Counting the Omer in a World Without Time

The Jewish calendar is big on time. Shabbat comes every week, whether or not Friday night feels like a Tuesday or a Thursday or a hilarious foreign concept from a future world where months still have weeks and weeks still have days. I don’t remember how many days it has been since I spoke with my sister, washed my dishes, or washed my hair. I think I did all three yesterday. But I know that Friday night to Saturday night is still a discrete unit of time that will differentiate for me one week from the next, however faintly. Recently, when Tom Hanks joked, as a remote host of the first virtual episode of Saturday Night Live, that “there’s no such thing as Saturday anymore. It’s just, every day is today,” I laughed. Because, as a Jew who likes to recognize Shabbat, the only day that still exists for me anymore is Saturday. Read Full Article »