tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6256597454446066962024-03-05T07:43:59.615-05:00Go And Learn It"That which is despicable to you, do not do to your fellow; this is the whole Torah. The rest is commentary, go and learn it." - HillelErinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02782903267240676466noreply@blogger.comBlogger359125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-625659745444606696.post-92032618520673156402023-02-18T14:46:00.000-05:002023-02-18T14:46:07.032-05:00Mishpatim: Diversity and Unity<b></b><blockquote><b>Exodus 24:9-11</b><br /><br />Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy elders of Israel ascended; and they saw the God of Israel – under whose feet was the likeness of a pavement of sapphire, like the very sky for purity. Yet God did not raise a hand against the leaders of the Israelites; they beheld God, and they ate and drank.</blockquote><br /><b>What does it mean to see God?</b> We are told numerous times throughout the Torah that we cannot see God, lest we die. But here the elders see God and do not die. Twice we are told that they saw God: "They saw the God of Israel" and “They beheld God, and they ate and drank” (a line that reminds me of the joke “We survived, let’s eat!”).<div><br /></div><div>But what does it mean to "see" God? Another translation of "and they saw" (וַיִּרְא֕וּ) is "and they feared" or "they were in awe." Maybe "seeing" is not visual, but an emotional reaction to God's presence. The verse goes on to describe <i>not</i> God, but the space under God, and even that is only described as a "likeness" not in definite terms.</div><div><div><br /></div><div>In his book <i>Man is Not Alone</i>, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel attempts to discuss the nature of God. He says, “While the ineffable is a term of negation indicating a limitation of expression, its content is intensely affirmative, denoting an allusiveness to something meaningful, for which we possess no means of expression.” Basically, God cannot be understood or expressed fully in language, only through allusion and metaphor. Our ability to share our understanding of God with others will inevitably hit a language wall and require metaphor. This is why our text sometimes anthropomorphizes God - we do not really believe God has a body with hands and feet and outstretched arms, but that is the language we have to work with, so we work in metaphor. In Exodus 24:9-11 above, the elders lived out what Heschel is describing. They saw something meaningful that they did not have the words to describe.</div></div><div><br /></div><div><div>In her book, <i>70 faces Torah Poems</i>, Rabbi Rachel Berenblat reimagines the elders seeing God:</div><div>LIKE A FEAST / Mishpatim</div><div>Understand, when I say</div><div><span> </span><span> </span>we saw a sapphire floor</div><div><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>beneath the Holy One’s feet</div><div>I don’t actually mean</div><div><span> </span><span> </span>we ate at a banquet table</div><div><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>and clinked glasses with God.</div><div>What we stood on was like</div><div><span> <span> </span></span>a floor but not a floor</div><div><span> </span><span> <span> </span><span> </span></span>like the sky but not the sky</div><div>the likeness of a feast</div><div><span> <span> </span></span>as we are made in</div><div><span> </span><span> <span> </span><span> </span></span>the image and the likeness.</div><div>And during our ascent</div><div><span> </span><span> </span>no two people witnessed</div><div><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>the same vision: one saw</div><div>a bearded man on a throne</div><div><span> </span><span> </span>one a woman robed in splendor</div><div><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>one a shimmer of sound.</div><div>And then Moshe was called</div><div><span> </span><span> </span>to ascend to a place</div><div><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>none of us could even see.</div><div>He went into the fire</div><div><span> </span><span> </span>and we came back, certain only</div><div><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>that nothing will be the same.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>This poem begs the question, <b>how do we <i>understand </i>God?</b> Rabbi Berenblat sets the scene beautifully, inviting us to reread the words of the Torah as a metaphor. If the elders each "saw" God (metaphorically) in their own ways, it invites us to use metaphor to help us understand and build a relationship with God today. Viewed in this way, the experience of God is open to or based on our own personal image of God, while still able to be part of a larger community of belief. Marrying this with Heschel's point, we can never truly know what someone else's experience of God is, since we lack the language to fully express our understanding of God. But that doesn't make our experience of God any less meaningful or our shared community any less important.</div><div><br /></div><div>Earlier in the parsha, Moses received many laws and came down to repeat them to the people.</div><div><br /></div><div><div></div><blockquote><div><b>Exodus 24:3</b></div><div>Moses went and repeated to the people all the commands of Adonai and all the rules; and all the people answered with one voice, saying, “All the things that Adonai has commanded we will do!”</div></blockquote><div></div></div><div><br /></div><div><b>What does it mean to answer <i>with one voice</i>?</b> The laws in this week's parsha are laws that are open to interpretation and with which we still struggle today, including laws about slavery, miscarriage, an eye for an eye, and boiling a calf in its mother's milk. Do we really believe that all the people answered unanimously? That none dissented or had a question about one of these laws? This seems to stand in direct contrast with both Rabbi Berenblat's vision of diverse understandings of God, <i>and</i> the popular axiom, "two Jews, three opinions." Is the unanimous agreement of all the people yet another miracle? Can a group of people answer “with one voice” while having a different understanding of their shared experience?</div><div><br /></div><div>Perhaps this scene is what Heschel had in mind when he wrote, "Divine is a message that discloses unity where we see diversity, that discloses peace when we are involved in discord. God is He who holds our fitful lives together." The Torah, in sharing these glimpses of diversity and unanimity in the people's relationship(s) with God demonstrates why Judaism is so powerful. Individuals can each "see" God in different ways; a personal understanding of and relationship with God is a given. Even so, the people can remain in community, agreeing "in one voice" on a shared set of laws to live by. Our diverse experiences do not preclude a unity of belief. Arguably, our diverse experiences and understandings of God <i>strengthen </i>our community. As Heschel puts it, unity and diversity are not opposites, but equal parts of the divine. Both can and do exist in Jewish belief and that is what holds us together.</div>Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01728788798618348892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-625659745444606696.post-63332861182855504132023-02-04T15:28:00.003-05:002023-02-06T13:06:58.778-05:00Hardening Our Own Hearts<p>Last week, I listened to one of my favorite podcasts, <i>Chutzpod!</i> with Rabbi Shira Stutman and Joshua Malina (from the West Wing). The latest episode, titled "<a href="https://chutzpod.com/blog/215-hardening-our-own-hearts-and-pharaohs-too" target="_blank">Hardening Our Own Hearts -- And Pharaoh's, Too</a>" was a look at Parashat Bo and the final three plagues of the Exodus. It is a great episode and I highly recommend it. But when I clicked on the title to listen to it, I was expecting something different.</p><p>Over the years - in Torah study classes or drashes and again in this latest podcast episode - I've heard and discussed at length what it means for God to harden Pharaoh's heart. We've talked about free will, different translations of the word for "hardened" (toughened, strengthened, made heavy), why God might have hardened Pharaoh's heart - important and difficult conversations that are always worth having. This is more or less the ground covered in <i>Chutzpod!</i></p><p>However, what struck me about the title of the episode, and what I was expecting to hear, was an exploration of the plagues as a way of hardening <i>our own hearts</i>, both the Hebrew slaves and ours today. Because while slavery prepared us for many hardships, it could not prepare us to handle difficult situations in which <i>we</i> have the power. Who are we when <i>we</i> are in control?</p><p>The plagues increase in devastation over the course of the Exodus narrative. When the Nile turns to blood, we consider it justice for the babies who were drowned in its waters. When frogs hop in the people's beds and on their heads, here, there, and everywhere, we sing a <a href="https://youtu.be/5uF6iwhPxhw?t=42" target="_blank">fun song</a> about it. Even in parashat Bo, as the plagues worsen, we see the locusts eat the last of the food in the land and I think it's fair to say that's a reminder to the Egyptians that they would have starved long ago without Joseph. But then comes the terror of absolute darkness and the crushing, wailing despair of the death of the firstborn. There is no silly Seder song for the last plague. Miriam doesn't lead the Hebrews in joyous song and dance, like she does after the Egyptian army is drowned. No, as the final plague approaches, the Israelites sit in their houses and pray that the lamb's blood on their doors will protect them from death. We contemplate the price of freedom.</p><p>In our freedom, we will experience thirst and hunger, infestation, disease, and war, and unlike in slavery, we will have the power to act for ourselves. How do we make free choices? How do we grapple with those situations and the consequences of the choices we make? How do we harden our hearts when we have to make a difficult decision that will hurt someone else? What does it mean to be in control of our own lives and what are the limits of our power? How do we understand and deal with the things that are still outside of our control? As we prepare to leave Egypt and become a free people, it strikes me that maybe the plagues are not only meant to punish the Egyptians, or as a show of God's might, and maybe God doesn't only harden Pharaoh's heart. Maybe we need to be hardened too.</p>Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01728788798618348892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-625659745444606696.post-78709440857879229032022-01-23T20:58:00.009-05:002022-01-24T10:46:55.292-05:00Response to Rabbi Ain's Pandemic Questions<p>I recently read an article by Rabbi Dan Ain in Tablet titled "<a href="https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/community/articles/four-questions-of-the-pandemic" target="_blank">The Four Questions of the Pandemic</a>." I thought the premise had potential and I opened the article expecting a nuanced and thoughtful piece about what it means to lead and make community in these difficult times. As an active member of my Jewish community, a Jewish parent, and a Jewish professional, I knew that Rabbi Ain would be taking on tough issues with no easy answers. To my surprise and frustration, the article I read had neither nuance nor deep thought. Instead, Rabbi Ain took 1000 words to essentially say "I'm done."</p><p>So I'd like to take a few moments to unpack some of Rabbi Ain's accusations about the Jewish response to the pandemic and attempt to offer something of the nuance and thought I'd been hoping to find. Let's begin with Rabbi Ain's first accusation.</p><p></p><blockquote>"If I can place my finger on the pulse of what’s been so dizzying to me—among an array of upside-downness—it is the refusal to ask questions. It is as though Jewish leaders took an oath of silence regarding pandemic measures, when Judaism itself is built on a foundation of inquiry and engagement." </blockquote><p>First, I would suggest that Rabbi Ain needs to reach out to more people in the Jewish community and Jewish communal leadership. Plenty of people are asking questions. I am in <i>three</i> separate Facebook groups specifically dedicated to conversations among Jewish professionals about Covid, in addition to the regular questions about Covid in pre-existing Jewish professional groups. Just within the synagogue world Rabbi Ain and I inhabit (let's leave aside other Jewish organizations like JCCs for now), these groups include rabbis and cantors, religious school educators, executive directors and program directors, and parents, all looking for ways to balance the competing Jewish values of communal gathering and public safety. On a more local level, congregants are definitely asking their synagogues what the health guidance is and when their favorite or most-needed aspects of the community will return in a mode meaningful to them (whether in-person, multi-access/hybrid, or virtual). Most synagogues I know have convened committees and task forces dedicated to asking questions and reevaluating the ever-changing guidance about Covid. Rabbis, directors, educators, and programmers are talking to our counterpoints at other shuls to compare notes. When synagogues make changes to their mask or vaccine policies, they send detailed information about the changes and are often transparent about the source of their policy (whether it is guidance from the CDC, their local health department, doctors within their membership, or a combination). Jewish leaders love to cite our sources, after all. If these are not questions that Rabbi Ain's community is asking him or steps that he and his leadership are taking, perhaps he should be asking himself why that is and how he can encourage that, rather than accusing the Jewish community at large of silence.</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p>Next!</p><p></p><blockquote>"Our Jewish communities seem to be under a spell where they have adopted the stance of the Child Who Does Not Know Enough to Ask. But they are not children. And while they go on pretending to be, <i>actual</i> children are being harmed—at this very moment—by the refusal of adults to ask questions."</blockquote><p>There are unquestionably ways in which Covid has harmed our kids and I don't want to minimize the loss and difficulty Jewish leaders and parents have had creating safe, meaningful Jewish lives for the next generation. The Jewish adults I know are hardly "pretending not to know" that this is an issue.</p><p>I'll put on my parenting hat for this one. I have two amazing and wonderful daughters, who will be 4 and 2 this April. My oldest was a regular at shul with us every week from being named before the Torah when she was four days old until March 21, 2020. There is so much to say about the balancing act that working parents went through in that first year of Covid, but that's not what I'm here to talk about today. On Saturday, March 28, 2020, and for months after, my daughter missed our shul, the Torahs, the rabbis, her friends, our ritual director/gabbai (George), the Tot Shabbat songs, the kiddush lunch, and playing on the playground before going home. We found new ways to be together with our community through Zoom Kabbalat Shabbat on Friday afternoons, Zoom Havdalah on Saturday nights, and eventually livestreaming Shabbat morning. Before we knew what our new reality would become and how long it would last, we scrolled through the tiles of people to see our friends, waved and unmuted to say "Shabbat Shalom!" and "Shavua Tov" and logged onto the livestream to see the Torahs and George and anyone else who walked into the camera's view. But those virtual experiences did not stop my oldest from asking on Saturday morning why we weren't at shul. She marched around our living room with her plush Torah singing "Torah Torah!" She, like the rest of us, wanted and valued the community experiences we had lost. We went to Shabbat morning services in-person a few times that first summer and fall, and again in the hopeful early summer of 2021 pre-Delta. It was wonderful to be back in our sacred space seeing the top half of our friends' faces above their masks. But at the same time, I knew that there were faces we wouldn't see there, either because we had lost them, or because their own family circumstances and Covid precautions kept them home. And sitting distanced from the friends who were there was not the same as schmoozing with them between prayers. My oldest wanted to stand high on a ledge to see the Torahs when they opened the ark. She wanted to play hide and seek in her chair with the friend who sat behind us every week. Eventually, we settled into a new Saturday morning routine, which did not always include the livestream, and she stopped asking why we weren't at shul, because she knew the answer now. As much as I hated answering that question every week, I also hated when she stopped asking, when our once-weekly ritual transitioned more into memory.</p><p>And then there is my younger daughter, born in April of 2020. She was named on Zoom. She has never known the controlled chaos of Tot Shabbat, has never run semi-rampant in the sanctuary or eaten foods at kiddush lunch that we never keep in our house (maybe she would like olives, who knows?). She has never woken from a nap and cried just as the silent Amidah was starting and has never been passed around to all of our friends during the Torah service. I've mourned that Jewish experience she never had. Before I continue, I have to pause for one of Rabbi Ain's Four Questions:</p><p></p><blockquote>"How much longer will children be kept from their Jewish communities? What about our children’s mental and spiritual well-being? Are we willing to sacrifice their entire Jewish childhoods?"</blockquote><p></p><p>I was devastated not to be able to provide the same loving spiritual communal experience for my youngest that my oldest had in her first almost-2 years. But to say that we sacrificed her mental and spiritual well-being and her entire Jewish childhood, is a stretch and also highly offensive. As an active member of my community and a Jewish professional with a Masters degree in Jewish experiential education, I admit that I am not the typical Jewish parent. I had tools and knowledge to help me provide a Jewish life for my children at home. We supplemented our Friday night Shabbat dinner and Saturday night Havdalah with new Shabbat morning activities and added new books about Shabbat and Judaism to our bookshelves. That is no substitute for a room of 250 friends on a Shabbat morning, but it's not the spiritual Jewish void Rabbi Ain envisions. My youngest is almost 2 now. She covers her eyes when we light Shabbat candles and when we say Shema. She insists we all wear kippot on Friday night and loves to read <i>Soosie the Horse that Saved Shabbat</i> from PJ Library. She makes challah with me and her older sister every Friday. We watch the Shabbat morning service via livestream on occasion. She is having a Jewish childhood.</p><p>Part of my job and the job of all Jewish communal leaders is to empower Jewish parents to create Jewish moments for their families. Before that first High Holiday season of the pandemic, my synagogue made tools for Jewish engagement a top priority. We held an outdoor challah bake. We organized drive-thru Havdalah candle pickup and kosher grocery deliveries. We handed out High Holiday activity kits for kids, honey stick tastings with discussion questions to engage your whole family, and biodegradable Tashlich papers with prompts to think about as your family performed Tashlich. And that's just some of the things we did just in the month of Elul. I would recommend to Rabbi Ain that he ask the parents in his congregation what they need to help them enhance their Jewish life at home and then work to provide them with the tools and knowledge to do it. And when the pandemic is over, your synagogue should still be providing you with opportunities to learn and grow your own Jewish knowledge, so that you can do Jewish at home. Yes, community is important to Jewish life and coming together to pray, celebrate, and mourn are central to Judaism. But you should also be comfortable owning and growing your Jewish life in your own Jewish home, and you should feel supported by your community as you grow.</p><span><!--more--></span><p>I'm not going to quote the next part of Rabbi Ain's diatribe with which I take issue, but I will tell you that he says putting masks on children is like "binding" them and dismisses parental concerns that their children might get Covid by noting that it is like the common cold in children. ...<i>Masks are like binding and Covid is basically just a cold</i> is where I should have stopped reading. But I didn't, so here we are. I honestly don't even know what to say to this. But if my rabbis dismissed the complexities of this virus, the basic and effective step of masking, and the desire of every parent to keep their children healthy with such disdain and indifference, I wouldn't trust them with the spiritual well-being of my family.</p><span><!--more--></span><blockquote><br />"When is it time to say ‘enough’? What ought our feelings be toward people who may be less well than us—maybe who even made decisions not as great as ours—but who nonetheless are in need of our support? Should we abandon them to their isolation? We are a community of people who are encouraged to ask, to debate. We must do that now when so much is on the line—the very future of our community. And what I want to debate is not whether a synagogue can be a place of complete safety, complete sterility, but whether it <i>should</i> be. No new life ever flowered in a germ-free environment."</blockquote><p>Did he just insinuate that people more vulnerable to Covid might have brought their isolation on themselves because of their own poor health decisions? It's a convoluted sentence, so I really hope that I'm just not reading it right. I don't think anyone is suggesting that we <i>can</i> create a completely safe and sterile environment, so he's just being purposefully obtuse here. That's not the way to encourage or invite debate.</p><p>It's clear that <i>he</i> at least has had "enough" and he is certainly not alone in being <i>over it</i>. To borrow Rabbi Ain's Passover analogy: if he sees the Jewish community as the child who doesn't know how to ask, I see him as the wicked child who says "What does this mean to <i>you</i>?" To <i>you </i>and not to <i>me</i>, because he blames the Jewish community at large for caution in the face of a deadly pandemic and shirks responsibility for his own community. He takes his own leadership as a rabbi out of the picture, as if Covid and the Jewish response to it are things that have been done to him, rather than something he could take an active role in tackling and shaping. I hope that he finds a way through his anger so that he can be a more compassionate leader for his community. </p><p>Finally, I hope that you are finding ways to make meaning in your Jewish life. I would love to hear some of the ways you are connecting with Judaism and your Jewish community. If you are a parent, I'd love to know how you're developing your child's Jewish connections. Please share in the comments below, so that we can learn and grow together.</p><p></p>Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01728788798618348892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-625659745444606696.post-11169944566427701722021-05-15T21:20:00.007-04:002021-05-16T12:08:01.726-04:00Count the Omer Week 7: Malchut<p style="text-align: center;"> <a href="http://goandlearnit.blogspot.com/2021/05/count-omer-week-6-yesod.html">Go back to Week 6</a></p><p style="text-align: left;">One of my daughter's favorite books is <i>The Berenstain Bears Trouble With Friends</i>. Each Berenstain Bears book begins with a little rhyming lesson. Here's the beginning of <i>Trouble with Friends</i>:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl3xuOqJWqw0AknYZLlXL2gF4bgfmJRQ6yP2C6iQCJNkk9jSYuyKIAZjwD4RXuXroKWAhnaJbs2rf3uNiZk5uq3u68f540LsLd5f8E6AoGvCtDfZCzSNwKwFSOzRr4m3lCEvd3TrIYQ3k/s3305/PXL_20210515_004151076.MP.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3305" data-original-width="2480" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl3xuOqJWqw0AknYZLlXL2gF4bgfmJRQ6yP2C6iQCJNkk9jSYuyKIAZjwD4RXuXroKWAhnaJbs2rf3uNiZk5uq3u68f540LsLd5f8E6AoGvCtDfZCzSNwKwFSOzRr4m3lCEvd3TrIYQ3k/s320/PXL_20210515_004151076.MP.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">When making friends,</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">the cub whose wise</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">is the cub who learns</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">to compromise.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">When my daughter reads it, she sometimes says "When making friends, the cub whose wise is the cub who learns to <i>supervise</i>." In the story, the two friends have a lot of fun together, but also struggle with their own bossiness as they each want to lead their activities.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The final week of the Omer is the week of malchut, leadership. Watching toddlers navigate friendships is an interesting lesson in leadership. When do they supervise and when do they compromise? In the story, the main character, Sister Bear, has an argument while playing school with her new friend, Lizzy, because they both want to be the teacher. Sister decides that it's better to play by herself so she can do what she wants, but she quickly learns that it's lonely to play by herself. The two friends make up and decide to take turns being the teacher, so they can play and both lead sometimes.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Leadership requires relationships, because you can't lead no one.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Counting the Omer, each sephira each week is an aspect of God that we should strive to better in ourselves. The week of malchut is the final week and the closest to God. As such, our leadership should reflect the fact that we are made in God's image. We should strive for leadership like God's that is kind and thoughtful, creative and constructive.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Thank you for counting the Omer with us this year! My daughter is very excited to celebrate Shavuot with ice cream. I hope you do the same!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Chag Sameach! </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj62GgcunW4g1XbN5y_NXMMcC6FwiGn2NjO9dJzLu8Gor88XXMvad3mYeUABinHoZ_cbk1mL15-5bnhVjh-37wLyNzROEBf3wGvyFPZnQ4VMnk8k6dm6iM-iv0u7KQmBMCQFqjNT8Ou1vY/s4032/PXL_20210329_231147668.MP.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj62GgcunW4g1XbN5y_NXMMcC6FwiGn2NjO9dJzLu8Gor88XXMvad3mYeUABinHoZ_cbk1mL15-5bnhVjh-37wLyNzROEBf3wGvyFPZnQ4VMnk8k6dm6iM-iv0u7KQmBMCQFqjNT8Ou1vY/s320/PXL_20210329_231147668.MP.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div>Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01728788798618348892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-625659745444606696.post-89462073661595026342021-05-07T11:52:00.003-04:002021-05-16T12:07:51.202-04:00Count the Omer Week 6: Yesod<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://goandlearnit.blogspot.com/2021/04/count-omer-week-5-hod.html"> Go back to Week 5</a> | <a href="http://goandlearnit.blogspot.com/2021/05/count-omer-week-7-malchut.html">Skip to Week 7</a></p><p style="text-align: left;">We are wrapping up week six of the Omer, the week of yesod, foundation and connection.</p><p style="text-align: left;">New in my life, my one-year-old started walking and my three-year-old can write 2-3 letters of her name, so we've been spending a lot of time explaining foundation to them. You have to walk before you can run and jump. You have to know the alphabet before you can read and write.</p><p style="text-align: left;">If you ask our three-year-old how old she is, she will tell you, "I'm one, two, three," and her phrasing got me thinking about how we see age. So often, we ask someone on their birthday, "Do you feel older?" But our whole lives have been building to that age. There's no clean break from 2 to 3 years old. Who I was at 27 informs who I am at 33, so really, aren't I 1, 2, skip a few, 32, 33 years old? It's certainly a good reminder of the foundation upon which our present-day lives are built.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Counting the Omer is remarkably similar to my daughter's method of counting her age. When we count a day, we say "Today is the 40th day of the Omer, making 5 weeks and 5 days of the Omer." Counting the Omer is a method of marking time and growth from who the Israelites were at the Exodus to who they would become upon receiving the Torah at Sinai. Our past is the foundation for our present and we are always connected to it, even as we grow and change.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUO5XB8ox-bzzf4FTdkkXspFpnihV6N8WWZhkPC2bfeJ2SSppxTfHYX7ScgmSZA8LYC2vaRieIpF0ucVfd-RDHGP-5BjF_0vLdOr22Oh-aMWFzQ5dYoK6KctheMpJThJXrBbMgzC9MFX8/s4032/PXL_20210329_231138396.MP.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUO5XB8ox-bzzf4FTdkkXspFpnihV6N8WWZhkPC2bfeJ2SSppxTfHYX7ScgmSZA8LYC2vaRieIpF0ucVfd-RDHGP-5BjF_0vLdOr22Oh-aMWFzQ5dYoK6KctheMpJThJXrBbMgzC9MFX8/s320/PXL_20210329_231138396.MP.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>Six! Six weeks of the Omer! Ah ah ah!</i></div>Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01728788798618348892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-625659745444606696.post-8444386525443643552021-04-29T20:43:00.003-04:002021-05-07T11:53:06.175-04:00Count the Omer Week 5: Hod<p style="text-align: center;"> <a href="http://goandlearnit.blogspot.com/2021/04/count-omer-week-4-netzach.html">Go back to Week 4</a> | <a href="http://goandlearnit.blogspot.com/2021/05/count-omer-week-6-yesod.html">Skip to Week 6</a></p><p style="text-align: left;">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.</p><blockquote><p style="text-align: left;">"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</p></blockquote><p style="text-align: left;">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 <i>always</i> 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.</p><p style="text-align: left;">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 <i>Frozen</i>? What is your favorite color and why? Why is it bedtime? <a href="http://goandlearnit.blogspot.com/2021/03/omer-2021-intro.html">Why are we counting the Omer?</a></p><p style="text-align: left;">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.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqTIxR6VEGg8cnPaPP3F-tsl-GI29255vane_FqLgvhASkUoP2yGWm4jZ0rudPT9_aom8OLIalQlHboACmbbKJda1JFW_7EL6YIm72PCcdHyas4NqWaPmFrC5ME-lsxBK1lqcwrw4Wbfs/s4032/PXL_20210329_231129869.MP.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqTIxR6VEGg8cnPaPP3F-tsl-GI29255vane_FqLgvhASkUoP2yGWm4jZ0rudPT9_aom8OLIalQlHboACmbbKJda1JFW_7EL6YIm72PCcdHyas4NqWaPmFrC5ME-lsxBK1lqcwrw4Wbfs/s320/PXL_20210329_231129869.MP.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p>Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01728788798618348892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-625659745444606696.post-25635941268854171072021-04-20T16:46:00.002-04:002021-05-07T11:56:33.386-04:00Count the Omer Week 4: Netzach<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://goandlearnit.blogspot.com/2021/04/count-omer-week-3-tiferet.html">Go back to Week 3</a> | <a href="http://goandlearnit.blogspot.com/2021/04/count-omer-week-5-hod.html">Skip to Week 5</a></p><p>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.</p><p>My daughter loves to play games. She got Candy Land for Chanukah and this is how she plays it:</p><p>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. </p><p>Rather, I should say that the time spent playing together <i>is</i> the victory. The game is finite, but the relationships between the players endure.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHCm0cwzISYXiY0iMcotpweYBwWQjrz_2WExeklmibozeLv09DHsxfoaxuXzZxu9LZAI53BfZAb-XIlGbqbXl9mv4PcU6AwqEy15ToFyBdf4YC1-5P-cKe-t9iCq9RG7I9yT8LNIgLw8k/s4032/PXL_20210329_231121182.MP.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHCm0cwzISYXiY0iMcotpweYBwWQjrz_2WExeklmibozeLv09DHsxfoaxuXzZxu9LZAI53BfZAb-XIlGbqbXl9mv4PcU6AwqEy15ToFyBdf4YC1-5P-cKe-t9iCq9RG7I9yT8LNIgLw8k/s320/PXL_20210329_231121182.MP.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01728788798618348892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-625659745444606696.post-87280815944174124972021-04-14T14:26:00.003-04:002021-05-07T11:56:58.362-04:00Count the Omer Week 3: Tiferet<p style="text-align: center;"> <a href="http://goandlearnit.blogspot.com/2021/04/count-omer-week-2-gevurah.html">Go back to Week 2</a> | <a href="http://goandlearnit.blogspot.com/2021/04/count-omer-week-4-netzach.html">Skip to Week 4</a></p><p style="text-align: left;">"What's something that's beautiful?" I asked my toddler today.</p><p style="text-align: left;">"A rainbow," she said. "Because of the colors."</p><p style="text-align: left;">Scientifically, rainbows are <a href="https://scijinks.gov/rainbow/#:~:text=A%20rainbow%20is%20caused%20by,droplet%2C%20it%20makes%20a%20rainbow.">a reflection of sunlight bending through raindrops</a> 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. </p><p style="text-align: left;">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.</p><p style="text-align: left;">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.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnhyphenhyphenSPpE57bCAogXdyKVDaX3MDuFnVxXwuufRv2kUYrilD3caBLgeYcPDXVyoNyWhNaXbwuoeL-C4lxYyq6RPg0iZgp_i0AQi9RKdkb3fW0Mr-mPDfGkr5H8p2FSBwgecCeT-LvDbJLJk/s4032/PXL_20210329_231112196.MP.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnhyphenhyphenSPpE57bCAogXdyKVDaX3MDuFnVxXwuufRv2kUYrilD3caBLgeYcPDXVyoNyWhNaXbwuoeL-C4lxYyq6RPg0iZgp_i0AQi9RKdkb3fW0Mr-mPDfGkr5H8p2FSBwgecCeT-LvDbJLJk/s320/PXL_20210329_231112196.MP.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p>Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01728788798618348892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-625659745444606696.post-27532471628735255452021-04-08T22:52:00.006-04:002021-05-07T11:58:15.485-04:00Count the Omer Week 2: Gevurah<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://goandlearnit.blogspot.com/2021/03/count-omer-week-1-chesed.html"> Go back to Week 1</a> | <a href="http://goandlearnit.blogspot.com/2021/04/count-omer-week-3-tiferet.html">Skip to Week 3</a></p><p style="text-align: left;">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.</p><p style="text-align: left;">"Who do you know who is strong?" I asked her.</p><p style="text-align: left;">She answered, "Me. I'm strong. And [a friend at daycare], and daddy."</p><p style="text-align: left;">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.</p><p style="text-align: left;">When I asked her <i>how</i> 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.</p><p style="text-align: left;">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?</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy0myaVkThpjKsp-lY0tu9hyphenhyphena_1A5Ri8goGyKKKEEYQXEV1tzPhz-_jnskj9iDZMy8JdxiH1JqpFTp2GsmQdTH7LbxxGBSCRe1Bz6r64tuzAWsYlhri__0wKNm-v7BefAJvcseM_HJhxQ/s4032/PXL_20210329_231104402.MP.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy0myaVkThpjKsp-lY0tu9hyphenhyphena_1A5Ri8goGyKKKEEYQXEV1tzPhz-_jnskj9iDZMy8JdxiH1JqpFTp2GsmQdTH7LbxxGBSCRe1Bz6r64tuzAWsYlhri__0wKNm-v7BefAJvcseM_HJhxQ/s320/PXL_20210329_231104402.MP.jpg" /></a></div>Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01728788798618348892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-625659745444606696.post-2587047572596786312021-03-30T09:34:00.003-04:002021-05-07T11:58:34.073-04:00Count the Omer Week 1: Chesed<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://goandlearnit.blogspot.com/2021/03/omer-2021-intro.html">Go back to the intro</a> | <a href="http://goandlearnit.blogspot.com/2021/04/count-omer-week-2-gevurah.html">Skip to Week 2</a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>The first week of the Omer is the week of chesed (loving-kindness). Because we start counting the Omer on the second night of Passover, the entire week of Passover takes place in the week of chesed, so let's take a moment to examine the loving-kindness in this holiday.<div><br /></div><div>Passover commands us to love the stranger and to feed all who are hungry. Even as we focus on the history of our peoples' enslavement and liberation, we are encouraged to broaden our thinking and draw parallels to present-day suffering. It is an exercise in empathy.</div><div><br /></div><div>I asked my almost-three-year-old daughter what she thought of loving-kindness and, as is usually the case with toddlers, she brought insight and understanding to a difficult concept. We broke down chesed into two parts:</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Love</b></div><div>"Who do you love?" I asked her. I expected her to answer with a family member, maybe me, her dad, or her sister. Maybe a grandparent, uncle, or cousin. Instead, she answered, "Judah and Asher," two of her best friends who moved away last summer. Chesed, as my daughter reminded me, is not bound by blood or time or distance. We love the people we love, family and friends, near and far. At Passover, when so much of the holiday is spent with family and friends, hosting and attending seders (virtually again this year for many of us), the people we love are at the forefront of our minds. We spent our seders this year telling the story of the Exodus, but also reminiscing about past seders with friends where we drank too much wine, and laughing about the weird combinations of Passover foods that our daughters' Great-Grandpa Marvin (z"l) used to enjoy. It is a holiday that invites love into our homes.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Kindness</b></div><div>I asked my daughter, "How are you nice to people?" In reply, she told me that she had been playing at daycare with a friend in the play house in the backyard. Another friend wanted to join them and my daughter told me, "I opened the door and told her she could come in the house with us." Inclusion is an important aspect of chesed. We show our friends that we care about them by inviting them to join us, instead of leaving them out. When someone reaches out to us, we invite them in. On Passover, we recall what it meant to be the other, to be downtrodden and oppressed, and to cry out for help. Then, we recall the joy of finding an outstretched arm guiding us toward safety, love, and home. How are you nice to people? By extending an outstretched arm and an open door.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiavdCuv8GsSBK759Fewt8ImpT4SEqp1VNXdKn2TTjF-cpVSsLf3nMtTrN0Q1Eqr2Za87TULWkalYxwhx0BeFAxpHP5FnOmHf4Ab3r86agpkskn_y62Z_xDJcr3hgYmG5NXL9DpS5O44HM/s4032/PXL_20210329_231051978.MP.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiavdCuv8GsSBK759Fewt8ImpT4SEqp1VNXdKn2TTjF-cpVSsLf3nMtTrN0Q1Eqr2Za87TULWkalYxwhx0BeFAxpHP5FnOmHf4Ab3r86agpkskn_y62Z_xDJcr3hgYmG5NXL9DpS5O44HM/s320/PXL_20210329_231051978.MP.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>One! One week of the Omer! Ah ah ah!</i></div><br /><div><br /></div>Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01728788798618348892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-625659745444606696.post-73280255774241949752021-03-29T19:32:00.004-04:002021-03-30T09:37:28.796-04:00Omer 2021 Intro<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://goandlearnit.blogspot.com/2021/03/count-omer-week-1-chesed.html">Skip to Week 1</a></p><p>On Passover, we are supposed to see ourselves as if we had personally come out of Egypt. But as it turns out, we're not finished with this thought experiment. Last night as our second seders ended, we began counting the Omer. From day 1 to day 49, we are commanded to mark the time that the Israelites traveled in the wilderness from Egypt to Sinai. These 49 days are the crucial first steps for the Israelites in their journey to freedom. We, too, take this journey with them, seeing ourselves, once again, as if we had come out of Egypt. Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism) attaches seven sephirot (attributes of God) to each of the seven weeks of the Omer, so that our counting becomes a time for reflection and spiritual growth. Just as the Israelites moved from slavery in Egypt to freedom and revelation at Sinai, we too should take this opportunity to change and grow and prepare ourselves for a closer relationship with God and with each other.</p><p>The seven sephirot are:</p><p>1. Chesed (חסד): loving kindness</p><p>2. Gevurah (גבורה): strength, power, justice, bravery</p><p>3. Tiferet (תפארת): beauty, balance, compassion</p><p>4. Netzach (נצח): eternity, endurance, victory</p><p>5. Hod (הוד): splendor, majesty, glory, humility</p><p>6. Yesod (יסוד): foundation, connection</p><p>7. Malchut (מלכות): leadership</p><p>Each week and each day have a sephira. The first week is the week is chesed. The first day is chesed, the second is gevurah, and so on, so that each sephira will be paired as we count. What does it mean to have <a href="http://goandlearnit.blogspot.com/2015/04/count-omer-2015-day-4.html" target="_blank">endurance in loving kindness</a> (day 4)? What does it mean to have <a href="http://goandlearnit.blogspot.com/2013/04/count-omer-day-15.html" target="_blank">loving kindness in balance</a> (day 15)?</p><p>I think the pandemic has caused a lot of us to look inward, to reevaluate who we are and what is important to us in life. Over the past year, we have all struggled with loneliness and isolation, with loss and grief. We have also learned new ways of working and connecting with each other, taken on new challenges and opportunities to grow. I have friends who have taken up baking, are learning a new language, and have lost 30 pounds. Whether or not you are now a slimmer master baker with a 365+ day Duolingo streak, or still just getting by, I invite you to count the Omer with me this year. It provides structure and focus to your days and weeks, and a shared experience for us all.</p><p>This year, I'm only going to blog the weeks, but I'm counting every day with the help of a counting expert!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNfcbjlTvhQq0WqIBmqia5RXDNL4Xipy1lNVxXJeQjhLcHMCGtCocjkJub01RDCkVFFWh9nVj70cEw7rFATrATAZunkj9b26ofUukA8o4AI9LK-WLXx17kwCUAc4RIe8sO0MVG-F5HIyA/s4032/PXL_20210329_232615958.MP.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNfcbjlTvhQq0WqIBmqia5RXDNL4Xipy1lNVxXJeQjhLcHMCGtCocjkJub01RDCkVFFWh9nVj70cEw7rFATrATAZunkj9b26ofUukA8o4AI9LK-WLXx17kwCUAc4RIe8sO0MVG-F5HIyA/s320/PXL_20210329_232615958.MP.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>See you back here later this week for some chesed. For fun Simpson's-themed help counting each day, check out <a href="http://homercalendar.net">homercalendar.net</a>. Want reflections on each day from me? Check out <a href="http://goandlearnit.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html">my posts from years past</a>!</p>Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01728788798618348892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-625659745444606696.post-19018242706568704702021-01-30T20:12:00.002-05:002021-01-30T21:51:31.851-05:00Vengeance and Compassion<p>This week’s parsha was B’Shalach, which features the beautiful Song at the Sea, Shirat ha-Yam. This melody elicits a sense of the Israelites' joy at their freedom from bondage and their excitement for the future. Given the beauty of the melody, it can be easy for us to gloss over the fact that the text is pretty violent. Among its many verses, Shirat Ha-Yam includes:</p><p><br /></p><p>“I will sing to Adonai, for God has triumphed gloriously. Horse and driver God has hurled into the sea.”</p><p><br /></p><p>“The deeps covered them. They went down into the depths like a stone.”</p><p><br /></p><p>“You made Your wind blow, the sea covered them. They sank like lead in the majestic waters.”</p><p><br /></p><p>This unapologetic display of joy at the death of the Egyptians might offend our modern sensibilities, but it’s also understandable and has so much to teach us about human nature and about our relationship with God.</p><p><br /></p><p>The Israelites, pressed up against the banks of the Sea of Reeds, fleeing the advancing Egyptian army, miraculously find the water parted before them. They walk, in awe, safely between walls of water from slavery in Egypt to freedom at Sinai, and watch as God brings those waters crashing back down, drowning their pursuers - the Egyptians who oppressed them for 400 years, who threw their sons into the Nile, who would have murdered them at the sea had God not intervened. I don't blame them for rejoicing. These deaths bring closure and a definitive end to the Israelites’ enslavement. Their peace of mind comes because they have witnessed the destruction of their enemies. With the army destroyed, there is no one left to come after them.</p><p><br /></p><p>It is a violent and vengeful act by God. The Torah explains that God goaded the Egyptians into pursuit and lured them into the sea. In Exodus chapter 14, God explains to Moses that sending the Israelites in a circle and back to the Sea of Reeds is a ploy to trick Pharaoh into thinking they are lost and will be easy to recapture. God says, “Then I will stiffen Pharaoh’s heart and he will pursue [the Israelites], that I may gain glory through Pharaoh and all his hosts.”</p><p><br /></p><p>And when they reached the sea, God split the waters “with a strong east wind.” Ramban argues that God used wind so that the Egyptians would rationalize the parting of the sea as a natural phenomenon and not a miracle, thereby making it easier for them to charge into the sea and ultimately to their deaths. Once in the sea, God “threw the Egyptian army into a panic” and “locked the wheels of their chariots.” Based on this description, we can only conclude that God meticulously planned this series of events. This death by drowning mirrors the horror of the Israelites’ sons being thrown into the Nile. It is not only vengeance, but poetic justice.</p><p><br /></p><p>Water is both a source of death and life. The same Nile that Pharoah used to drown a generation of Israelite boys also carried Moses to safety. The same sea that parted for the Israelites crushed the Egyptians. The lack of water and its miraculous appearance in the desert later in this parsha and throughout the Israelites’ 40-year journey through the desert will remain a constant reminder of its power over life and death. Moses is sentenced to death for striking a rock in anger to make water flow from it. The journey through the wilderness begins and ends with water as a life-saving and life-taking source of wonderment. It’s a challenging duality, as illustrated by the conflict between vengeance and compassion throughout this parsha.</p><p><br /></p><p>God’s actions in the first part of the parsha through the end of Shirat ha-Yam lean toward a portrayal of God as vengeful. However, following the Israelites’ praise for God’s vengeance in Shirat ha-Yam, the rest of the parsha shows God to be extremely restrained and compassionate. God spends a lot of time frustrated with humanity throughout the Torah, but not in this parsha.</p><p><br /></p><p>In Genesis, we see God’s temper, destroying humanity in the Great Flood (another example of the destructive power of water). We see God, frustrated with humanity’s sinfulness and willing to destroy entire cities, reconsider the fate of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah after Abraham suggests that they need not be destroyed. When, during their journey in the desert, the Israelites build and idolize a golden calf, God threatens to destroy them and start a new covenant with Moses, an offer that Moses (thankfully) refuses. There are plenty of examples of God’s short temper and vengeance, but this week, God is extremely patient despite a lot of complaints and doubt from the Israelites.</p><p><br /></p><p>Whenever God is short-tempered, angry, or frustrated with humanity, I like to remember that we are made in God’s image. If I lose my temper more quickly than I’d like, or gloat too much when my team’s biggest rival suffers a humiliating loss, I can take some comfort in the fact that it’s a natural reaction, even though I know I need to strive to be better. God works on God’s own temper throughout the Torah, so it’s no failing that I need to work on mine too, as long as I actually put in the work to improve. It's no failing if your temper runs short.</p><p><br /></p><p>In Shirat ha-Yam, the Israelites praise God for destroying the Egyptians and God responds to this praise by demonstrating love, not through vengeful protection, but through patient compassion. When, on their march through the desert, the Israelites grumble about bitter waters, God makes them sweet. When they grumble about hunger, God provides quail and manna. When they grumble again about thirst, God causes water to flow from a rock. Each time the Israelites become frustrated about their situation, they question whether it would have been better to remain in Egypt and doubt God’s power and ability to provide for them. They lack faith. God could have taken offense and punished them for each transgression, but instead of focusing on their ungratefulness, God demonstrated understanding of their underlying fears and met them with patience and compassion. Just as water can be both a source of sustenance and a source of destruction, God - and humanity made in God’s image - has the ability to be both short-tempered and compassionate.</p><p><br /></p><p>The Israelites clearly needed God’s compassion in this parsha. They hadn’t been on the receiving end of patience or understanding for generations; they had been slaves for 400 years. And they deserved compassion, because their lives, even in freedom, would not be easy. With the larger threat of attack from the Egyptians resolved, the Israelites, of course, turned their attention to the everyday concerns of nomadic survival: of feeding themselves and their families and surviving in a hostile wilderness. When the Israelites faced an enemy, God crushed them. By destroying the Egyptian army, God offered the Israelites justice and peace of mind. But when they faced starvation and thirst, and a long period of persistent hardships, God offered them help and compassion.</p><p><br /></p><p>As I read this parsha, I couldn't help but think about the days when we could all be together. And now, after ten and a half months and over four hundred and thirty thousand deaths, COVID has really put B'Shalach's themes of life and death and God's patience and compassion into a new light.</p><p><br /></p><p>In the face of our own long period of hardships, we are all striving to live up to God’s example of compassion. We may not always succeed. We are all understandably on edge, our nerves frayed and patience run down by ten and a half months of life and death, of uncertainty. Of course we're struggling. I will continue to lose my temper from time to time, and if the Chiefs win the Super Bowl next week, I’ll not only celebrate, but I’ll probably also gloat about Tom Brady’s loss. I can only hope that when that happens, I am met with God’s patience and I correct myself quickly. To be made in God’s image in this moment means that we all need to try to fill the world with more lovingkindness, to give others grace, to offer a helping hand, and show a little bit more patience. These times call us to put Hillel’s Golden Rule into action: to treat others as each of us would like to be treated. May we all see God’s compassion reflected in each other and continue to find reasons to sing God’s praises.</p><p><br /></p><p>Shabbat shalom.</p>Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01728788798618348892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-625659745444606696.post-75542765438667356262020-09-28T22:31:00.002-04:002020-09-29T07:23:28.708-04:00Days of Awe<p>My first Yamim Noraim - my first experience of the Days of Awe - were truly awe-inspiring. It was a new year and, for me, everything was new: the prayers, the community, the sacred time of reflection, the hunger. I was struck by the familiarity with which we address God, reverential, but still close. It was only years later that someone pointed out to me that all of our prayers for forgiveness are said in the plural. <i>We</i> have sinned. Remember <i>us</i>. It didn't draw my attention at first, because it felt natural. After all, <i>we</i> were all together praying. But not this year.</p><p>For most of us in the US, the pandemic has meant that we have spent the past six months keeping our distance from others, praying mostly alone. Most weeks, my husband and I watch our shul's new livestream of Shabbat services from our living room with our daughters, who alternate between watching and playing. We've done the same for the High Holidays, except for Yom Kippur morning. Our shul repeated the Yom Kippur day service to give as many people as possible the opportunity to attend a limited in-person service, and both were livestreamed for anyone to watch at home. I had planned to watch the later service in the afternoon while my children napped, but I found myself on Yom Kippur morning with an occupied toddler and a napping baby, and an hour to myself. I opened my borrowed machzor and davened alone - sometimes aloud, sometimes silently, sometimes in English, and sometimes in Hebrew. I paused to think; I read the commentaries in the margins; and as I recited prayers from "us" alone, I reflected on my lack of awe this year, the strangeness, and the distance from each other and from God.</p><p>Truthfully, I was not awed this year. I spent these Days of Awe alternatingly or simultaneously grieving, angry, and numb. There are too many reasons to enumerate. Just since Rosh Hashanah a long ten days ago:</p><p>Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died. A feminist icon, a fierce defender of our rights and our Constitution, an outspoken and intelligent woman.</p><p>Our country is on fire. Literally (both naturally and man made) and figuratively. We are engulfed in rage and choked by partisanship.</p><p>We surpassed 200,000 deaths from COVID-19. Each of those people is missed by someone. Wear a mask.</p><p>Breonna Taylor was denied justice. Her trial and the lack of closure for her family and the country is just the latest proof of systemic racism and inherent inequality for our citizens.</p><p>Senate Republicans are moving ahead (hypocritically) to install a conservative justice who will set back women's rights and women's health for decades, impacting not only myself, but my daughters well into their own far-off adulthood.</p><p>This president continues to undermine our institutions and degrade our moral decency.</p><p>Even though I recognized the danger to our souls in his gleeful rejection of civility (or "political correctness"), I have not been immune to it. I have matched anger with anger; I have judged others harshly; I have been cynical and arrogant. Worse, I have succumbed to moments of despair, convinced that none of it matters, that nothing will get better. There is no justice and there can be no justice as long as those in power subvert justice and act outside the bounds of fair play.</p><p>But then I read Isaiah.</p><blockquote><p>"For I will not always contend,</p></blockquote><p></p><blockquote><p>I will not be angry forever:</p><p>Nay, I who make spirits flag,</p><p>also create the breath of life." Isaiah 57:16 </p></blockquote><p>God will not be angry forever. I will not be angry forever.</p><p></p><blockquote>"If you banish the yoke from your midst, the menacing hand, the evil speech, and you offer your compassion to the hungry and satisfy the famished creature - then shall your light shine in darkness." Isaiah 58:9-10</blockquote><p></p><p>And not from the High Holiday liturgy, but always and increasingly relevant: </p><p></p><blockquote>"You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to desist from it." Pirkei Avot 2:21</blockquote><p></p><p>Kol Nidre begins Yom Kippur not with apologies for the past year, but a request to forgive the sins and annul the vows we will commit in the coming year. Even as we ask forgiveness for past transgressions, we acknowledge that we will sin again. But maybe we will do a little bit better in the coming year. May we learn from our past mistakes, so that even as we sin anew in 5781, we grow a little better. And therein lies the hope.</p><p>I alone and we together must do better this year. We cannot desist from the hard work of rebuilding justice and civility. We must set aside our anger and get to work banishing evil and increasing compassion. Although the world is dark, we must be sources of light. Although the situation seems hopeless, we can provide hope. Although we know we will need forgiveness again next year, we begin the new year with our best intentions. We commit to be better, to do more, to draw closer to God, and to always remember that <i>we</i> are in this together.</p>Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01728788798618348892noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-625659745444606696.post-31245747357928164902020-07-01T17:53:00.002-04:002020-07-01T17:53:09.422-04:00Ritual Cleansing and the New Normal<div dir="auto">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The beauty of reading the Torah on an annual cycle is that, while the words remain the same from year to year, we do not. Our reading each year should be deeper, informed by who we are now and the times in which we live. This year, the times certainly make for some interesting reading.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">My husband goes grocery shopping approximately every two weeks, or when we run out of milk. He brings the groceries home from the store, places them all on the front step outside our door, and wipes everything down before we bring them inside. We wash our hands.<span class="gmail_default"> Our offices are closed and we work from home. Our kids' daycare is closed and our toddler is blowing through every movie on Disney Plus (she likes <i>Moana </i>and <i>Finding Nemo</i> and does not like <i>Toy Story</i>). We video chat with our parents and attend zoom happy hours with our friends. We held a baby naming for our second daughter on zoom. We wash our hands some more.
</span> This is our new normal.<span class="gmail_default"> This is the world in which we live.</span></span><div dir="auto">
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Three and a half months into the Coronavirus pandemic shut down in the US, we're reading parsha Chukkat<span class="gmail_default"></span> this week and for the first time the dry account of ritual purification grips me as I read it.<span class="gmail_default"> The painstaking detail of selecting and slaughtering a perfect red cow, and the subsequent descriptions of the cleansing rituals required of all those involved in the process, is a slow and somewhat repetitive read.</span></span></div>
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<span class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">"The kohen shall wash his garments and bathe his flesh in water, and then he may reenter the camp, and the kohen shall be unclean until evening. The one who burns it shall wash his clothes in water and cleanse his body in water, and he shall be unclean until evening. A ritually clean person shall gather the cow's ashes and place them outside the camp in a clean place, and it shall be as a keepsake for the congregation of the children of Israel for sprinkling water, for cleansing. The one who gathers the cow's ashes shall wash his clothes, and he shall be unclean until evening." </span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Numbers 19:7-9</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Why? Why do we go through this elaborate ritual for cow's ashes? Because the ashes are essential to purify people who have encountered death: "he who touches the corpse of any human being shall be impure for seven days," "when a person dies in a tent, whoever enters the tent and whoever is in the tent shall be impure seven days," "and in the open, anyone who touches a person who was killed or who died naturally, or human bone, or a grave, shall be impure seven days." Numbers 19:11-16</span></div>
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<span class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Parsha Chukkat is filled with death. Miriam and Aaron die, and Moses is sentenced to death. In a normal year, these deaths would be the focus of my attention. Leaving aside the details of sprinkling cow's ashes for purification, I would ponder these individual deaths and what they tell us about the ways we mourn family and the ways we mourn community leaders. But this is not a normal year. Instead, I wonder about the everyday Israelite who encounters death unexpectedly in a tent or in the open, and how their ritual of sprinkling cow's ashes and bathing is so familiar to my own cleansing routine of disinfecting groceries and washing hands.</span></span></div>
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<span class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As if to reinforce the comparison, parsha Chukkat also features a plague of deadly serpents, which kill many people. God sent the serpents to punish the Israelites for complaining (again) about leaving Egypt for the desert. In response to the serpents, the Israelites begged for mercy. "The people came to Moses and said, 'We sinned by speaking against God and against you. Intercede with God to take away the serpents from us!' And Moses interceded for the people." Numbers 21:7. God, as always, showed mercy, but God did not take away the serpents.
The serpents didn't miraculously disappear with a change in the weather.
Instead, God instructed Moses to create a copper serpent staff, which would heal anyone who looked at it. The serpents became part of their new normal.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span class="gmail_default">This year, I</span> see us all in this text. I see us <span class="gmail_default">wearing </span>face masks, wiping down groceries, washing our hands more frequently<span class="gmail_default"> and more vigorously</span>, holding ourselves apart from each other, <span class="gmail_default">waving instead of shaking hands, giving air hugs from six feet apart, </span>quarantining.<span class="gmail_default"> We do this to protect ourselves and to protect each other. I do this so that when I take my baby to the doctor, I can answer "no" when the nurse at the door asks her screening questions: "Do you have any flu-like symptoms? Cough, fever, difficulty breathing? Have you tested positive for the Coronavirus? Have you been in contact with anyone who has tested positive for the Coronavirus?" We do this because our world is encountering death every day and, like the Israelites, we need to protect ourselves and our community.</span></span></div>
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<span class="gmail_default"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As I write this, the number of US deaths from Covid-19 is near 130,000. I know people who have gotten sick and recovered. I know people who have lost loved ones. I'm sure you do too. Our new normal is alternatingly scary (will I or someone I love get sick today?) and monotonous (what day of the week is it?). I take comfort from parsha Chukkat in the fact that society has survived and adapted to pandemics and plagues before, and I have to believe we can do it again.</span></span></div>
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Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01728788798618348892noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-625659745444606696.post-85143189792056092512019-06-08T19:00:00.000-04:002019-06-08T19:00:01.618-04:00Shavuot 2019<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://goandlearnit.blogspot.com/2019/06/omer-2019-day-49-wildlife-conservation.html">Back to Day 49 of the Omer</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Thank you for counting with us! As we prepare to celebrate Shavuot by eating too much ice cream and studying well into the night, we hope that our animal Omer entertained you, taught you something about animals that you didn't know before, and also helped you discover something new about yourself. Whether you want to try to become <a href="http://goandlearnit.blogspot.com/2019/06/omer-2019-day-43-horses.html">more patient</a>, fight against <a href="http://goandlearnit.blogspot.com/2019/05/omer-2019-day-37-capuchin-monkeys.html">inequality</a>, work on <a href="http://goandlearnit.blogspot.com/2019/04/omer-2019-day-6-emperor-penguins.html">collaborating</a> better with friends and coworkers, or start a petition to make the turkey our <a href="http://goandlearnit.blogspot.com/2019/05/omer-2019-day-30-bald-eagle.html">national bird</a>, we hope that the diversity of the natural world has inspired you to grow.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.85px; white-space: normal;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">This year's animal Omer was a collaboration between myself and my friend Halli, a PhD in animal science. Thank you for counting the Omer with us. See you next year!</span></i></span></span>Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01728788798618348892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-625659745444606696.post-23540500339039330062019-06-07T18:33:00.002-04:002019-06-07T18:48:00.606-04:00Omer 2019 Day 49: Wildlife Conservation<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://goandlearnit.blogspot.com/2019/06/omer-2019-day-48-orcas.html">Back to Day 48</a></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Omer 2019 Day 49: Malchut in Malchut, Leadership in Leadership</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Wildlife Conservation</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Wildlife conservation is not something a person can just go out and do, like recycling or becoming a vegetarian. Of course doing things that are "earth conscious" helps, but the global leaders in conservation are the figureheads, lobbying organizations, policy-makers, scientists, and educators who bring awareness of wildlife issues to the public. More than just "neat," every species of animal (and plant) on this planet plays a vital role in its ecosystem, and in doing so makes our planet habitable. There's no telling what the future holds, but to be sure we would not be where we are today without the dedicated and brave people who put their necks on the line for animals who have no voice in our society. There are too many to list, but if you're interested in getting involved, start by researching organizations and finding one (or several) whose views align with your own, because to quote one of the most well known and influential conservationist text of our time:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"Unless someone cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not." -The Lorax, from Dr. Seuss' <i>The Lorax</i></span></blockquote>
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<i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">This year's animal Omer is a collaboration between myself and my friend Halli, a PhD in animal science. Thank you for counting the Omer with us!</span></i></div>
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Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01728788798618348892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-625659745444606696.post-78451537838419857162019-06-06T20:55:00.000-04:002019-06-06T21:09:11.816-04:00Omer 2019 Day 48: Orcas<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://goandlearnit.blogspot.com/2019/06/omer-2019-day-47-dolphins.html">Back to Day 47</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Omer 2019 Day 48: Yesod in Malchut, Connection in Leadership</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Orcas</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In thinking about connection in leadership, one thing that comes to mind is play. There are many examples of play in the animal world, and for good reason: it teaches cooperation, competition, and communication in juveniles, and it helps build important life skills that they'll need in adulthood. Orcas are an interesting example of play because both the juveniles and adults have been known to "play with their food." To some, this may look cruel (I'm sure their prey think so), but this is how adults teach their young the best hunting strategies that their pod uses. Orcas have culture, in that groups occupying different regions of the ocean exhibit different feeding/hunting behaviors and even have different diets! Play, and instructive play, are how these animals pass along much needed information from generation to generation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">This year's animal Omer is a collaboration between myself and my friend Halli, a PhD in animal science. Thank you for counting the Omer with us!</span></i></span></div>
Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01728788798618348892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-625659745444606696.post-37361795040809997492019-06-05T21:08:00.002-04:002019-06-06T21:09:04.160-04:00Omer 2019 Day 47: Dolphins<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://goandlearnit.blogspot.com/2019/06/omer-2019-day-46-hyrax.html">Back to Day 46</a> | <a href="http://goandlearnit.blogspot.com/2019/06/omer-2019-day-48-orcas.html">Skip to Day 48</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Omer 2019 Day 47: Hod in Malchut, Humility in Leadership</b><br />
<b>Dolphins</b><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKwx3jbWKuBTIrhx3e73MST3hl9xuBYu7Ai_A3bTjau_Taxpoe4VuXSeLB5COcucmrn3LAqw4tNk-XWVnn53NwnJwiUsf_NmqiF2Q9oL-PEHDaxC8BREQGp7zpmJowVisH_NBmA1UVdWo/s1600/dolphin-806358_1920.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKwx3jbWKuBTIrhx3e73MST3hl9xuBYu7Ai_A3bTjau_Taxpoe4VuXSeLB5COcucmrn3LAqw4tNk-XWVnn53NwnJwiUsf_NmqiF2Q9oL-PEHDaxC8BREQGp7zpmJowVisH_NBmA1UVdWo/s320/dolphin-806358_1920.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Image by <a href="https://pixabay.com/users/stepat-984556/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=806358" style="color: #333333; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; outline: 0px !important;">Steven Leeuw</a> from <a href="https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=806358" style="color: #333333; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; outline: 0px !important;">Pixabay</a></span></td></tr>
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There's a lot we could say about dolphins. They're highly intelligent and playful, and serve as a significant keystone species in any ecosystem they inhabit. They were chosen as today's Omer animal because they demonstrate both glory and humility (however you want to translate) in leadership.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Dolphins execute elaborate and thoughtful cooperative hunting mechanisms that take into account the needs of other predatory species. One species of dolphin herds schools of sardines upward toward the surface of the ocean where sea birds can feast from above while the dolphins feast from below. Another species of dolphin works with other members of its pod to round up (literally) schools of fish by having one individual swim in a circle around the school while beating its tail against the silt on the bottom of the shallow water. Other dolphins then wait for the fish to jump over and out of this "net" and reap the rewards of collaborative hunting. Either way, both are glorious and humble in their approaches, traits that are essential in any good leader.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">This year's animal Omer is a collaboration between myself and my friend Halli, a PhD in animal science. Thank you for counting the Omer with us!</span></i></span></div>
Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01728788798618348892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-625659745444606696.post-53438408160692646352019-06-04T20:42:00.000-04:002019-06-06T21:09:28.191-04:00Omer 2019 Day 46: Hyrax<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://goandlearnit.blogspot.com/2019/06/omer-2019-day-45-blue-headed-wrasse.html">Back to Day 45</a> | <a href="http://goandlearnit.blogspot.com/2019/06/omer-2019-day-47-dolphins.html">Skip to Day 47</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Omer 2019 Day 46: Netzach in Malchut, Endurance/Victory in Leadership</b></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Hyrax</b></span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Image by <a href="https://pixabay.com/users/polyfish-9700091/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=4244650" style="color: #333333; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; outline: 0px !important;">Barbara Fraatz</a> from <a href="https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=4244650" style="color: #333333; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; outline: 0px !important;">Pixabay</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There are certain kinds of mountain goats and musk oxen in which the males battle for females in treacherous terrain. With a somewhat humorous twist, rock hyrax (relatives of <a href="http://goandlearnit.blogspot.com/2019/04/omer-2019-day-11-elephants.html">elephants</a> and <a href="http://goandlearnit.blogspot.com/2019/05/omer-2019-day-17-manatees.html">manatees</a> with habitats in Israel and Africa) males will try to bump each other off cliffs with their tushies in competition for females. A hyrax colony consists of one dominant male and many females and their children. When male hyrax are old enough to leave their colonies, they hang out on the outskirts of other colonies until there is an opportunity to take it over. During mating season, the dominant male's testicles grow much larger than normal to indicate his dominance.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The rock hyrax is listed in Proverbs as one of four wise animals:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Four are among the tiniest on earth, yet they are the wisest of the wise: Ants are a folk without power, yet they prepare food for themselves in summer; <b>The badger [rock hyrax] is a folk without strength, yet it makes its home in the rock</b>; the locusts have no king, yet they all march forth in formation; You can catch the lizard in your hand, yet it is found in royal palaces." Proverbs 30:24-28</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">So hyrax are funny, wise, able to defend themselves and their colonies from competitors, and, also, they are <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vP9ie2PSY0">impressive singers</a>. These sound like great leadership qualities to me!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">This year's animal Omer is a collaboration between myself and my friend Halli, a PhD in animal science. Thank you for counting the Omer with us!</span></i>Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01728788798618348892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-625659745444606696.post-6645050200245190192019-06-03T21:02:00.000-04:002019-06-04T20:42:34.366-04:00Omer 2019 Day 45: Blue-Headed Wrasse<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://goandlearnit.blogspot.com/2019/06/omer-2019-day-44-lemmings.html">Back to Day 44</a> | <a href="http://goandlearnit.blogspot.com/2019/06/omer-2019-day-46-hyrax.html">Skip to Day 46</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Omer 2019 Day 45: Tiferet in Malchut, Beauty/Balance in Leadership</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Blue-Headed Wrasse</b></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9DJqYAxlFGfGyaCpQbuzPzIcZLbBRz8dncnscdsmiekWrI8TUSD8GZL_x86iVKWXcXD5MWtZD6V7Yl2CdcdUbFyR6RyXHxONaACQ5DsOmYb2y93uOu0_gVzHTkhNyBNwjMYovKJg9TrQ/s1600/bluehead_wrasse_thallasoma_bifasciatum_oregonstate-edu-pinterest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1102" data-original-width="1600" height="137" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9DJqYAxlFGfGyaCpQbuzPzIcZLbBRz8dncnscdsmiekWrI8TUSD8GZL_x86iVKWXcXD5MWtZD6V7Yl2CdcdUbFyR6RyXHxONaACQ5DsOmYb2y93uOu0_gVzHTkhNyBNwjMYovKJg9TrQ/s200/bluehead_wrasse_thallasoma_bifasciatum_oregonstate-edu-pinterest.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The blue-headed wrasse is a beautiful saltwater fish that embodies balance in leadership. All individuals hatch as females and the largest, most dominant one changes from female to male to be the leader of the school. Whenever the male dies, another female will become a male to take his place.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">To learn more, check out the <a href="https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/gonads-xy">Radiolab podcast, Gonads: X & Y</a></span><br />
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<i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">This year's animal Omer is a collaboration between myself and my friend Halli, a PhD in animal science. Thank you for counting the Omer with us!</span></i>Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01728788798618348892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-625659745444606696.post-36117345179928567422019-06-02T19:40:00.000-04:002019-06-03T21:02:27.868-04:00Omer 2019 Day 44: Lemmings<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://goandlearnit.blogspot.com/2019/06/omer-2019-day-43-horses.html">Back to Day 43</a> | <a href="http://goandlearnit.blogspot.com/2019/06/omer-2019-day-45-blue-headed-wrasse.html">Skip to Day 45</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Omer 2019 Day 44: Gevurah in Malchut, Bravery in Leadership</b></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Lemmings</b></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When you think of lemmings, the first thing that probably comes to mind is a moving carpet of rodents following each other blindly off a cliff and into the sea. However, this is a <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/lemmings-do-not-explode-or-throw-themselves-cliffs-180953475/">common misunderstanding</a> of how these animals actually operate. While no one knows why, it is well documented that lemmings experience dramatic population swings ranging from highs that threaten their ecosystem due to overcrowding to lows that threaten the species with extinction. During thoe booms, lemmings do their best to spread out, and since they can swim, they might find themselves following a braver lemming into the sea in search of more resources. Lemmings can swim, and aren't half bad at it either, but if a lemming were to find itself in, say, the ocean...well, that might be a bit more than it could handle, this is the origin of this misconception.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Walt Disney's <i>White Wilderness</i>, which popularized the myth that lemmings jump off cliffs in a frenzied, unthinking mass suicide.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>This year's animal Omer is a collaboration between myself and my friend Halli, a PhD in animal science. Thank you for counting the Omer with us!</i></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01728788798618348892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-625659745444606696.post-73549671316897532019-06-01T21:08:00.002-04:002019-06-02T19:41:13.807-04:00Omer 2019 Day 43: Horses<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://goandlearnit.blogspot.com/2019/05/omer-2019-day-42-cheetahs-again.html">Back to Day 42</a> | <a href="http://goandlearnit.blogspot.com/2019/06/omer-2019-day-44-lemmings.html">Skip to Day 44</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Omer 2019 Day 43: Chesed in Malchut, Loving-Kindness in Leadership</b><br />
<b>Horses</b><br />
Whether domesticated or wild, horses are a good example of loving-kindness in leadership. Domestic horses are led by their riders or owners for work or leisure purposes, but as with most things, commands given with patience and loving-kindness often yield the most positive results. Wild horses exhibit this too in their own way. Horses live in large herds (when populations allow), and males lead their harems (groups of females) to the best grazing areas with the sweetest grass. They fight off other males with a fierce passion, and defend their territories with equal force. These are things we want in a leader - passion, kindness, care for those in your community.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Photo by <span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: start;"><a href="https://www.pexels.com/@wildlittlethingsphoto?utm_content=attributionCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pexels" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">Helena Lopes </a></span><span style="text-align: start;">from </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: start;"><a href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/brown-horse-on-grassland-2009696/?utm_content=attributionCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pexels" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">Pexels</a></span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>This year's animal Omer is a collaboration between myself and my friend Halli, a PhD in animal science. </i></span><i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Thank you for counting the Omer with us!</i></div>
Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01728788798618348892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-625659745444606696.post-37326152290233288912019-05-31T19:04:00.001-04:002019-05-31T19:04:28.448-04:00Omer 2019 Day 42: Cheetahs (again)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://goandlearnit.blogspot.com/2019/05/omer-2019-day-41-honeybees.html">Back to Day 41</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Omer 2019 Day 42: Malchut in Yesod, Leadership in Connection</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Cheetahs (<a href="http://goandlearnit.blogspot.com/2019/05/omer-2019-day-33-cheetahs.html">again</a>)</b></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidySz5IPcP_y3I4bUZnQ8zECCmXOrsoo6vAa8vGlVlkNd5yPCszGcU-yguEkgN44O5L9tRHDeT7ZFMJzuyPEKV1_0K3AgAK9VJ7SatXsyRhB77sl8Ld9j_G9RiQszaxLxsqDhAc5a4L0M/s1600/cheetah-2268955_1920.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="964" data-original-width="1600" height="120" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidySz5IPcP_y3I4bUZnQ8zECCmXOrsoo6vAa8vGlVlkNd5yPCszGcU-yguEkgN44O5L9tRHDeT7ZFMJzuyPEKV1_0K3AgAK9VJ7SatXsyRhB77sl8Ld9j_G9RiQszaxLxsqDhAc5a4L0M/s200/cheetah-2268955_1920.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Image by <a href="https://pixabay.com/users/sharonjoy17-5231682/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=2268955" style="color: #333333; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; outline: 0px !important;">sharonjoy17</a> from <a href="https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=2268955" style="color: #333333; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; outline: 0px !important;">Pixabay</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Although we've <a href="http://goandlearnit.blogspot.com/2019/05/omer-2019-day-33-cheetahs.html">already done cheetahs</a>, male cheetahs in particular have a unique style of leadership. While technically they are still considered a "solitary" cat (the only truly social cat is the lion), male cheetahs will form coalitions with brothers or other solitary males nearby. As they establish their territory, they are believed to share and rotate the responsibility of maintaining and protecting their territory among themselves, and even split up mating rights with females nearby. They will also split up or share hunting responsibilities, sometimes working together to bring down a larger prey species, or will hunt and bring back food in sequence. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><i>This year's animal Omer is a collaboration between myself and my friend Halli, a PhD in animal science. </i></span><i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Thank you for counting the Omer with us!</i></span></div>
Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01728788798618348892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-625659745444606696.post-24262290645340696052019-05-30T20:02:00.000-04:002019-05-31T19:04:48.799-04:00Omer 2019 Day 41: Honeybees<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://goandlearnit.blogspot.com/2019/05/omer-2019-day-40-flamingos.html">Back to Day 40 </a> | <a href="http://goandlearnit.blogspot.com/2019/05/omer-2019-day-42-cheetahs-again.html">Skip to Day 42</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Omer 2019 Day 41: Yesod in Yesod, Foundation in Connection</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Honeybees</b></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfDoaXZECljaIiNDovl5g9h0DnhtM5GhwNrLHIfilMz7eHxWoKuRHyBXwhIrAiOEy6Jh7zx1K9KrMP8l2TnGgiQuJPfP3KH4qF8G6bdaWj4b0NUbx9w_dIsMuothSPCouF0GN5RqpZId0/s1600/forget-me-not-257176_1920.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1207" data-original-width="1207" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfDoaXZECljaIiNDovl5g9h0DnhtM5GhwNrLHIfilMz7eHxWoKuRHyBXwhIrAiOEy6Jh7zx1K9KrMP8l2TnGgiQuJPfP3KH4qF8G6bdaWj4b0NUbx9w_dIsMuothSPCouF0GN5RqpZId0/s200/forget-me-not-257176_1920.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Image by <a href="https://pixabay.com/users/cocoparisienne-127419/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=257176" style="color: #333333; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; outline: 0px !important;">cocoparisienne</a> from <a href="https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=257176" style="color: #333333; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; outline: 0px !important;">Pixabay</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Fun Erin fact: When I was little, maybe four or five, I made up a song about honeybees that my parents recorded (on VHS). I am sitting in my pajamas on the floor of our front room in December, waving my hand through the air with my thumb and forefinger pinched together, singing, "Buzz, buzz, buzz. Buzz, buzz, buzz. Ouch! It stung me!"</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Stinging aside, honeybees are an important part of our ecosystem. They pollinate plants to help them grow and make delicious honey for us to eat! Each bee has a role (queen, worker, or drone) and they work together to build and maintain their colony. Japanese honey bees have even developed a way to protect their colony against <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/bizarre-bee-havior-in-the-battle-against-the-giant-hornet-129395782/">invasive Japanese giant hornets</a> by surrounding the hornet in a massive ball of bees, overwhelming it with their own body heat until it dies.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>This year's animal Omer is a collaboration between myself and my friend Halli, a PhD in animal science. </i></span><i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Thank you for counting the Omer with us!</i>Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01728788798618348892noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-625659745444606696.post-85960504053133372372019-05-29T20:12:00.003-04:002019-05-30T20:04:12.324-04:00Omer 2019 Day 40: Flamingos<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://goandlearnit.blogspot.com/2019/05/omer-2019-day-39-naked-mole-rats.html">Back to Day 39</a> | <a href="http://goandlearnit.blogspot.com/2019/05/omer-2019-day-41-honeybees.html">Skip to Day 41</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Omer 2019 Day 40: Hod in Yesod, Glory in Connection</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b>Pink Flamingos</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Today is Pink Flamingo Day. Flamingos live in large groups, called a flamboyance, and I'm not sure how much more glorious you can get than a mass of large pink birds called a flamboyance.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Their flocks are made up of thousands of birds. Like <a href="http://goandlearnit.blogspot.com/2019/05/omer-2019-day-38-starlings.html">starlings</a>, flamingos find protection in numbers - when threatened, they all move in one fluid motion to find safety. The group also allows birds to mate - they do a series of group mating dances, and when they find a mate, they are monogamous and both parents care for their child.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Photo by <span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: start;"><a href="https://www.pexels.com/@zoosnow-803412?utm_content=attributionCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pexels" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">zoosnow </a></span><span style="text-align: start;">from </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: start;"><a href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/flock-of-flamingo-1680214/?utm_content=attributionCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pexels" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">Pexels</a></span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>This year's animal Omer is a collaboration between myself and my friend Halli, a PhD in animal science. </i></span><i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Thank you for counting the Omer with us!</i><br />
<br />Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01728788798618348892noreply@blogger.com0