Counting the Omer, with Yona Verwer and Tobi Kahn

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Ernest O. Britton

"Omer Calendar | Saphyr" (2002) by  Tobi Kahn, courtesy Jewish Museum

Over the last 30-days, artist Yona Verwer has been tweeting about "Counting the Omer," a Jewish practice I knew nothing about. Today she tweeted, "Counting the Omer, a #Jewish practice this time of year. This blog does it with #art: day 30 of 50 Full Moon Fixing http://ow.ly/1LOTre," and so, I finally decided to check into it. What I uncovered is a Jewish tradition of verbally counting each of the 49 days between Passover and Shavuot (Jewish holy-days) that comes from Leviticus 23:15-16. I am grateful to Yona for sharing her faith via Twitter, and to Tobi Kahn for creating a visual image (above) that captures it for me.