devarim

Update: As persephone correctly pointed out in the comments, the Biblical Women Omer Calendar was, in fact, correct in placing Yom HaShoah on the twelfth day. And it should be obvious to everyone why I didn't pursue a career as a math professor.

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Today's figures in the Biblical Women Omer Calendar (which I talk about here) are Job's daughters (round two). After a moving description of why these women (and the very fact of their existence) are fitting for a day of Hod shebeGevurah (glory wthin strength or limitations), I read the following:

This day of the Omer is Yom haShoah, Holocaust Memorial Day, so it is appropriate to remember both victims of undeserved suffering and the new lives survivors have been able to build. Yemima, Ketziah, and Keren-happuch mark this day of mourning as well.

I can see how R' Jill Hammer* made the mistake initially; if you look at a calendar, yesterday would have been marked as "Holocaust Remembrance Day," and we counted 12 last night. But if you're going to put together a big document like that, and make a point of mentioning Yom HaShoah and establishing a relationship between it and its day of sefira, then you should at least double-check to make sure you have the days matched up properly! It also would have been perfectly appropriate, in my opinion, to have noted that today is the day after Yom HaShoah and that the existence of Job's daughters symbolizes the rebirth that comes after darkness and destruction. It also would have been apropos to suggest Dinah (yesterday's woman) and the quality of Netzach shebeGevurah (endurance within strength or limitation) as representative of Yom Hashoah...someone who has her life snatched away from her, who witnesses destruction on every side, and whose voice is silenced.

* Yes, I use the title "rabbi" for people who have received non-Orthodox semicha (ordination). If you don't like it, you can go hang.