App Profile: Omer Counter

This app will help you count the Omer from Passover to Shavuot by keeping track of the count and giving you the blessing and the Hebrew for each day's count. For each day of the Omer, it will also show you which quality was connected by the Kabbalists with that day, and it will give you a quote related to that quality, along with links to find out more about counting and what it means. It will also help you count the seven weeks from Tisha B'Av to Rosh Hashanah.

What is the Omer? Exactly seven weeks fall between Passover and Shavuot, marking the transition from the redemption in Egypt to the revelation at Sinai. This period is called the Omer, and it also corresponds to the time between the barley harvest and the wheat harvest in ancient Israel. (An omer is a measure of grain, like a bushel.) Each night during the 49 days of this seven week period, the count of the days is recited with a blessing--this ritual is called "Sefirat HaOmer." In Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism), each of the 49 days also corresponds with the purification of a specific quality within ourselves that connects to the divine. These qualities are called "Sefirot," and remembering which qualities correspond to each day has been part of the ritual of counting the Omer since the Middle Ages. The app keeps track of the days and the Sefirot and also includes quotes and intentions for each day. There is also a modern custom, based on the Sefirot and counting the Omer, to similarly count the days from Tisha B'Av to Rosh Hashanah.

You can find more instructions and information about counting the Omer at: http://neohasid.org/omer/count_the_omer/