Read This Slowly
So what ARE we doing? What is the counting of the omer? Why are we doing it? Reading this prayer slowly in English really helped me begin to form some ideas.
“May the Merciful One restore unto us the service of the Bet Hamikdash to its place, speedily in our days; Amen, Selah.
For the Choirmaster; a song with instrumental music; a Psalm. May God be gracious to us and bless us; may He make His countenance shine upon us forever; that Your way be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations. The nations will extol You, O God; all the nations will extol You. The nations will rejoice and sing for joy, for You will judge the peoples justly and guide the nations on earth forever. The peoples will extol You, O God; all the peoples will extol You, for the earth will have yielded its produce and God, our God, will bless us. God will bless us; and all, from the farthest corners of the earth, shall fear Him.
We implore You, by the great power of Your right hand, release the captive. Accept the prayer of Your people; strengthen us, purify us, Awesome One.3
Mighty One, we beseech You, guard as the apple of the eye those who seek Your Oneness. Bless them, cleanse them; bestow upon them forever Your merciful righteousness. Powerful, Holy One, in Your abounding goodness, guide Your congregation. Only and Exalted One, turn to Your people who are mindful of Your holiness. Accept our supplication and hear our cry, You who knows secret thoughts. Blessed be the name of the glory of His kingdom forever and ever.
Master of the universe, You have commanded us through Moses Your servant to count Sefirat Ha-Omer, in order to purify us from our evil and uncleanness2. As You have written in Your Torah, "You shall count for yourselves from the day following the day of rest, from the day on which you bring the Omer as a wave-offering; [the counting] shall be for seven full weeks. Until the day following the seventh week shall you count fifty days," so that the souls of Your people Israel may be cleansed from their defilement. Therefore, may it be Your will, Lord our God and God of our fathers, that in the merit of the Sefirat Ha-Omer which I counted today1, the blemish that I have caused in the sefirah (insert daily trait of the weeks trait here, ex, hod of Netzach) be rectified and I may be purified and sanctified with supernal holiness. May abundant bounty thereby be bestowed upon all the worlds4. May it rectify our nefesh, ruach and neshamah from every baseness and defect, and may it5 purify and sanctify us with Your supernal holiness. Amen, selah.”
all we had to do was count . the midday is actually just given to us as a gift from Hashem, because we counted.
so there’s the answer, we’re doing it in order to purify ourselves from evil. Intense.
tehilim/psalms to get this counting thing ensured success
what worlds???
what is the it? The abundant blessings? And those will rectify all the bad And purify? i like that.