Counting Up

Most of the time, we count up, of course. How many settings for the table? How many shirts for the trip? How many containers of milk to last the week? 1...2...3...4...5....

But when we look forward to a certain event, we generally count down the months or weeks or days or hours until that event comes to pass. 4 months until the wedding...3 weeks until summer vacation....2 days until the concert...3 hours until the long weekend...

Counting the seven weeks between Pesach and Shavuot - constituting the counting of days and weeks until the commemoration of the receiving the Torah on Mount Sinai - is an experience of counting up. One...two...three...seven days which are 1 week....33 days which are 4 weeks and 5 days...

Beyond the count, however, is the challenge: to count every evening for seven weeks, without missing a night, lest the sequence be incomplete, and in fact, not count.

Somehow, this challenge has always appealed to me. It's not easy. I remember the days when I didn't make it through the 7 weeks (and I pray that referring to those days as if they are past tense does not jinx my count this year!). But there's something about the requirement to keep track that is more than just a contest to make it through. It's a conscious choice - every single day. You need to pay attention. And it's by paying attention that we achieve a deeper awareness of anything we do. Surely this is true even when we count down, crossing off the time and moving past it, but certainly when we count up, where each day counts to help us get where we want to go.

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