Omer 2024 Day 49

Day 48

Day 49: Malchut in Malchut, Leadership in Leadership

When we began this journey 49 days ago, I compared this 7 weeks of reflection to the more compact self-reflection inherent in the Passover seder's four children and four questions. said that we would need to use this time of counting the omer to take stock of our lives, both internally to our own selves, and externally to our relationships with others and with God. During the seder, we wonder what makes this night different? Throughout the omer, we ask what makes us different? During the seder, we wonder if we are more wise than simple, more wicked than silent? Throughout the omer, we see that each of us contained multiple attributes all intersecting in different ways.

It is with this understanding of our past and vision for our future that we move forward tonight and this year with the knowledge we have so much more to learn, and still the confidence that we have enough kindness, strength, balance, endurance, humility and connections to lead.

Thank you for counting the omer with me this year.

Omer 2024 Day 48

Day 47 | Day 49

Day 48: Yesod in Malchut, Connection in Leadership

Counting the omer up (instead of down, like a NASA space launch) shows us just how far we've come since Passover and the story of the Exodus. Counting up shows us that we are not just counting the days left until Shavuot, but also the days since Passover. As we approach the ultimate connection point with God, that point at which we all stood at Sinai and heard God's word, we make note of how long it has taken us to get there. 

The first commandment that God will speak to us at Mount Sinai is: "I am Adonai your God, who took you out of Egypt." (Exodus 20:2) God defines the foundational connection point of our relationship as the redeemer who freed us from slavery. But God is also our God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, connecting to us l'dor v'dor (from generation to generation). Strong bonds are forged in multiple ways. The more we are tied to God, we are also tied to each other.

Omer 2024 Day 47

Day 46 | Day 48

Day 47: Hod in Malchut, Glory/Humility in Leadership

Today we are reminded that humility and glory are inseparable. To be effective leaders (and people), we need to embody hod​. We need to know how to elevate others without lowering ourselves, how to inspire and motivate without ego.

Omer 2024 Day 46

Day 45 | Day 47

Day 46: Netzach in Malchut, Endurance in Leadership

I woke up this morning to news that the IDF had managed to rescue four of the hostages who had been held in Gaza since being abducted by Hamas on October 7, 2023. I am beyond happy for these four people and for their families who have endured eight months of horror and grief. And I pray that the remaining hostages and their families will feel the same joy of reunion soon.

Omer 2024 Day 45

Day 44 | Day 46

Day 45: Tiferet in Malchut, Balance in Leadership

In our exploration of leadership dynamics this week, we've emphasized the critical importance of balance, particularly the need to balance kindness and strength. In addition, each individual leader must balance their own ego with their commitment to serving others. Balancing the ego and service to others is an ongoing journey—one that requires introspection, adaptability, and a willingness to learn and grow. Leaders must continually evaluate their motives, actions, and impact, striving to maintain balance between self-interest and the greater good.

Omer 2024 Day 44

Day 43 | Day 45

Day 44: Gevurah in Malchut, Strength in Leadership

"Speak softly and carry a big stick." This West African proverb was often quoted by President Teddy Roosevelt. At the 1901 Minnesota State Fair, Roosevelt (who would become president 2 weeks later), said:

"'Speak softly and carry a big stick—you will go far.' If a man continually blusters, if he lacks civility, a big stick will not save him from trouble; and neither will speaking softly avail, if back of the softness there does not lie strength, power. In private life there are few things more obnoxious than the man who is always loudly boasting; and if the boaster is not prepared to back up his words his position becomes absolutely contemptible. So it is with the nation. It is both foolish and undignified to indulge in undue self-glorification, and above all, in loose-tongued denunciation of other peoples."

If we must begin the week of leadership with kindness, we must follow it up with strength.

Omer 2024 Day 43

Day 42 | Day 44

Day 43: Chesed in Malchut, Lovingkindness in Leadership

As leader​s, before we get to strength and leadership or balance in leadership, we must begin with kindness and leadership. Kindness is what allows us to make allies of our enemies, or at least not to drive them further away. Kindness allows us to approach the other with an open heart and an open mind.

Omer 2024 Day 42

Day 41

Day 42: Malchut in Yesod, Leadership in Connection

Connection is the penultimate attribute in the omer. On this last day of the week of yesod, it is important for us to take the time to contemplate what connection means in a leadership role and how we expect or desire to connect with our leaders. Leaders who are not connected to the people they lead will struggle to provide useful guidance and help their people grow. At the same time, people who do not feel connected to their leaders are less likely to be engaged in their shared community.

Omer 2024 Day 41

Day 40 | Day 42

Day 41: Yesod in Yesod, Connection in Connection

There are many different points of connection within the omer: our connection to time and to the past, our connection to each other, our connection to ourselves, and our connection to God. Ultimately, counting the omer is an exercise in recognizing these connections.

Time

We've discussed throughout the blog this year how counting the omer involves a distortion of time. We begin by seeing ourselves as slaves who have personally been freed from Egypt. The 49 days of the omer correspond with the days the Israelites walked through the desert from the time they walked through the Red Sea to the time they reached Mount Sinai. And then, on Shavuot, we celebrate a holiday that says every generation was there at once. Counting the omer is a celebration of our connections throughout time.

Community

So much of our reflections over the past 41 days have been about strengthening our community and uplifting others, and how our community sustains each of us in turn. We are reminded that our individual growth is intertwined with our community.

The Self

Most of the self-reflection of the omer is just that - self-reflection. It's internal and intensely personal. How I view the sefirot, these seven attributes, will almost certainly differ from how you see them. I will embody them differently than you do. I will connect with myself on this journey.

God

Counting the omer is a countdown (or a count up, really) to our defining connection moment with God: standing at Sinai and receiving the Ten Commandments. As we count, the sefirot connected to each week become more complex and more God-like. The weeks of hod, yesod, and malchut are not just closer to the end of the omer, they are more Godly attributes. The longer we count, the closer we grow to God.

Omer 2024 Day 40

Day 39 | Day 41

Day 40: Hod in Yesod, Glory/Humility in Connection

We are just ten days from Shavuot, when we receive the Ten Commandments and the Torah at Mount Sinai.

Exodus 20:15-17

All the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the blare of the horn and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they fell back and stood at a distance.

“You speak to us,” they said to Moses, “and we will obey; but let not God speak to us, lest we die.”

Moses answered the people, “Be not afraid; for God has come only in order to test you, and in order that the fear of God may be ever with you, so that you do not go astray.”

Our connection with God in this moment was close - too close. It was a moment of awe that was both amazing and frightening. Today, as we prepare to step into that moment in time again, to feel the glorious and humbling presence of God in our lives, I hope that I have grown over the past year and over the past 40 days.

Omer 2024 Day 39

Day 38 | Day 40

Day 39: Netzach in Yesod, Endurance in Foundation

When I sat before my beit din 13 years ago prepared to complete my conversion to Judaism, we discussed many things. We discussed the beauty and meaning of the Jewish holidays, the rhythm of the Jewish year, the comfort of Jewish rituals and songs. After I explained the feeling of awe (and hunger) I had felt on the previous Yom Kippur, but before I explained why I chose my Hebrew name, the members of my beit din paused and said, "We want to make sure you understand antisemitism and the risks you're taking to join the Jewish people." I said, "Yes, I do," and went on to talk about my lifelong love of history and about how, just four months earlier, I spent the hours before my engagement at the US Holocaust Museum (in fairness to me, I didn't know I was going to get engaged that night, but still). In seventh grade, I read The Diary of Anne Frank during study hall* without any context for what it was or how it would end, and when I finished it in class, I was glad to be sitting in the back where nobody would see me crying. In college as a history major, I took classes focused on WWII and one half-credit class with a visiting Israeli professor on the history of antisemitism. In short, by the time I had reached my beit din, I had spent years seeking to better understand this particular brand of hatred and oppression. Still, it was important for my beit din to confirm that I was starting out in Judaism with my eyes open. The foundation of a Jewish life has to take the good with the bad, with no exceptions. Becoming Jewish is all-encompassing.

Interested in reading further about converts' relationships to antisemitism? A Google search for "Jewish conversion" will bring up a lot of recent articles about interest in conversion following October 7:

Tablet Magazine, "Converting to Judaism Post 10-7"

Forward, "Why would anyone convert to Judaism after Oct. 7?"

The Times of Israel, "A convert in times of crisis"

*The Diary of Anne Frank was not part of a class curriculum; my study hall teacher just wanted us to sit quietly and read whatever we chose, and I had grabbed Anne Frank's book off the display rack by the desk in the school library. As far as I could tell, my middle school didn't have any comprehensive Holocaust education. I think some teachers taught Number the Stars in 8th grade, but mine didn't (though I did read Red Scarf Girl twice in middle school, so I'm well aware of the harms of Communist China).