The Sefirah

Time is central to many mitzvot and elements of Jewish life.  We pray at specific times of day, the holidays are called moadim which means “times”, and seasons of year even have specific textures relating to their holidays, such as freedom, introspection, joy, etc.  

When we think about what time is though, we are at a loss for definitions.   Augustine of Hippo said, “If nobody asks me, I know what time is, but if I am asked then I am at a loss of what to say.”  

Time itself is perplexing because we only live in the present.  The past and the future, are abstractions: “Although we tell of past things as true, they are drawn out of the memory, not the things themselves, which have already passed, but words constructed from the images of the perceptions which were formed in the mind…Future events, therefore, are not yet. And if they are not yet, they do not exist. And if they do not exist, they cannot be seen at all…” (Augustine, Confessions 18:24)

The counting of the Omer though, is the epitome of structured time.  We make  a blessing every day on the counting of the omer because each day is its own mitzvah, but if this is so, why when we miss a day are we not permitted to keep counting with a blessing?  Rabbi Solovetchik suggested it is because if we miss a day, the idea that the next day is ordinal, that it has a place in a specific sequence, becomes meaningless.  When we count the omer, the present is dependent on the past and on the future.   

No other holiday has a sequential count except Shavuot, which itself means “weeks”, the only measure of time which has no natural earthly correspondence.   Perhaps that is part of the idea, that receiving the Torah from the Divine puts us in charge of, and makes us responsible for, that which is most ultimately perplexing and Divine, time itself.