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Day 29 Counting the Omer 2013 Chesed she b’Hod
Posted by RabbiMin in uncategorized on April 23, 2013
Lovingkindness within Splendor
Compssion sometimes is manifest in small, surprising ways. I’m reminded of the song with the line “Hello, in there”, referring to the humanity we can see in strangers we encounter, when we remember to really SEE them. I suppose I’m particularly aware of that tonight, since I’m in Manhattan, which I sometimes forget is so full of people! Going for a long walk on city streets, passing a huge variety of people hurrying about their business in their busy-ness, I remember the unspoken prohibition against making eye contact with them. A smile on the street from a stranger can have powerful impact here – is it an invitation? a come-on? should I be afraid? What if I am the person initiating that smile? A little bit of caring, even if it’s just to move aside to allow a person in a hurry to pass me on the crowded sidewalk, can mean a lot. The many miniature impacts of such caring multiply, a manifestation of splendor!
Day 28 Counting the Omer 2013 Malchut/Shechina she b’Netzach
Posted by RabbiMin in uncategorized on April 22, 2013
Indwelling Presence within Endurance
Today is a day to remember that the Source/the Force/the Holy Oneness is always with us, a wellspring of strength that helps us persevere through pain, anger and fear. This past week has been overfilled with disaster and tragedy, a week where the energy of Netzach, persistence, was unfortunately necessary. Boston Marathon bombings, terror suspects bringing a huge city to a halt, and a disastrous earthquake…and, of course, the many tragedies that make few headlines because we have become immune to the deaths due to uncontrolled guns and civil wars, to malnutrition, neglect and domestic violence. Today, let us remember that helpers, the heroes, the survivors, all those who, fueled by compassion and morality, fight to help us recognize the humanity behind the tragedy. May we all recognize that Presence within us calls each of us to right action and gives us the energy to endure.
Day 27 Counting the Omer 2013 Yesod she b’Netzach
Posted by RabbiMin in uncategorized on April 21, 2013
Foundation within Endurance
Yesod, ‘Foundation’, is often considered the seat of the ego. When our egos are well formed and carefully tended they tend not to grow out of proportion. A healthy ego is the foundation of a charitable, kind, confident and self-reflective person. It is this kind of foundation that helps keep us grounded as we move daily, little by little, toward our goals….or, at the very least, help us navigate around the obstacles in our path!
Day 26 Counting the Omer 2013 Hod she b’Netzach
Posted by RabbiMin in uncategorized on April 20, 2013
Splendor within Endurance
Hod can be conceptualized as the ’splendor of variety’. As such, it points us toward examining details, appreciating the subtleties that differentiate two almost identical things. I am reminded of how farmers understand the microclimates of their fields, how wine connoisseurs can taste a wine and know it’s ‘terroir’ (the special characteristics of geography, geology and climate of a certain place which are expressed in it’s agricultural products). When we delight in the details of variety, we can’t be bored. When we value diversity, we are more inclined to explore, examine, appreciate and accept new experiences, new people, new tastes. Increasing tolerance leads to increasing endurance; we persist in our endeavors when they are more interesting to us!
May the day bring the kind of diversity that leads to ’staying power’!
Day 25 Counting the Omer 2013 Netzach she b’Netzach
Posted by RabbiMin in uncategorized on April 19, 2013
Endurance within Endurance
That steady ‘keepin’ going’ energy that helped the Boston authorities capture the fugitive, that helped tired hospital workers who could not leave the hospital work and work and work, that allowed parents with energetic children stay in their homes all day, that…that…that. We can all appreciate how Netzach helped Boston…but more, how Netzach energy is necessary for all our daily tasks….heroic or not, and how it accumulates as we move through the challenges of our lives.
Shabbat shalom.
Day 24 Counting the Omer 2013 Tiferet she b’Netzach
Posted by RabbiMin in uncategorized on April 18, 2013
Harmony within Endurance
It’s hard to keep going when we are out of balance. At this morning’s exercise class, we were using ’stability balls’, large, bouncy balls we sit on while doing crunches, weights and stretches. I thought about how essential it was to keep in balance to stay on the ball. Today, we can think of being ‘on the ball’ in a metaphorical sense. When we are pursuing a goal, whether long term or short, we need to keep ‘all the balls in the air’ and be ‘in the ball game’. While I’m not usually a fan of sports metaphors, keeping the ‘harmony of the spheres’ in mind makes sense as a way to keep the world ‘going ’round’!
May the harmonious interplay of all of life’s complexities help us all endure the challenges we see around us, the ones we know we will face in the next 24 hours, and the surprises which will, inevitably, come into our life path.
Day 23 Counting the Omer 2013 Gevurah she b’Netzach
Posted by RabbiMin in uncategorized on April 17, 2013
Discernment within Endurance
Sounds rather abstract, “discernment within endurance”, but it’s really a quality most of us use daily and value highly. We pay attention today on the ability to focus on something as a way to help us accomplish whatever it is we are trying to do. Accomplishing anything, from baking a cake to writing a Ph.D. thesis, from sweeping the floor to teaching a child how to ride a bicycle, requires the quality of focused attention directed toward a goal. Today, let’s think of some larger issues as well that could us that kind of energy: seeking a new approach toward peace in the Middle East, finding the source of the bombs in Boston, enacting some sane gun control, just for a few examples. If nothing else, let’s direct our prayers in those directions today!
Day 22 Counting the Omer 2013 Chesed she b’Netzach
Posted by RabbiMin in uncategorized on April 16, 2013
Lovingkindness within Endurance
Every life requires endurance, the ability to keep going even when the going is rough, when we can’t find our way, when we wake up confused and go to bed befuddled. Sometimes just getting out of bed and finding the toothbrush seems difficult. Sometimes remembering that there are things we really enjoy and want to do seems difficult. When we are in those kind of states, for whatever reason (or for no apparent reason) what often helps us keep going is remembering love. That remembering could be of a person who cared for us many years ago, or a friend with whom we’ve lost contact, or a parent who died. It could be thinking of someone we’ve just met and found interesting, or of someone we’ve been meaning to call for a cup of coffee. Sometimes it’s remembering that we were all created in love, and that it’s kindness that keeps the evils of the world at bay. A familiar prayer says: “We are loved by an unending love”. That IS Chesed she b’Netzach…the everflowing love of the Holy Oneness that supports our endurance daily.
Day 21 Counting the Omer 2013 Malchut/Shechina she b’Tiferet
Posted by RabbiMin in uncategorized on April 15, 2013
Indwelling Presence within Harmony
Today, as we are horrified by the events in Boston, grateful for those who rushed in to care and mourning with families and friends of those dead and injured, we pause. It is hard to remember a bigger picture when faced with anguish and fear, yet, when we can, it helps us heal, each of us connected inexorably, to each other. The Indwelling Presence within the Great Harmony appears in selfless acts, in spontaneous assistance, in the rush to aid and to understand. May all who need comfort find at least some small portion of it today, remembering that we are held in the arms of the Holy One, as we end the week of Harmony and Balance.
In English, the word “Presence” can be taken so many ways–as in ‘aware’=present; as in ‘attending’ = not absent; as in ‘gift’= a present; as in ‘an additional, noticeable energy’= a presence. I was thinking, as this day of the Omer count began, of looking at the word differently: as ‘pre’ ’sense’…before sensation. G!d energy surrounds us, pervades us, dwells within us. It existed, as we are reminded in Adon Olam, before there was a before. The Divine precedes sensation…and then infuses it. It’s everywhere–Ein Od Milvado…there is nothing except this Presence. Today we pause, at the conclusion of the third week of counting the Omer, to recognize how Divinity contributes to our balance, simultaneously supporting and enlivening the beauty of our lives.
Day 20 Counting the Omer Yesod she b’Tiferet
Posted by RabbiMin in uncategorized on April 14, 2013
Foundation within Harmony
Looking for stability after days of computer, blog, website glitches. Need the steadiness to be the basis of harmony and balance….sometimes the theme of the Omer counting is so well aligned with life!
Today we focus on the relationship between creative energy/generative energy and the beautiful balance that can be created with it, through it. We become supple, flexibly responsive to whatever comes our way.
The intervening days without Omer postings are now part of our collective past! Here’s hoping that the electronic gremlins behave themselves now!!!