This is a Sefirah or Omer Counter, a mnemonic device used in the home for the seven-week ritual of counting the Omer, which is the period in the Jewish calendar starting on the second day of Passover and lasting until Shavuot. It therefore links the calendar commemoration of the exodus from Egypt with the revelation at Sinai.

Leviticus 23.15 establishes the commandment to count the 49 days of the seven weeks. Mishnah Menahoth (ch.10) describes and elaborates the biblical rules regarding the offering of barley sheafs during this period, including (10:3) a controversy the "Boethusians" or Sadducees, with their strict adherence to the unelaborated biblical text, and the Pharisees, with their adherence to the Oral Torah (Birnbaum, Encyclopaedia of Jewish Concepts, 1995: 470).

After sunset at the beginning of each day of the Omer, a general blessing is pronounced, standing, followed by a ritualised formula, for example"Today is the 22nd day, which is three weeks and one day of the omer" (illustrated here by grapes). As the Omer finishes (here marked by the fertile olive), Shavuot begins and the observant repair to the synagogue to remain engaged all night in the study and discussion of Torah.

The Omer is a period of partial mourning, which is interrupted on the 33rd day by Lag B'Omer, here suitably illustrated by sweet-smelling, frankincense, a joyful day when it is permitted once again to cut one's hair, go on picnics and light bonfires (see Siegel et al., The First Jewish Catalogue, pp.145-148, for a brief account of some of the many customs and beliefs that have collected around the Omer over the centuries).

Pauline Frankenberg, a research fellow of the Centre for Jewish Studies at the Unviersity of Manchester, painted the illustrations on this site for the use of her own family, as gifts for friends and as part of a more ambitious and longer project to identify and depict the specific plants mentioned in the Hebrew Bible and their practical, symbolic and religious significance for Jews, then and now. She may be contacted at RFrank1251@netscape.net