We are in the middle of the counting of the omer, a yearly journey through the Jewish calendar from Passover to Shavuot. We count 49 days, saying a blessing and then proclaiming the number of that specific day, and how many weeks and days have already passed. If one forgets to count one evening one continues counting, without the blessing. Although I am careful about counting at the right time, there is something that rubs me the wrong way about not saying a blessing if I miss one day. I have forgotten (a few times in my life) to count one day for one reason or another, and then continued to count without saying the blessing – and it felt very hollow. The act of counting felt empty of meaning, since for me the counting of the omer is an activity that connects me with the Eternal, and doing it without a blessing feels futile. I found that when I add another layer of meaning to this period, I am less likely to forget to count.
Most years I explore the system created by the Jewish mystics where, through a grid of the seven lower sefirot (emanations of God’s energy according to the kabbalah), we reflect on the possibilities created by combining different potentialities.
The seven lower sefirot are Hessed (love, kindness, openness, loyalty to covenant), G’vurah (judgment, power, strength, discipline, focus), Tiferet (harmony, beauty, compassion), Netzah (time, eternity, victory), Hod (gratitude, refinement, glory, majesty, splendor), Yessod (foundation, connection), and Malkhut (sometimes also referred as Shehinah, meaning presence, sovereignty, and hands-on service). Every week of the seven is dominated by one of the aspects, and every day we combine one of the aspects with that main aspect of the week.
Every sefirah has many aspects, and almost every aspect has a shadow side and a light side. All these aspects, all these energies are not inherently good or bad. The way in which these forces will play a role in our lives depends on the way in which we put them to use. This year the layer of meaning I added is to explore every day how the combination of aspects from the designated sefirah for the week and the specific sefirah for the day can be seen in both positive and negative lights. We are on the week of the sefirah of Netzah. This year I am connecting with the aspect of eternity in this sefirah. There are so many ways to understand the idea of eternity. I think of being Jewish, feeling the responsibility to transmit our culture, our history, and our religion to the next generation, just as my parents, my family, and my teachers did for me, eternally engaged in the learning that builds my treasured intellectual inheritance. Judaism is the way in which I connect with God, whom I often think as the Eternal, as the energy that has no beginning and no end. Yet there are Jews that believe they have the only right interpretation of what it means to be Jewish, and anyone who has a different belief is wrong. They act as though anyone who believes in a different way than they believe is making a terrible mistake. What was supposed to be the eternal connection of the people with their tradition, inviting, warm, and inclusive, becomes a source of divisiveness, tension, and heartache. This is also true of God, the Power, this Energy that is/was/will be forever, whom some people affirm they know and understand completely. They speak invoking God’s authority to justify the unjustifiable, and tell everyone else that their beliefs are wrong. In other words, eternity can be a wonderful way to create community and a future for the community, and it can also be a source of divisiveness when people exclude others instead of include different points of view.
May we be able to ensure the future of our community, refraining from labeling and creating divisions, and connecting with the Eternal through the bonds of our everlasting tradition.