THE KABBALAH CENTRE INTERNATIONAL

Counting of the Omer. It began April 21 and continues through the month of Taurus and ends on the holiday of Shavuot. These 49 days are also called "Days of Smallness," and are infamous for their low energy. That is why we do not make any decisions or actions, like buying a house, signing contracts, opening new businesses, getting married etc. until this period is over.
It's a time when we tend to feel a lot of judgment, towards ourselves and others. The best thing we can do to counteract this heaviness is to exude the spiritual quality of love.

But what is love, really? The Hebrew words for love, ahavah, and one, echad, have the same numerical value [Hebrew letters also have a numerical value.] This teaches us the great secret that real love is when I am one with someone else. If my finger gets burned because it touches a hot stove, do I get angry at my finger? No, because I feel it is a part of me and I am concerned about its pain.

True love is when we can feel another is part of us the same way we feel our finger is part of us. To help us better understand love, we can look at the qualities that are the opposite of love:

Judgment
Impatience
Intolerance

The opposite of love is when we don’t have awareness of this oneness, when it's all about me. Things must be my way and it’s not OK for the other person to evolve in their way.

This month, it's all about injecting love into our lives. This means paying attention to how many times we find ourselves in a place of judgment, lack of patience, lack of tolerance, or simply lack of allowing others the room to grow and go through their process.

During the Omer, in this period more than any other period, without expressing love we will draw judgment. But if we give love, we will draw love.

As I focus on unconditional lovefor all people around me

the dark forces within are cast out.In the past I have felt hatred for certain people

but now as I picture those people in my mind I feel only love.Light washes over them and me

and I recognize the common thread that we share –the spark of the Creator.

My heart opens as I wish them joy and fulfillment,

peace and greater understanding.

We are one soul.

Greater compassion and humanity awakens within

for those around me - my family, friends, neighbors.

Those positive feelings fan out towards all humanity.

Love washes over everyone bringing greater peace,

understanding and harmony throughout the world.