Who knew that Taylor Swift’s music and the Jewish tradition of counting the OmerFrom the second day of Passover until Shavuot, Jews count seven weeks – seven times seven days – to commemorate the period between the Exodus from Egypt and the Revelation at Sinai. When the Temple stood, a certain measure (omer) of barley was offered on the altar each day; today, we merely count out the days. could be so intertwined? Both offer opportunities for personal growth, reflection, and a deeper connection with the world around us🌾
The period of the counting of the Omer is a time of introspection and growth – for a person to work on one’s good characteristics (middot) through reflection and development of one aspect each day for the 49 days of the counting.
In KabbalahThe tradition of Jewish mystical interpretation of sacred texts. The foundational kabbalistic text is the Zohar., each of the seven weeks of the Omer-counting is associated with one of the seven lower sefirot(pl of sefirah) In Kabbalah, the 10 “attributes” – channels of Divine energy – via which God interacts with creation.:
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Chesed (loving-kindness)
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Gevurah (might)
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Tipheret (beauty)
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Netzach (victory)
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Hod (acknowledgment)
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Yesod (foundation)
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Malchut (kingdom)
Each day of each week is also associated with one of these same seven sefirot, creating forty-nine permutations. The first day of the Omer is therefore associated with “chesed that is in chesed” (loving-kindness within loving-kindness), the second day with “gevurah that is in chesed” (might within loving-kindness); the first day of the second week is associated with “chesed that is in gevurah” (loving-kindness within might), the second day of the second week with “gevurah that is in gevurah” (might within might), and so on.
Based on these themes, I assigned each day of the Omer a Taylor Swift song!
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Our Song
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Midnight Rain
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the 1
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New Year’s Day
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Mine
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London Boy
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This Love
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Better Man
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Jump then Fall
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Long Live
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Clean
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Back to December
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mad woman
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Mean
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Bejeweled
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this is me trying
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Innocent
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A Place in this World
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Question…?
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It’s Nice To Have A Friend
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The Archer
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This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things
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long story short
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Lover
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The Great War
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All Of The Girls You Loved Before
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Change
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Vigilante Shit
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Begin Again
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Karma
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Stay Beautiful
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hoax
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You’re On Your Own, Kid
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Girl At Home
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Never Grow Up
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Daylight
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cowboy like me
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Sweet Nothing
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Stay Stay Stay
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Maroon
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King of my Heart
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Untouchable
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The Lucky One
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…Ready For It?
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Call It What You Want
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Out Of The Woods
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Tim McGraw
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the lakes
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Long Live