Omer 2024 Day 38

Day 37 | Day 39

Day 38: Tiferet in Yesod, Beauty in Foundation

One of the things that I find so fascinating about the week of yesod is the idea that the omer is all about growth and change, while also being firmly rooted. What is foundational to your sense of self? What can you change? How will you grow and what are the connections to your past self that you want to maintain as you grow?

Omer 2024 Day 37

Day 36 | Day 38

Day 37: Gevurah in Yesod, Strength in Connection

My Grandpa Earl used to take us to the park near his house that had a little bridge over a drainage ditch. We liked to drop rocks into the water, but there was only enough water to make a splash if it had rained a lot recently, so it was usually dry or just muddy. In those cases, he would make splashing sounds with his mouth from small "plops" to loud "PLUNKs" and everything in between.

There is a creek behind my house and my kids have inherited the near-universal human desire to throw rocks into it. This creek, being an actual creek and not just a drainage ditch, always has water in it, but I still like to mimic my grandpa and put a little extra oomph into the splash their rocks make, and as I do, I tell them about Grandpa Earl.

I tell my kids stories like this about their great-grandparents all the time. I tell them about painting watercolors with my Grandma Loretta, decorating cookies with my Grandma Ruby, and watching baseball and eating donuts with my Grandpa Howard. Each story is a cherished memory, and as I share my past with them, I hope they will draw strength from the fact that love endures beyond death, that the legacy of their great-grandparents can reach them even if they never met, like ripples in the creek reaching the shore.

Omer 2024 Day 36

Day 35

Day 36: Chesed in Yesod, Lovingkindness in Foundation

It seems a little odd to put the week of foundation/connection near the end of the omer. Shouldn't the foundation be first? As we discussed yesterday, recalling how far we've come is an important part of this journey (of any journey, really). It is easy to recall our foundation and our connections to the past when we are close to it. It's much harder to maintain our hold on our foundational stories and our connections to our ancestors as they recede further into the past. Having the week of yesod here, toward the end, prompts us to look back, even as we continue forward.

Jewish tradition teaches us that, just as each of us must see ourselves as personally having come out of Egypt, each of us personally stood at Sinai. Time collapses in on itself and every Jew throughout time (past, present, and future; Jewish from birth or by conversion; everyone who ever was or will be Jewish) was there at Sinai to receive the Torah from God. In that sense, it makes sense that the week of yesod is placed where it is, close to the end, close to Shavuot, where time bends to bring us all together.