A Scratch-Off Card Is Helping People Finish a 2,000-Year-Old Jewish Practice
A small scratch-off card is helping people accomplish something surprisingly difficult: remembering to do the same simple ritual every day for 49 days.
This spring, more than 2,000 Exploring Judaism Omer Scratch-Off Counters have been preordered. It’s a colorful 6×9 card designed to help Jews count the days of the Counting of the Omer, the 49-day period between Passover and Shavuot.
The ritual itself is ancient: each evening during this seven-week period, Jews mark the passing days as a spiritual journey from liberation to revelation. But in practice, many people struggle to keep up with the daily habit.
That’s where the scratch-off card comes in.
Designed by Exploring Judaism, a project of USCJ and the Rabbinical Assembly, the card turns the practice into a tactile ritual. Each day’s count is hidden under a scratch-off circle, revealing the number underneath as users move through the 49 days. (Fridays are not scratchable, in line with halakhic prohibitions on Shabbat activities.) The card includes the blessing and instructions for counting, making it easy to keep in a prayer book, on a desk, or on the fridge.
This is the second year the cards have been produced, and Rabbi Mordechai Rackover, Executive Editor of Exploring Judaism, says the response has been unexpectedly emotional.
Last year, many users shared that the card helped them complete the entire count for the first time in their lives – a meaningful milestone for a mitzvah that requires consistency night after night.
“I counted the Omer for the first time last year,” wrote one participant. “I thought the scratch-off counter was a wonderful way to make sure I was counting daily!”
Others turned the ritual into a daily travel companion. One college student even documented the practice while backpacking across Europe, scratching off each day along the way and sharing the journey online.
For the creators, the project isn’t really about selling a product. It’s about lowering the barrier to participation in Jewish practice. By making the experience visual and interactive, the scratch-off card helps people build that habit one night at a time.
And for many participants, that small moment of ritual adds up.
After all, the goal of the Omer is simple: show up, count the day, and keep going.
