Menachot 64b: to bring the barley reaped for the meal offering from fields proximate to Jerusalem. If the barley did not ripen in the...

Shamai Leibowitz

Apr 27, 2026, 7:47 AM

24,000 Dead—Twice. Coincidence or Message?

Several weeks of Sefirat HaOmer—until the 33rd day ("Lag BaOmer")—are observed as a period of semi-mourning. It is customary to avoid haircuts, weddings, and other celebratory events. While these specific customs developed in the medieval period, they are rooted in an...

Apr 15, 2026, 9:38 PM

Sefira and Society

This title expresses the idea that the activity called SEFRAT HA’OMER carries greater meaning than just the process of counting the days and weeks between the second day of Pesach and the holiday of Shavuot. Because when we count...

Apr 15, 2026, 7:55 AM

Counting the Shape of Change

In the Jewish calendar, we find ourselves in the midst of the Omer—a 49-day period that began on the second night of Passover and carries us toward the festival of Shavuot, the moment of revelation at Mount Sinai. Each...

Shanee B. Michaelson

Apr 12, 2026, 6:44 PM

Learning, Teaching, and the Space Between

“I have learned much from my teachers and even more from my friends, but from my students I have learned more than from all of them.” — Rabbi Ḥanina (Ta’anit 7a) It has taken me years to understand the truth...

Apr 10, 2026, 6:36 AM

Between Sirens and Silence

We are not reading about war. We are living inside it. I bumped into some neighbours last night, one of those casual encounters that begins with a few words and a bit of catching up, but then shifts almost naturally...

Apr 6, 2026, 6:53 PM

What a Goldfish Taught Me About Freedom

Goldy arrived in our home just before Pesach. Not a grand guest. A goldfish. My daughter—no longer five years old, but a respected teacher in a prestigious girls’ high school—walked in carrying a small tank. “It’s the class fish,” she explained....

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