hatam_soferet (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
hatam_soferet) wrote2006-04-25 09:42 pm
hatam_soferet) wrote2006-04-25 09:42 pm
a post that started off being a routine grumble and turned into a maths and anthropology lesson
OK, people are supposed to have sent me money, and they haven't. Chasing invoices is BORING. I'm still waiting to get paid for work I did at Purim...and it's the 14th day of the Omer if you're counting in base eight.*
* Like a clock. A clock works in base twelve; after you've been round once, you start over. We normally use base ten. The Omer** uses base ten for the first count and base seven for the second count ("one week and two days..."). I'm using base eight in this post because I want to.
** Starting at Pesach, the festival marking the beginning of the harvest, we count fifty days, and then have another festival marking the end of the harvest. It says in the Torah to count the time, so we do. Literally. Every night. This is the Omer. Omer actually means sheaf, which is fair enough when you remember it's all about harvesting. When we're done counting, we bring a sacrifice*** of the new wheat, and then tuck in.
*** in the case that the Temple in Jerusalem is functioning. If not, we just think about it really hard for a few minutes.
* Like a clock. A clock works in base twelve; after you've been round once, you start over. We normally use base ten. The Omer** uses base ten for the first count and base seven for the second count ("one week and two days..."). I'm using base eight in this post because I want to.
** Starting at Pesach, the festival marking the beginning of the harvest, we count fifty days, and then have another festival marking the end of the harvest. It says in the Torah to count the time, so we do. Literally. Every night. This is the Omer. Omer actually means sheaf, which is fair enough when you remember it's all about harvesting. When we're done counting, we bring a sacrifice*** of the new wheat, and then tuck in.
*** in the case that the Temple in Jerusalem is functioning. If not, we just think about it really hard for a few minutes.