Omer Count

Apartment and Skyscraper in Manhattan: Photo by Shai Gluskin. August 12, 2008 at 7:54:32 PM, somewhere in Manhattan.Tonight begins the 9th Day of the Omer (Arpil 27-28, 2011).

May that part of me that is broken in Gevurah in Gevurah be healed on this day.

One of the meanings of Gevurah is limitation. It's one of the forces that blocks our way back to the Garden of Eden. Gevurah sets the ultimate limit, our mortality. It also supports boundaries of all kinds, including the beginning and ending of Shabbat and the distinctions between permissible behavior as against transgression.

Gevurah works diligently against all of our delusions of grandeur. It exposes the falseness of our optimistic forecasts regarding when we will arrive and when that assignment will be completed.

Today, April 22-22, is the third day of the omer (tiferet in chesed).

I'm very pleased in the course of my web development work to have helped out Congregation Mishkan Shalom create a wonderful omer counting section of their web site with a daily email with teachings from Rabbi Yael Levy. Please check out Mishkan Shalom's Omer Counting Web Site and sign up for the emails.

I just re-read my post from three years ago. There I talked about the struggle for us to really take in our successes! Indeed!

Tulip and Other Beautiful Things: Taken by me from my house on May 4, 2008.

Tonight begins the 16th Day of the Omer (May 5 - 6, 2008)

May that part of me that is broken in Gevurah in Tiferet be healed on this day.

It's all good. Projects at work, new business, kids at school, kids at play, life in synagogue, family, life with spouse, holidays, volunteer efforts, work in the guarding, planning vacation, learning new things, blogging...

It's all good.

Gevurah in Tiferet is the "But." Gevurah in Tiferet says "You can't do it all. The sense of overwhelm that ensues from all that good ends up taking away from good."

Focus is the antidote to overwhelm. On this one I'm preaching to myself big time.

On this night of Gevurah in Tiferet, may I find the strength to focus and to let go of what I can't do.

Greene Street Garden

Today is the 15th Day of the Omer (May 4-5, 2008).

PamOur next door neighbor Pam is an awesome gardener. She's also head landscaper for Citizen's Bank Park (not the groundskeeper who works on the turf -- she makes the park itself beautiful with flowers, shrubs and trees).

I don't think she gardens for altruistic reasons, but her work improves the spirits of the neighborhood.

We often think of destructive internal desires that lead people towards various transgressions. But what about the driving internal forces that lead people toward making life better? I think that Pam's gardening is likely an example of that.

I hope also that this omer journal is an example of that.

On this day of Chesed in Tiferet I hope to unloosen my desires that make the world a better place.

Tonight begins the 14th Day of the Omer (May 3 - May 4, 2008).

May that part of me that is broken in Malkhut in Gevurah be healed on this day.

I'm going to recycle what I wrote two years ago for this one:

In the Kabbalistic system Malkhut, literally, "sovereignty" or "kingshipness" is also called, Shekhina. Shekhina, the Divine Presence, comes from a root which means to dwell. It is the emanation of God that is closest to the human experience. It mediates the Divine overflow (shefa) so that God's presence can be experienced by human beings in a flawed world without the world being destroyed by the purity of God's power.

Context is Everything - Macro and Micro Cuts from the Same Pic: Sedgwick St, Philadelphia, Spring, 2007

Tonight begins the 12th Day of the Omer (May 1 - May 2, 2008).

May that part of me that is broken in Hod in Gevurah be healed on this day.

Today, I listened to significant portions of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright's post 9/11 2001 sermons that included "Gad Damn America" and "The chickens have come home to roost" (interpreted by many to mean Wright believed the US deserved 9/11).

The sermon in which the phrase "God damn America" appears is about the unchanging nature of God compared to the changing nature of governments. It was U.S. governments that permitted slavery and Jim Crow, but all along God was on the side of justice. The "God Damn America" wasn't a generic criticism of the U.S. It was tied each time to a conditional, "when she..." Watch the 20-second sound byte compared to the 10-minute of context version.

Shai Under Water With Goggles

Tonight begins the 11th Day of the Omer (Arpil 30 - May 1, 2008).

May that part of me that is broken in Netzach in Gevurah be healed on this day.

Netzach, forever, endurance, in Gevurah, limitation, boundaries. Humor is the salve for the long haul. Not taking things too seriously, being able to play, rif, have fun, crack jokes—all these things lower blood pressure.

The holiday of Purim plays the important role in the Jewish calendar for a day where everything is upside down. "Drink until you can't tell the difference between Haman (the villain) and Mordechai (the hero)." In a religion that takes so much so seriously (what religion doesn't?), Purim is a safety valve against the excesses of our collective self-importance and the artifices we've created, religious and otherwise.

Purim is a whole day once a year. But we can have little Purim as a part of every day.

On this night of Netzach in Gevurah, may I re-commit myself to silliness.

Canopy and Street: Sedgewick St. Phila, April 29, 2008

Tonight begins the 10th Day of the Omer (Arpil 29-30, 2008).

May that part of me that is broken in Tiferet in Gevurah be healed on this day.

Paperwork, scheduling, tax returns, scheduling, housecleaning, scheduling, the high cost of living, our high standards, scheduling, our high ambitions, the high stack of papers on the floor of my study—why... I think that is enough to make one downright grumpy! —which I do feel, often.

So many times, in attempted moments of breathing deeply (which doesn't come so naturally to either Sarah or myself), we sit together and enumerate our blessings:

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Tonight begins the 9th Day of the Omer (Arpil 28-29, 2008).

May that part of me that is broken in Gevurah in Gevurah be healed on this day.

Gevurah means strength, bravery, limitation, death (the ultimate limitation) and more, of course. In it's kabbalistic context it can also be the source of the rule-of-law (another name for this is din—pronounced "dean"). Out-of-control rule of law devolves to evil, which is also sourced in din.

Recently, I've heard remembrances of the events of 40 years ago, particularly the chaos at Columbia University and the anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King. I was 10 years old then, and my son is ten years old now. I was wondering, which is the scarier time in which to live?

Galapagos Perspective

Tonight begins the 3rd Day of the Omer (Arpil 22-23, 2008).

May that part of me that is broken in Tiferet in Chesed be healed on this day.

Tiferet is the peek of sefira mountain.

Tiferet helps with perspective. In combination with Chesed, committed love, it's about getting a clear vision of one's own successes, about feeling the love that others have for you.

I definitely have my struggles taking in my successes. I'm quick to add a "but" when friends congratulate me.

So I thought I'd take a moment to create a short list of recent experiences I've had when I was able to take in the love or accomplishment.

• Giggling moments with my kids as we teach each other a faux Italian, invented in our house.
• The love and generosity from Sarah in making me a 50th birthday party, and the love I felt from my friends who attended.
• Early successes in my new business

My we find the mountaintop, that place of clarity, close to our hearts so we can fully take in the love directed toward us. May we feel the gravity of our daily successes.