Does Pesach mess with your Sefira?

For many years, I had a little issue with the Omer.

We'd always been taught that the seven weeks of counting from the holidays of Pesach until Shavuos were seen as invitations to study and tap into the seven sefirot of G-d's beneficence and work on emulating our parallel traits, called "powers of the soul."

These seven sefirot/ powers which don't have perfect English translations, are listed as:

1 Chessed: lovingkindness/ giving/ expansion of self

2 Gevurah: strength/ restraint/ discipline

3 Tiferet: harmony/ balance/ symmetry

4 Netzach: endurance/ sustainability/ eternality

5 Hod: beauty/ acknowledgement/ appreciation

6 Yesod: groundedness/ foundation

7 Malchut: royalty/ mastery

There are beautiful articles and books describing ways to understand, access, and develop these energies, but here is my issue:

The first night of the Omer is Seder night, which means that the first week of the Omer is basically the week of Pesach itself. So this course in spiritual development, which begins with Chessed, which is the first, and arguably the basis for all the others, is right when we're busy observing the actual holiday, with all the tasks, prayer, and other Torah it entails.

This feels like a double-booking; couldn't there have been a more convenient way to structure this series?

I don't know if this is "the answer" (or if the question is even a "real" question) but I was thinking maybe it could be hinting the following:

There's a similar conflict when we begin studying the Torah cycle each year, right after Sukkos/ Simchas Torah- we go from a full month of busy, intense holidays, right into Bereishis, the first and foundational Torah portion, in a usually abbreviated week, so there's less time to start off strong.

But maybe it's set up this way because that's kind of exactly how life is:

Meaning, it's so natural to want to wait for a clear day, week, month on the calendar, or even a whole calmer stage of life, in order to start personal development projects; to hold off for when there's time to focus properly.

But when people are leading full, productive lives, there might never be that wide open space available to meditate and go "all in" on a specific spiritual pursuit. Jewish spirituality is not meant to be totally separate from the quotidian; it's meant to be integrated, to sublimate it.

Maybe the best time to practice and strengthen chessed/ lovingkindness/ generosity, is actually during this busy, holy week, when we're out of our usual routines, and there might be extra people around who might need help or attention.

Maybe a great time to dive into learning Torah anew is exactly when we're coming off an intense month of holidays, and could feel tired, behind the 8-ball, and entitled to slack off.

Because if we can practice starting at imperfect times, incorporating our learning, our introspection, our personal growth, our behavioral stretching right into the framework of "everything else," then we're learning to do so in a way that's most relevant and applicable to the rhythm of our real, human lives.

If you'd like to read more content like this, come join us for free, here: elishevaliss.com/newsletter

But if you'd like to read longer stuff, you might enjoy this: https://a.co/d/1ROM7iB