Today is (quite literally) the 33rd day of Omer. Aren’t you glad you know that now?

It might be helpful if you knew what the heck an Omer is. If you were Jewish you’d know. Those from the Jewish tradition count the days from the second day of Pesach (Passover) to Shavuot (Feast of First Fruits). There are 49 of them. These are steps to purity wherein one becomes pure enough to participate in the Feast of First Fruits. So, essentially the Omer is counted as a series of days that are noted as belonging to weeks. Each week focuses on an different aspect of God (as found in Wikipedia):

1. Chesed – Mercy/Grace/Love of (intention to emulate) God (Power of Vision)
2. Gevurah – Judgment/strength/determination (Power of Intention)
3. Tipheret – Symmetry/balance/compassion (Creative Power)
4. Netzach – Contemplation/Initiative/persistence (Power of the Eternal Now)
5. Hod – Surrender/sincerity/steadfastness (Intellectual/Observational Power)
6. Yesod – Foundation/wholly remembering/coherent knowledge (Power of Manifesting)
7. Malkuth/Lower Crown – Kingdom/physical presence/vision and illusion (Power of Healing/Accomplishment/Level of Realization of Divine Plan)

each of the seven weeks of the Omer-counting is associated with one of the seven lower sefirot (#4-10): Chesed, Gevurah, Tipheret, Netzach, Hod, Yesod, and Malchut. Each day of each week is also associated with one of these same seven sefirot, creating forty-nine permutations. (Deeper symbolism)

I look at this and begin to wonder. I did a search on “seven” in the Bible and came up 524 hits. Some of them were of no consequence. But seven seems to be a number that has deeper meaning. Then I remember Jesus’ command to forgive seventy times seven and see the echos of counting omer. I wonder if we take Jesus’ words too literally. What if Jesus is telling us here that forgiveness is a process that we must step through. That we must count our steps … seventy times seven. Ten steps for chesed, ten for gevurah and so on. We must study these perspectives and allow ourself to steep in them as we walk towards purity and the feast of first fruits. I wonder …