Count the Omer Week 5: Hod

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It's week five of the Omer, the week of hod, glory and humility. I asked my daughter if she knew what glory and humility meant and she's only three, so she said no. So this week, I'm going to reflect on the hod of motherhood and parenthood.

"Now the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, 'I have gained a male child with the help of God.'" Genesis 4:1

I have two amazing daughters. They are inquisitive and smart, funny and caring. Bringing them into the world and raising them to be women of poise and purpose is the best lesson in hod that I will ever get. The process of giving birth defined glory and humility not as the opposites that they may seem, but as two sides of the same coin - a process of hope, life, fear, and pain. Every day that I have to explain the world to them, to try to define things that I have long since taken for granted, is another reminder that the world is a majestic and fascinating place, and that no matter how much I know, there will always be a "why?" that I can't answer. Being responsible for these two lives and helping to mold their understanding of the world is a humbling power.

This week, try asking yourself "why?" for everything. Why is the sky blue? Why do some of your friends live far away? Why is that plane flying up there? Why did Elsa freeze Anna's heart in Frozen? What is your favorite color and why? Why is it bedtime? Why are we counting the Omer?

Asking "why" is an acknowledgement that we don't know everything. Answering the "whys" of life is part of this lifelong learning in which we're all engaged.

Count the Omer Week 4: Netzach

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Week 4 is the week of netzach: eternity, endurance, or victory. Those are difficult ideas for my toddler to conceptualize enough to talk about, but that doesn't stop us from counting the Omer.

My daughter loves to play games. She got Candy Land for Chanukah and this is how she plays it:

Everyone is assigned a little plastic pawn, whether or not you are actually planning to play the game, and she lines all the pawns up at the start. If two people are playing, all four pawns still stand at the start. Everyone is included. Her baby sister is allowed to hold her pawn and sneaks it into her mouth to chew on when no one is looking. We pick cards and move our pawns accordingly until someone wins. When my daughter wins, she celebrates for a few seconds, and moves right on to setting up the pawns at the start for another game. When she loses, she does the same. We play an endless loop of reaching King Candy's castle and returning to start until she decides it's time to play something else. A victory is not the point, it's playing the game itself. 

Rather, I should say that the time spent playing together is the victory. The game is finite, but the relationships between the players endure.

Count the Omer Week 3: Tiferet

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"What's something that's beautiful?" I asked my toddler today.

"A rainbow," she said. "Because of the colors."

Scientifically, rainbows are a reflection of sunlight bending through raindrops that cause an arc of light across the sky. The colors of the rainbow, each color blending into the next, are indeed beautiful. Every time I see one, it stops me in my tracks. 

In the Torah, the rainbow is a symbol of God's promise to Noah that God will never again flood the earth. It is a symbol of compassion and hope.

This is the third week of the Omer, the week of tiferet: beauty, balance, compassion. Think of something you find beautiful and hold onto that feeling this week.

Count the Omer Week 2: Gevurah

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We are in the second week of the Omer, which is the week of gevurah - strength, power, justice, and bravery. This year, I'm sharing my conversations with my toddler about the seven sephirot of the Omer.

"Who do you know who is strong?" I asked her.

She answered, "Me. I'm strong. And [a friend at daycare], and daddy."

I love that her first response was herself and I love the confidence with which she said it. I love that her list is diverse - she named three very different people. It's an important reminder that there are different kinds of strength - physical, emotional - and also that one's strength does not need to be measured against another. Is my daughter as physically strong as my husband? No, because she's three and he's an adult. But that doesn't mean she's not strong.

When I asked her how she was strong, she said, "Like this," and stretched her hands up in the air as high as she could, demonstrating how tall she is. She has grown a lot in the past year, both in height and in maturity, and she is always reaching for new heights.

How are you strong? How can you empower others and create a more just world? How can you grow and stretch yourself in the coming year?