Omer Counting Doodle
A whimsical idea for counting the Omer.
Starting on the second evening of Passover, there is a practice of counting each day and each week for 40 days — connecting Passover’s physical liberation with the spiritual freedom of the Giving of the Torah on Shavuot.
Many people use the Kabbalistic Sefirot as a way to work on specific middot (personality traits) each day.
Here is my “Omer Counting Doodle” template. Last year I came up with this whimsical idea for counting the Omer.
I found it to be continually surprising, offering new insights, and fun to do everyday: I made these doodles in the form of the 7 sefirot which we use in the Kabbalistic counting of the Ormer: Hesed (Kindness) in the upper right side, Gevurah (Strength, Discipline) in the upper left side, Tiferet )Harmony, Beauty) in middle just below them; Netzach (Victory, Endurance) in the middle right, Hod (Gratitude, Acceptance) opposite it on the left side; Yesod (Action, Initiative) in the middle below that and Malchut (Manifestation) at the bottom.
I chose colors for each sefirah, and each day I filled in one color in the appropriate swirl: starting with Hesed ‘she’b’Hesed (Hesded within Hesed) and working my way through the sefirot, the seven sefirot in Hesed, then the seven sefirot in Gevurah, and so on.Last year I just chose colors by intuition.
If you want you could use the colors that Reb Zalman Schatcher- Shalomi z’l used for his “Rainbow Tallit” which is based on the sefirot and the days of Creation: Hesed = purple; Gevurah = blue; Tiferet = green; Netzach = yellow; Hod = orange; Yesod = red; Malchut = brown. Here’s a link to an interview with Reb Zalman in which he explains how he came up with those colors.
Feel free to download my template below, or just make up your own! Use the colors from the Rainbow Tallit, or use the colors that make sense to you; have fun and use this as inspiration to create your own idea for counting the Omer. As we climb the mountain from Liberation to Spiritual Freedom, activating our creativity is always a good idea.
Chag Sameac
Rabbi Natan Margalit Ph.D.
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