Chronicle – Spring.Summer 2025

We are in the midst of counting the Omer, marking the days between the Pesach, the celebration of freedom from Egyptian bondage, to Shavuot, the commemoration of the giving of Torah. During this season of the Omer, I am reminded of an old English hymn published in the Reform Movement’s Union Hymnal in 1914. The hymns of that volume are routinely dismissed as archaic remnants of a by gone era, but the texts offer an inciteful window into enduring Jewish theology even if then presented in a now dated musical form.

One of these hymns reads:

Behold, it is the springtide of the year!
Over and past is winters gloomy reign,
The happy time of singing birds is near,
And clad in bud and blooms are hill and plain.

And in the spring, when all the earth and sky
Rejoice together, still from age to age
Rings out the solemn chant of days gone by,
Proclaiming Israel’s sacred heritage.

And still from rising unto setting sun
Shall this our heritage and watchword be:
“The Lord our God, the Lord our God is One,
His law alone it is that makes us free!”

I was raised in a congregation that rarely if ever sang in English, so I did not encounter this poetic hymn until working in Baltimore, MD at a congregation with deep roots in the Reform movement. They were one of the oldest Reform congregations in the country founded in the 1800s. In this community, this beloved hymn was sung every year on the 7^th day of Pesach, just days into the Counting of the Omer. Today, the words still resonate: “God’s law alone it is that makes us free.”  Rejoicing at Passover is duly warranted, yet the celebration of our redemption is hollow without the gift of Torah that comes seven weeks later. The mitzvot – the laws and commandments –  they are what give meaning, character, and purpose to our days.

Shalom u’racha

Rabbi Rhoda Harrison, Ph.D./LSW