Every Evening We Say or Sing
Bruchah at Shechinah,
eloteinu ruach ha’olam,
asher kid’shatnu b’mitzvoteha
vitzivatnu al sefirat ha’omer
בּרוּכָה אַת שְׂכִינָה
אֶלֹתֵנוּ רוּחַ הָעוֹלָם
אַשֶׂר קִדְשַׂתְנוּ בְּמִצוֹתֶהָ
וְצִוַתנוּ עַל סְפִרַת הַעֹמֶר
Blessed are you,
indwelling presence,
spirit of our world,
who calls us to be
in connection with you
by counting the Omer
Omer Count
Week one ~ Chesed ~ heart expansion
Blessings read by Taya Mâ Shere
A smiling white Jewish woman with tan skin and long dark braids, wearing big silver hoop earrings and a silver necklace, and a black off-the-shoulder shirt. She is outdoors in golden light with grass, trees, and a low wall behind her.
Taya Mâ Shere is co-founder and Rav Kohenet of Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute, co-author of The Hebrew Priestess and Siddur HaKohanot. Taya Mâ hosts the Jewish Ancestral Healing podcast and offers online courses through the Kohenet Virtual Temple including Embodied Presence, Jewish Ancestral Healing and Sex and the Sephirot. Taya Mâ is the creator of the Liberate Your Seder Haggadeck, and co-creator of The Omer Oracle and Divining Pleasure: an Oracle for SephErotic Liberation. Her newest album, Makam Shekhina is pulsing Hebrew-Arabic prayer in cahoots with her beloved collaborator Shaykh Ibrahim Baba z’’l, and their spiritual community. www.taya.ma | @tayatransforms
week two ~ Gevurah ~ Strong Holding
Blessings read by Dr. Harriette Wimms
A smiling Black Jewish woman with wire-rimmed glasses, a pink button down shirt and black blazer, burgundy lipstick, and natural hair. Next to her is a little fluffy yellow dog looking directly at the camera as if it is her headshot
Kohenet Dr. Harriette E. Wimms is a Maryland licensed psychologist who provides compassion-infused mental health care to children, adolescents, adults, and families. Dr. Wimms is a prayer leader in the Kohenet community and at Hinenu: The Baltimore Justice Shtiebl. She is the driving force behind Hinenu JOC, the Baltimore JOC Community Havurah, and the Jews of Color Mishpacha Project. A community connector, Kohenet Dr. Harriette is a proud, Fat, Disabled, Queer, Black, Jew by Choice, and is most proud of being mother to her 17-year-old son.
Week Three ~ Tiferet ~ Sublime Healing
Blessings read by Riv Shapiro
A white Jewish nonbinary person with straight light brown hair and a knowing look on their face. They are wearing a rust colored blazer and turquoise pendant, sitting on an outdoor flight of stairs with brown leaves on either side.
Riv (they/them) is a queer artist and musician, outdoor educator and Kohenet. After seven years working with innovative Jewish organizations and film clients in the Bay Area, Riv now serves as the Arts & Culture Producer in their hometown of Minneapolis at the Minnesota JCC (Dakota land). Blending the roles of Educator, Priestess and Artist, Riv is dedicated to sharing the wisdom and the medicine of their Jewish ancestors through adaptive, accessible, and liberatory means. www.rivshapiro.com
Week four ~ netzach ~ Collective Liberation
Blessings read by Mazal Etedgi
A nonbinary Jewish person of color wearing light-rimmed glasses and a jean jacket. Their hair is curly and shaved on the side. They are in a garden, holding a bright pink rose in their left hand.
Mazal Masoud Etedgi (they/them/theirs) is a trans, queer, chronically ill, jewish arab/mizrahi/amazigh, living on Ohlone land in Huchiun Village (Berkeley, California). They are an artist, drama/art therapist, cultural organizer and community herbalist with their home apothecary, B'samim Apothecary. www.bsamimapothecary.com
week five ~ hod ~ gathering power
Blessings read by Noam Lerman
A white Jewish gender-expansive trans person with short, curly, light-brown hair, and peyos curling behind their ears. They are wearing a blue button-down shirt, a burgundy cardigan, and a large navy blue and white kippah. Their hand is on their heart, and they are outdoors with trees behind them.
Noam Lerman is a white trans rabbi whose Ashkenazi and Sephardi ancestors guide and carry them. They are a story-collector, musician, healer, restorative justice circle keeper, nature and shabbes lover, amulet maker, and soferex (Hebrew scribe). Noam is a member of the ritual team at Lab/Shul, and is the rabbi at Smith College. They founded Der Tkhines Proyekt, which provides experimental and songful workshops that give life to Yiddish Tkhines, Ashkenazi spontaneous supplications that were once regularly composed and prayed by women, trans, and gender non-conforming people. They are one of the co-founders of Let My People Sing!, an intergenerational Jewish singing retreat that immerses people in diasporic singing traditions. They have previously acted as a chaplain for elders, incarcerated youth, and previously incarcerated fathers resiliently fighting for survival and healing.
Week Six ~ Yesod ~ Aligned Activation
Blessings read by Hadar Cohen
An Arab Jewish femme with long dark curly hair, leaniing toward the camera with her hand on the arm of a turquoise velvet couch. She wears a black halter top with gold hoops and necklaces. A green viny plant climbs next to her face.
Hadar is an Arab Jewish multi-media artist, healer and educator based in Los Angeles. She is the founder of Malchut, a mystical school teaching direct experience of God through heart centered spiritual traditions. Hadar is a Jewish mystic who works to build decolonial frameworks for worshiping God. She is an artist weaving the spiritual with the political and her artistic mediums include performance, movement, writing, weaving, sound and ritual. You can check out her work at hadarcohen.me // @hadarcohen32
Week Seven ~ Malchut ~ Rooting Deep
Blessings read by Nomy Lamm
A fat white nonbinary Jewish femme with turquoise hair, blue eyes and a lip ring, in front of a light green wall. A black strap and a tattoo are visible on their shoulder.
Nomy Lamm is a musician, illustrator, voice teacher, creative coach, a kohenet/Hebrew Priestess, and the Creative Director of Sins Invalid, a disability justice based performance project. Nomy sings cosmic power ballads for the rise of the matriarchy in a band called The Beauty, and creates ritual tools for embodied Jewish feminist practice, including the Dreaming the World to Come magical Hebrew planner and the Omer Oracle deck. They live in Olympia, WA on occupied Squaxin / Nisqually / Chehalis land with their partner Lisa and their animal companions Dandelion, Momma, Calendula and Chanukah. www.nomyteaches.com, @nomyteaches