There is a minor commandment in the Torah concerning the Counting of the Omer (A measure of barley). This is a daily COUNT UP, not a count down, from Nisan 16 until Shavuot at 50 days later. This is a period with a spiritual theme of ASCENDING! Among other names, Shavuot is called the Feast of Weeks. This is a simple yet lovely spiritual discipline, to eagerly await, with mounting joyous expectation, the annual wheat harvest for Israel.  It will be the wheat after the barley. Some days of special interest of the 50 days are the following: the weekly 7th Day Shabbats, Month 1 Day 21 of the Last Day of Unleavened Bread (a High Shabbat), and Aliyah (Ascension Day of the Messiah) on Omer 41. In 2025, according to the Torah Calendar, the Culmination of the Ascending Days will be Shavuot on 6-2 to 3, 2025. It is also called Yom ha Bikkarim-First Fruits of Wheat.  

Once the Counting of the Omer has begun, will The Blessed Hope occur before we reach Days 49-50 of Shavuot? Maybe not. And probably not? Why? Any year, the days from 1 to 49 and 50 remind us of the Jubilee Cycle! Each year, the 49-50 Days are like a miniature reminder of the longer Jubilee Cycle of 49-50 YEARS! If 2025 is the Year of Jubilee, would not this coming Shavuot be especially special this year? Until The Day of The Blessed Hope, may there be the need to Watch and Wailt, until the Double Jubilee Theme, in Years and in Days (the miniature Jubilee Cycle) is complete and fulfilled for Israel on 6-2 to 3, 2025> Will these 2 cycles be unbroken in 2025? We shall see. 

With Love and Shalom,

Jean