Between Passover and Shavuot, we count the omer. “Omer” refers to a quantity of grain (slightly less than 4 lbs) that was brought to the Temple in Jerusalem each day of the 49 days between the holidays.
A beautiful custom is to link the counting with the 48 ways to acquire wisdom, as mentioned in Pikei Avot (below). The idea is that on each day of the counting, we should refer to the list of techniques, and use that day to perfect the technique associated with it.
In Pikrei Avot 6:6, we read: Greater is learning Torah than the priesthood and than royalty, for royalty is acquired by thirty steps, and the priesthood by twenty-four, but the Torah by forty-eight things:
- By study,
- Attentive listening,
- Proper speech,
- By an understanding heart,
- By awe,
- By fear,
- By humility,
- By joy,
- By purity
- By attending to the sages,
- By critical give and take with friends,
- By fine argumentation with disciples,
- By clear thinking,
- By study of Scripture,
- By study of mishnah,
- By a minimum of sleep,
- By a minimum of chatter,
- By a minimum of pleasure,
- By a minimum of frivolity,
- By a minimum of preoccupation with worldly matters,
- By long-suffering,
- By generosity,
- By faith in the sages,
- By acceptance of suffering.
- Awareness of one’s place,
- Satisfaction with one’s portion,
- Making a fence about one’s words,
- Not taking credit for oneself,
- Being loved,
- Loving God,
- Loving people,
- Loving reproof,
- Loving uprightness,
- Avoiding fame,
- Not let one’s heart become swelled on account of their learning,
- Not enjoying giving legal decisions,
- Sharing the yoke with one’s colleague,
- Who judges with the scales weighted in their favor,
- Who leads them on to truth,
- Who leads them on to peace,
- Who composes themself at their study,
- By asking to the point and answering according to the law,
- By listening and adding,
- By learning in order to teach,
- By learning in order to practice,
- By making their teacher wiser,
- Who is exact in what their has learned,
- And who says a thing in the name of its source. Thus you have learned: everyone who says a thing in the name of the one who said it, brings deliverance into the world, as it is said: “And Esther told the king in Mordecai’s name” (Esther 2:22).
This coming Friday night, May 17, for example, will be day 25 of the omer. So over this Shabbat, we should explore “Awareness of one’s place.” This is a concept related to humility. Being aware of exactly where we stand prevents arrogance, where we inflate our egos to the point that we can’t listen to anything; and it also prevents self-denigration, where we convince ourselves that we cannot learn anything because we aren’t up to the task. Only when we have a realistic view of ourselves