Countdown to Rosh Hashanah in Omer Counter

[David Seidenberg]

Today in the Omer Counter app, for the countdown to Rosh Hashanah:

Splendor within Majesty/Realm, 47 days til Rosh Hashanah

Rebbe Nachman of Breslov taught: The divine name "YOU" (in Hebrew "Atah") is propitious over the sea to calm the waves. This is the inner meaning of the verse "YOU (Atah) rule over the magnificence/swelling (gay-ut) of the sea, in lifting its waves, YOU (Atah) will make them still." (Likutei Moharan 1:256 on Psalm 89:10)

Waves of feeling can stir us up and arouse our passion, and they can arouse confusion. Amid turbulence can we see magnificence? Is there splendor to match the chaos and confusion of this time?

In the midst of turbulence, one can take a moment to look toward the divine "You" and say "You are" -- that is, one can both recognize the divine and also address it. In the moment one says "You are", one also says "I am". There is a centerpoint within that addresses the divine. Knowing that point is the beginning of moving calmly forward.

During this time leading up to Rosh Hashanah, however, the direction in which we seek to move forward is the direction of t'shuvah, which means returning. There is a tension there -- how does turning back help us move forward? The obvious answer is that if we are moving in the wrong direction we must turn backwards to move in the right direction. But the less obvious answer is that returning means calming the waves and returning to stillness.

Listen to Reb Zalman's Nachamu: neohasid.org/audio/nachamu/