A Message From Rabbi Weitzman: Shabbat Message 4.24.26

Dear Congregation Beth Emeth,

There is something subtle but powerful happening all around us right now. The light is changing. The air is softer. The world is turning, almost quietly, from one season into another. You can feel it in the longer evenings, in the first real hints of green, in the sense that something is unfolding just beneath the surface.

Judaism invites us not only to notice these changes, but to count them. We are in the midst of Sefirat HaOmer, the sacred practice of counting each day between Passover and Shavuot. Tonight, we mark twenty-three days, three weeks, and two days of the Omer. At first glance, it can feel like a simple act of marking time. But our tradition insists it is something more.

We do not count days because they are interchangeable. We count because each day matters. And counting, in Judaism, is not only about days. It is about people, and about growth.

In our homes, we practice this kind of counting all the time. It looks like showing up for dinner even after a long day. It looks like listening, really listening, to one another. It looks like the quiet, daily work of caring, forgiving, and trying again. Families are sustained not by grand gestures alone, but by the steady choice to keep showing up for each other.

The same is true for a community. Congregation Beth Emeth is strong not because everything is easy, but because we keep choosing one another. Week after week, you show up for prayer, for learning, for one another in times of joy and in times of loss. You check in on each other. You volunteer. You give. You care.

That is what it means to count a community. In the Reform movement, we also affirm something essential: everyone counts. Everyone belongs. And that belonging asks something of us. It asks us to see one another, to make space for one another, and to take responsibility for one another.

Yet the Omer asks something more of us as well: to grow intentionally. Jewish tradition teaches that these 49 days are a time of spiritual refinement, a period not only of counting, but of learning. Each day carries a quality we are meant to study, reflect on, and live into. We do not simply move through time; we are meant to be changed by it.

Tonight’s quality is Gevurah shebeNetzach, discipline within endurance, strength within persistence. It is the strength to keep going, and the discipline to grow while we do.

It is what it takes to sustain a family over time, not perfection, but commitment, and the willingness to learn how to be better for one another. It is what it takes to sustain a community, not agreement on everything, but a shared commitment to keep learning, to keep listening, and to keep building something together.

The Omer reminds us that growth does not happen all at once. It happens day by day, through small acts of learning, reflection, and intention.

Maybe that means taking five minutes to read something meaningful. Maybe it means asking yourself at the end of the day: where did I show strength today? Where could I have shown more? Maybe it means engaging more deeply in the learning and life of this community.

This, too, is what it means to count. In the words of the Psalm we recite during this season: "May God be gracious to us and bless us… that Your way be known on earth."

May our lives, within our families, within this sacred community, and within our own inner growth, reflect that blessing.

As the seasons turn, may we count these days with intention. May we count one another with care. And may we commit not only to passing through these days, but to learning within them, so that we emerge stronger, wiser, and more deeply connected.

Wishing you a Shabbat of rest, renewal, and growth.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Weitzman