Starting with Passover, we will “count the omer, a sheaf of barley. Passover, known for unleavened bread and for the beginning of our journey as a people, also celebrates the barley harvest. In the Torah we read, “When you enter the land which I am giving to you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the first sheaf of your harvest to the priest... the priest shall wave it on the day after Shabbat. “And from the day on which you bring the sheaf of wave offering—the day after the Shabbat—you shall count seven weeks… and the fiftieth day is Shavuot.” Our tradition continues to use the omer as the method of counting the 50 days to identify the proper date of Shavuot, just like using tally marks on paper .

 
Since we use calendars, this practice is no longer necessary, however I find the idea of counting towards 
something compelling. In a way, we’re conditioned to count from, not towards. Birthdays count from days of birth. We count from graduation dates, wedding dates, and frame conversations based on when something took place. Our identities are based on what has happened in our lives.

Counting towards is a positive act. There is a feeling of anticipation of what it coming. There is potential. 
There is an opportunity to change direction, determine an outcome, reach a goal, deciding what it means. Our identities become identities of potential.

This year, as we count the omer, think of what you’d like to count towards.