At the end of the 49 day count known as Sefirat Ha-Omer, the Torah says that we are to bring a minchah hadashah lashem, a new gift to God. In this meditation, we look at this Sefirah period as an incubation or gestational period of inner growth in which we gradually come into a new form, becoming ourselves “a new gift to God.” The meditation explores this growth process, including the release of old burdens and constraints, the finding of this inkling of some new possibility inside us, the rising up from matzah (back) to bread, the slow unhurried “cocoon” time of this Shabbat like rest period, as well as the pangs of growth and the emergence of something new on the other side.
Sources:
Leviticus 23:9-16 (especially v. 16)
Or HaChayim on Leviticus 23:15
Exodus 1:8
Esther 2:8
Ezekiel 11:19
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