Parshat Emor

In this week's Torah reading, to count the Omer it does say,
During this time period, the Omer we count every day,
To receive the Torah we are delighted,
We count for seven weeks to show we are excited.

On the second day of the Pesach holiday,
An Omer, which is a measurement of barley, was offered right away,
It was an offering of thanksgiving,
For the harvest season that was beginning.

What is the connection between the Omer offering,
And the seven week counting?
There is another question that we need to explain,
Why do we count the days that past instead of the days that remain?

When the Jews were freed from Egyptian slavery,
Their spiritual state was one of barley,
Being free was a dream come true,
Now they thought, no one would tell them what to do.

Every Jew has a G-dly and an animal soul,
At this point the animal soul was in control,
Now that they were finally free,
The animal soul said, "Now, it's all about me."

No schedule or rules, for an animal is O.K.,
For a human being it is no fun after a day,
The animal soul has to be trained to see,
That there is more to life than barley.

In this world there are many physical things that are tempting,
When we run after our desires, it is our animal soul that we are serving,
When we give in to our emotions and wants, we are still in slavery,
All the materialism in the world won't make us happy.

To ourselves we need to be true,
We are Hashem's children with a mission to do,
Our mind has the ability to rule over our emotions in the heart,
To follow the Torah rules is where we start!

We count the days that passed,
We concentrate on our accomplishments and make them last,
Instead of thinking about what should be mine,
We make our animal soul shine.

By time the holiday of Shavuot rolls around,
Our selfish animal soul can not be found,
Our animal soul is transformed totally,
We are free to serve Hashem wholeheartedly.

On Shavuot the Jews brought an offering made of wheat,
Two loaves of bread which is made for humans to eat,
The two loaves represent the G-dly and animal soul,
Working together to fulfill one goal.

When our G-dly soul rules over our animal soul we are freed,
To refine ourselves, on Shavuot we succeed,
Shavuot is our wedding anniversary,
We are truly royalty!

Souvenir: Sefirat Haomer chart