This Omer Calendar was created in the Jewish year 5760 (2000) during the
seven week counting period between Passover and Shavuot.
On one side, seven rows of seven patchwork squares represent the 49 days
which bridge the two holidays. Each square can serve as a visual meditation
for the day. On the other side, embroidered in Hebrew, is the blessing one
recites every night to fulfill the commandment of counting for these seven
weeks (Leviticus 23;15 - 16, which reads:"You are to count from the day
after the day of rest [Pesach] from the day you brought the Omer-waving
offering until you've counted seven complete weeks. On the day after the
seventh week, you will count 50 days...")
Also embroidered on the backside is a another text which can be used as a
meditation before the counting. It can be translated:
May there be sweetness, Adonoy
Our G-d, for us and may the works of
our hands be substantial for us, may G-d establish the works of our
hands.
This piece is made out of patchwork fabric. It can be read from the left to
right, or reverse. It's way of "telling" time is not a tradition, linear,
numerical reading. Like the traidition of "women's" arts, which speak in
the tastes of food, in cookbooks, quilts, children's clothes and costumes,
in a day to day life, this piece is soft, with undertain "boundaries," as
the embroideries move from square to square, without much regard for the
grid format.
You can e-mail Elizheva at
elizheva@gmail.com
or call her at 510.575.5175.
