Complete weeks – Ask the Rabbi
Q. When I count the Omer, I see that the Torah command is to have “seven complete weeks”. Why the word “complete”?
A. There are halachic answers of course, but let me give you a psychological explanation.
A complete week has a beginning, a middle and an end. At the beginning of the week a sensible person draws up an agenda: “This is what I am going to do on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and so on”.
At the middle of the week, look over the list and check it against the facts. Sometimes outside events have intervened, and the plans you drew up all went awry. Sometimes you were simply a bit lazy, a bit tired, you couldn’t summon up the energy… and that’s the time for a personal telling-off: “What’s all this?” you say to yourself, “Isn’t life too short for you to leave jobs unfinished?”
You have a couple of days left in the week, so reshape the plan, leave out the unimportant things, get on with the big things! At the end of the week have a stern audit of yourself and your responsibilities, and come to the necessary conclusions. Then breathe the air on Shabbat and gather the strength you will need for the week ahead.
