Counting the Omer/Measuring Freedom
Throwback Thursday and Veeply Round-up
Tonight begins Lag B’Omer, a minor Jewish festival. It occurs during a special time in the Jewish calendar that resonates for me and, because it is about freedom, should resonate for all of us. It is explained below. But first it’s time for your…
Veeply Round-up: Vance has competition and the battle between the president and VP in the Philippines heats up
The elevation of Marco Rubio to National Security may not have been great for VP Vance. When Trump was asked about the 2028 election he didn’t answer with the bland, “There’s a lot of great candidates, we’ll see.” He instead specifically said:
You look at Marco, you look at JD Vance, who’s fantastic. You look at — I could name 10, 15, 20 people right now just sitting here.
I guess that’s what you should expect when the president hosted a reality show in which people were pitted against one another to compete for promotions. That being said, Rubio and Vance appear to be working well together. Rubio was in the cockpit talking India and Pakistan down from their escalating confrontation. But Vance, who had just been in India and met PM Modi, made a key call to India’s leader. Still it doesn’t look great that only a few days earlier Vance had said the conflict was, “fundamentally none of our business.”
Meanwhile, the Philippines has gone to the polls, an election that will shape the next battle in the ongoing war between the President and Vice President of the Philippines. Twelve Senate seats were at stake in the elections (half of that body). President Marcos expected his allies to dominate, which would give him a sufficient majority to convict his Vice President Sara Duterte and prevent her from running for president in 2028. Instead it looks like his allies only won six of the seats. Marcos had sent VP Duterte’s father Rodrigo, a former president, to the International Criminal Court in The Hague to face charges related to his very violent crackdown on crime during his presidency. It appears the ploy backfired and led to an upsurge of support for Duterte—who was elected as mayor of the city of Davao, his political base. Duterte’s son is currently the mayor of Davao, he was elected vice mayor and will govern in his father’s stead. Politics on the Philippines is very much a family affair.
Counting the Omer/Measuring Freedom
This post originally appeared May 10, 2012.
Most devoted Jews have particular aspects of Jewish practice – rituals, holidays, customs etc. – that particularly resonate with them. Many love the tradition of cleaning the house before Pesach as a symbol of renewal and change. Others are dedicated to sitting the Sukkah, as a reminder of the impermanence of all that people have built – as Koheleth tells us: “All is vanity.”
For me it is the Omer, the seven weeks between Pesach and Shavuot. Pesach, which celebrates the exodus from Egypt, symbolizes freedom. Shavuot remembers the giving of the Torah, the great Revelation of Sinai. Freedom comes with choices. The Torah is the guidebook to life, how to best use freedom. The challenge of balancing freedom and responsibility is a – if not the – great challenge to human societies and politics and thus an area of fascination to me.
The period of the Omer connects these two concepts by counting. Starting the second night of Pesach, one counts:
Tonight is the first night of the Omer… Tonight is the second night of the Omer… And so forth up until 49 and then it is Shavuot.
So the Jewish people connect freedom and responsibility by counting. The Greeks say man is a speaking animal, but logos – the word for speech – also means thinking. Adam named the animals, Noah counted them. Speech and counting go hand in hand. Humans would be severely constrained if they had one ability, but not the other.
Just as words have power (my own Bar Mitzvah portion the story of Balaam and his talking donkey is one example in Jewish lore as well as the deep Jewish abhorrence of and temptation to gossip) so do numbers. Seven is viewed as significant and the Omer is counted to 49 – seven sevens. Omer is counted to 49 – seven sevens. Shavuot means Feast of Weeks.
Omer, the period of counting means “measure.” Measure can be more then strictly numerical, it can refer to proportion, what to what. These concepts are essential to commerce, science, and rule of law. Consider the difficulty of voting without counting.
A final, unrelated observation, Omer refers to a measure of grain. Pesach celebrates spring and Shavuot is the first fruits. It is also an agricultural festival. Modern statistics were developed in great part hand in hand with agricultural research. Advancements in statistics helped spark the relative bounty of food in today’s world, as well as contributing to enormous improvements in public health and many other fields.
Today, as I write this, it is Lag B’Omer, the 33rd day of the Omer, a minor festival. In other interpretations the Omer is also a period of mourning and the 33rd day is a break (or an end depending on which Rabbi is consulted – two Jews, three opinions, count ’em). Mourning too must be kept in proportion, thus we count and we get a break.