We are currently in the period known as The Counting of the Omer, the incredibly potent and transformative 49 days that start with Passover and end with Shavuot. I think of this time as a spiritual marathon of sorts. And when we connect with the power of daily spiritual work traditionally practiced at this time, we can experience a sense of cleansing and usher in more Light for ourselves and the world!
One fact of life is this: we're always either progressing or regressing. Nothing is static; we are always in movement in a universe of dualities: good and evil, positive and negative, light and dark. We are either falling towards negativity, or we are working toward positivity. Notice how the positive requires "working," whereas the negative is easy to fall into!
We have to continually work on elevating ourselves… and that's where the spiritual tools offered by the Counting of the Omer come into play. As written in The Arvei Nachal, the Counting of the Omer can both help us experience complete transformation and ascend through what's known as "the gates of purity." Best of all, the process itself allows us to elevate through each gate at record speed! The commentary says that when we mindfully connect with this spiritual tool, it's as though we've undergone eight days of spiritual work in a single instant.