Over the years many of you have participated in a Union tradition of Sefirat Ha-Omer, Counting the Omer. We join together each spring to count the 49 days of the Omer based on Leviticus 23:15-17 combined with focused prayer and tzedakah.

We are counting the days between our departure from Egypt and our arrival at Mount Sinai to receive the Torah, from the resurrection of Messiah to the outpouring of the Spirit upon the early Messianic community on Shavuot. We count these days in solidarity with the wider Jewish community and in anticipation of a fresh encounter with Messiah through his Spirit.

Each year within the UMJC community we add a specific prayer theme for these days, and this year our theme is "You Shall Teach Them to Your Children," based on Deuteronomy 11:9.

The linked prayer calendars include the blessing for each day and a specific prayer focus for each week, beginning with renewed passion for God's Word throughout our whole community and culminating in awakening and renewal in Scripture upon our children and their teachers throughout the Messianic Jewish and wider Jewish communities.

We also punctuate our prayers with tzedakah, an offering of a dollar or two (or more) put aside each day and then gathered up or sent into the Union on Shavuot. This offering will help fund what we've been praying for: our children's education efforts as well as other programs for children and youth, with a special emphasis on the Union's Ashreinu School offering online education in Hebrew and Messianic Jewish life to our kids.

Please participate with us by Counting the Omer, beginning on the second evening of Passover, April 2. Counting and praying together adds to the brightness and joy of the coming PassoverShavuot season and helps energize our efforts to teach the ways of the Lord to our children.