The Omer Project will be counting again!

[The Omer Project]

Dear friends,

The Yeashore Community is very proud to present The Omer Project.  We invite you to count the Omer with us!  The information about the upcoming event is below.  We hope you will join us, since We all Count.  

Visit http://Yeashore.net to see the current schedule. We have several Jewish Communities, from Chabad to Reform, in the Richmond and the Sunset who have agreed to participate!  We are communicating with even more to join us.

The Omer Project is all about bringing people together and emphasizing the message that we all count.

----- Omer Songs -----

There are a few Omer counting songs that exist, but they are either inane or are symphonic, musical masterpieces - neither type works well for a gathering of people to count the Omer together.  

So, we wrote some of our own.  We have posted two of them to YouTube.  Even though we are not gathering until April, you can each learn The Omer Project counting songs!  

Here they are at our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@TheOmerProject  Enjoy!!

...Be Seeing You...Maggid Raja Anderson...

-=-=-=-=-=-  About the Omer Project -=-=-=-=-=-

Join The Omer Project, as we gather to count the Omer on different street corners in the Sunset and Richmond districts of San Francisco. There are 49 numbered streets in those neighborhoods, in perfect correspondence to the 49 days of counting the Omer. (Was G-d on the City Planning Commission, or what?) As if that’s not cool enough, the Torah has been symbolically compared to the ocean, and Torah scholars have been compared to the fish in the sea.

We count our way through the Avenues.  We gather in community and at synagogues in the Sunset and Richmond districts.  We count the Omer at the numbered avenue that corresponds with the particular Omer day.

Rain or shine... We all Count! (Bring an umbrella if you need it)

The Omer Project is all about bringing people together and emphasizing the message that we all count.  To show that Congregations Count, we gather at synagogues throughout the Sunset and Richmond.  To show that Community Counts, we join together to learn a new spiritual quality each week.  To show that Individuals Count, we offer a punch card and information sheet for you to count the Omer on your own.

The Omer Project is a program of the Yeashore Community.

===== About the Omer =====

“The world was created with Fifty Gates of Understanding”   - Talmud, Rosh Hashanah 21b

After leaving Egypt, the Israelites traveled in the desert for 49 days; and on the 50th day, they received the Torah at Mount Sinai. Every year, Jews observe this 50-day period by participating in Sefirat HaOmer – counting of the Omer. Starting on the second day of Passover (except for Karaite Jews and Ethiopian Jews, who start on slightly different calendars), Jews congregate every evening, for 49 consecutive days, to count the Omer. The 50th day is the holiday of Shavuot, commemorating the receiving of the Torah.
 
The 50 days of the Omer also correspond to the 50 Gates of Understanding, alluded to in the quote above. The first 49 gates are opened by humans, as they count the 49 days of the Omer. Each one of these gates connotes a character trait that is being understood and improved upon in preparation for receiving the Torah. On the 50th day -- Shavuot -- G-d opens the 50th gate and reveals the Torah.

Each day, as well as each week, of the Omer is dedicated to developing a spiritual quality based on the seven lower sefirot*:

· hesed (kindness)    · gevurah (power)    · tiferet (beauty)    · netzach (eternity)    · hod (thankfulness)    · yesod (foundation)    · malchut (kingdom)

Chesed corresponds to the first week and to the first day of each week. Gevurah corresponds to the second week and to the second day of each week and so on.  We will explain the details at each gathering.

* Sefirot (or sephirot), meaning emanations, are the 10 attributes/emanations in Kabbalah, through which G-d reveals G-dself and continuously creates in all the realms.