The days are longer and the warm weather is finally here for us to enjoy. I love Spring not just because everything is in bloom and coming to life, and not just because it is warmer outside, but also since the daylight hours and the sunshine last for much longer.
The longer daylight hours, mean the morning commute is in daylight hours and of course it is even light enough to do some biking with my children, do some gardening or take a walk after dinner.
The days are literally and figuratively becoming brighter as each and every day passes, until 5:13am on June 21st when the summer solstice occurs in the Northern Hemisphere and the days will once again be getting shorter.
At this time of year, Judaism teaches us another way to brighten our days, and that is through the counting of the Omer. The Sefirat HaOmer as it is known in Hebrew, refers to the counting of forty nine days from Passover until Shavuot, during which we not only count each day and week that passes, but we also use it as a time to self improve and work on different areas of our character each and every day.
The word used for counting can also mean "brighten", thus the word fo a Divine Emanation, is Sefirah, and the word for a Sapphire Stone is Even Sapir.
The Torah's choice of words when telling us to count days and weeks to make them have meaning, tell us that the idea goes beyond simply counting time. Rather, the goal is to make those days shine brighter and for us to shine brighter as a result of the work on self improvement that we do during this timeframe.
Unlike, the daylight hours which will begin to recede once the Summer Solstice arrives in a few weeks, the extra brightness that we add to our days through our work on self improvement as we count the Omer, will be here to stay.
Good luck with brightening your days with more light and time.
Shabbat Shalom & Good Shabbos
Yisroel