On Torah’s sacred calendar, most every holiday begins either at the new moon or the full moon. Our calendar is in the sky, shining down on us every day.
There are two exceptions to this new moon / full moon calendar. One is Yom Kippur, for which we count days since Rosh Hashanah. The other is the forthcoming Shavuot, for which we count days since Passover.
Now we have printed (and digital) calendars, but we still count our days – for an important reason.
By Rabbi David Evan Markus
Emor 5786 (2026)
This week’s Torah portion lays out Judaism’s original sacred calendar, which continues to flow through Jews worldwide year after year:
Shabbat, Passover, Shavuot (at first an agricultural festival), Rosh Hashanah (Day of Remembrance), Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret / Simhat Torah (reboot of the year) (Lev. 23-24).After Judaism’s first 1,500 years, this calendar expanded to enfold Hanukkah and Purim, Tisha b’Av (after the Temple’s destruction), and most recently the peoplehood commemorations of Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), Yom HaZikaron (Israeli Memorial Day) and Yom Ha’Atzmaut (Israeli Independence Day). To this day, Torah’s original holidays still anchor Judaism’s sacred calendar exactly when Torah first laid them out 3,500 years ago.
Shabbat is a class of her own – each week, a sacred time for rest, spirituality and re-ensouling. Each of the others is a מוֹעֵד (mo’eid), an annual sacred gathering on which each of us is an עֵד (eid), a witness to the sacred moving through time in the particular way of that mo’eid.
Each mo’eid, with two exceptions, begins either at the new moon or the full moon. Our calendar is in the sky, shining down on us. The two exceptions are Yom Kippur, for which we count days since Rosh Hashanah, and the forthcoming festival of Shavuot, for which we count days since Passover.
At first blush, Yom Kippur and Shavuot seem to have nothing in common. After all, the Day of Atonement enfolds solemnity, while Shavuot is a celebration of Torah and abundance. What unites them is that both holidays are culminations dedicated to a spiritual alchemy of self-improvement.
Yom Kippur culminates the Days of Awe (a.k.a. Days of Repentance) that began at Rosh Hashanah, itself following a 49-day process of introspection and teshuvah that began at Tisha b’Av. (That’s why each year I teach a seven-week High Holy Day prep series: it’s a process.) As for Shavuot, this week’s Torah portion reads (Lev. 23:15-16):
| וּסְפַרְתֶּ֤ם לָכֶם֙ מִמָּחֳרַ֣ת הַשַּׁבָּ֔ת מִיּוֹם֙ הֲבִ֣יאֲכֶ֔ם אֶת־עֹ֖מֶר הַתְּנוּפָ֑ה שֶׁ֥בַע שַׁבָּת֖וֹת תְּמִימֹ֥ת תִּהְיֶֽינָה׃ עַ֣ד מִֽמָּחֳרַ֤ת הַשַּׁבָּת֙ הַשְּׁבִיעִ֔ת תִּסְפְּר֖וּ חֲמִשִּׁ֣ים י֑וֹם וְהִקְרַבְתֶּ֛ם מִנְחָ֥ה חֲדָשָׁ֖ה ליהו׳׳ה׃ | Count for yourselves, from the day after [Passover] until the day you bring your Omer [gratitude offering of the season], seven Shabbatot [of weeks]: they must be complete. Until the day after that seventh [week], count 50 days, and then bring a new offering to YHVH. |
We began this 49-day Omer count after the first day of Passover, and the 50th day will be Shavuot. Torah herself doesn’t tell us what to do with this count. Then again, Torah didn’t tell us what to do with the days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, either.
Medieval Judaism (1400-1600) imbued both times with the character-building focus now is core to Jewish life. The Omer count became a mid/late-spring reflection of the late-summer ramp-up to the High Holy Days – a time of introspection, clearing and preparation.
Both counts correspond to the sefirot, 10 energetic and spiritual valences linking divine infinity (Ein Sof, what my teachers called the “long-distance call”) to divine presence (Malkhut / Shekhinah, metaphorically the “local call,” as close as our breath). Some link the 10 days of Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur with these 10 sefirot to reboot creation.
Judaism does likewise with the Omer count, assigning the seven Passover-to-Shavuot weeks to a progression of the “lower” seven sefirot and a character trait linked to each.
Each week, we open our hearts to one of this rainbow of character traits as preparation to receive Torah anew at Shavuot. We count our days to slow us down and concentrate our inner focus. In Torah’s words, we literally “count for [our]selves”: we invest in ourselves, better our character, and thereby improve our lives and the lives of our loved ones.This week’s portion overlaps the “count” of Omer week 4 (netzah = Resilience) and week 5 (hod = Beauty of Gratitude). Take a bit of time to consider the health of your Resilience, your ability to move through challenge with a healthy balance of grace and discipline. Take the time to train your awareness on Beauty and your Gratitude for blessings big and small. (The weeks ahead bring the solidity of our Foundation and our capacity to be fully Present.)
For more about counting Omer, here’s a day-by-day list of suggested intentions.For instance, “In the middle of something hard you are currently enduring, pause and find three things about the situation, however small, for which you can genuinely be grateful.” “Begin your day by listing five gifts in your life you did not earn. Then let that list be the direct motivation for a generous act before the day is over.” With a bit of focus, we not only count our days: we can make our days count. We can stretch our souls, heal them, and open them to the continuing Revelation of our best lives that together we symbolize in receiving Torah anew.
David Evan Markus 