21 Days of the Omer. That is 3 Weeks.
Malchut shebe Tiferet
Royalty and Nobility within Compassion and Harmony
Monday evening May 13 and Tuesday May 14
Yom Ha’Atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day
Kumi lach . . . Arise my friend, oh beautiful one, go to yourself… (Song of Songs 2:10) What if every relationship could be an opportunity for us to call each other into the realization of our full potential? Shefa Gold
A young girl near me gasps, “It’s Queen Eden!” she whispers in awe.
“Eden haMalka!” someone shouts near me.
“It’s HER!” Another voice calls out.
Eden Golan’s very long, dark brown, wavy hair, streaked with magenta, whips about in the wind.
We learn about the Ten Sefirot in the study of Kabbalah. Each is a unique filter of Creative Light, and the light must pass through each filter before reaching our physical world. In The Book of Formation, one of the first books written on Kabbalah, a ‘sephira’ is both Light and Vessel. Rav Ashlag explains in Ten Luminous Emanations, that after Creation only Desire to Receive for the Sake of Sharing can allow us to receive this Light, and yet the Desire to Receive for Self Alone is the essence of the final sephira, Malchut. Therefore, Rav Ashlag teaches, Malchut does not receive Creative Light but is the cause of the revelation of Light. If not for the Desire to Receive for Self Alone, then the Light could not be revealed in any of the sephirot.
I don’t really understand.
I expected to see Debbie Friedman today.
It could have been Debbie today.
But it’s not Debbie, it’s Eden.
Eden was born in Kfar Saba in Israel on October 5, 2003. Her parents’ families were from Ukraine and Latvia and both were born in the Soviet Union. When she was young, her family moved to Russia for her father’s work and returned to Israel when Russia invaded Ukraine.
As I walk today, on Yom Ha’Atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day, I’m focusing on the Desire to Receive for Self Alone being the essence of Malchut and that Malchut causes the revelation of Light in all of the other sephirot. Thinking about what words I have today, in a day in which I feel like I have few words, I watched half a dozen videos of discussions about Israel and Palestine in which the participants of the conversations are pursuing, actively, a fourth option - as one person articulated it. We can either, he said, have Jews killing all Palestinians or Palestinians killing all Jews - option one; have Jews removing all Palestinians or Palestinians removing all Jews - option two; what we have now; or a fourth option. What will it be? He doesn’t know, but it will start, he says, by us recognizing this is a family problem, a thing between cousins, that originated not between Jews and Palestinians, but with the British. What does he want? I want to live in peace, he says. I don’t want to be a soldier. I don’t want to kill people. I don’t want people shooting at me. I don’t want to oppress people. I don’t want to force anyone from their home. What do you want? he asks. Me, too, says a Palestinian man. I also want to live in peace. I don’t want war. I don’t want to be oppressed. I am a Muslim. The Quran says Jews have always lived in Palestine. I want all of us to be here, but I do not want this thing we have now. I do not want this government in Israel. I do not want Hamas. I do not want October 7th. I do not want my family killed in Gaza. I do not want this thing we have now.
I don’t want war for me.
I do want peace for me.
For me and for my family.
So how do we do it? They ask, each in their own words.
The leaders we have now won’t do it. They agree.
We start, says someone, by knowing we are cousins.
I slept on it, and when I woke up in the morning of the 21st day of the Omer, the threads had started to connect. I desire peace for myself - for self alone - is Malchut. I desire an end to war for myself - for self alone - is Malchut. Our 7th of 7 weeks is Malchut and when we get there I am often so focused on the destination, on Shavuot, that I haven’t given enough attention to this sephira.
I saw on Instagram that when Eden arrived at Ben Gurion airport home after all of the Eurovision voting and cheering and booing and protests and armored cars and death threats and being sequestered in her room she was greeted with the chant, “Our Queen! Our Queen!”
Eden haMalka, Eden the Queen, got my attention and the sephira of Malchut has my attention now.
For weeks now I have watched Israelis I know worry for her and celebrate her. I’ve watched Israelis I don’t know - okay, Gal Gadot - publicly call her and offer her their support. I’ve watched Hurricane so many times I’ve lost count. I’ve watched legitimate questions about Israel’s participation in Eurovision and reasonable criticism of Eurovision and I’ve watched antisemitism broiling supposedly in response to Israel’s participation in Eurovision. I’ve watched criticism of Israel and hate toward Jews and hate toward Eden and protests calling for humanity and protests calling for an end to one people to protect the existence of another.
I’m thinking today about how every time I hear from a Palestinian voice, to be clear - not white folks around the world, a Palestinian voice or a voice of someone with relatives and loved ones in Gaza say - “You aren’t paying enough attention to my people in Gaza,” to my people, to me, to the Desire to Receive for Self Alone, I need to hear Malchut in that voice.
I’m thinking about how every time I hear from an Israeli voice, to be clear - not non-Jewish folks around the world, an Israeli voice or a voice of someone with relatives and loved ones in Israel say - “You aren’t paying enough attention to my people in Israel,” to my people, to me, to the Desire to Receive for Self Alone, I need to hear Malchut in that voice.
Israeli singer Ofra Haza who was born in Tel Aviv to Mizrachi parents from Yemen who had come to Israel in 1949, she greets Eden and embraces her.
“I was a voice for everyone who needs to be brought home now,” Eden says crying in her arms.
Just as I turn to keep walking, I hear the strum of a familiar guitar.
See you at Sinai.
How to say the blessing:
Choose the language that resonates with you the most.
Non-gendered Hebrew based on grammar system built by Lior Gross and Eyal Rivlin,
available at www.nonbinaryhebrew.com
Gender Expansive:
הִנְנִי מוּכָנֶה וּמְזֻמֶּנֶה …
Hineni muchaneh um’zumeneh …
Here I am, ready and prepared …
Feminine:
הִנְנִי מוּכָנָה וּמְזֻמֶּנֶת …
Hineni muchanah um’zumenet …
Here I am, ready and prepared …
Masculine:
הִנְנִי מוּכָן וּמְזֻמַן …
Hineni muchan um’zuman …
Here I am, ready and prepared …
All Continue:
… לְקַיֵּם מִצְוַת עֲשֵׂה שֶׁל סְפִירַת הָעֹמֶר כְּמוֹ שֶׁכָּתוּב בַּתּוֹרָה וּסְפַרְתֶּם לָכֶם מִמָּחֳרַת הַשַּׁבָּת
מִיּוֹם הַבִיאֳכֶם אֶת עֹמֶר הַתְּנוּפָה שֶׁבַע שַׁבָּתוֹת תְּמִימוֹת תִּהְיֶנָה. עַד מִמָּחֳרַת הַשַּׁבָּת
הַשְּׁבִיעִית תִּסְפְּרוּ חֲמִשִּׁים יוֹם וְהִקְרַבְתֶם מִנְחָה חֲדָשָה לַיי
… lekayyem mitzvat aseh shel sefirat ha-omer, kemo shekatuv batorah: us’fartem lakhem mimacharat hashabbat, miyom havi’akhem et omer hat’nufah, sheva shabbatot temimot tih’yena, ad mimacharat hashabbat hash’vi’it tis’peru khamishim yom, vehikravtem minkha khadasha l’adonai.
… to fulfill the mitzvah of counting the Omer, as it is written in the Torah: And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Shabbat, from the day on which you bring the sheaf of the wave-offering, you shall count seven full weeks. Until the day after the seventh Shabbat, you shall count fifty days, until you bring a new gift to the Eternal.
Gender-Expansive Language for God
בְּרוּכֶה אַתֶּה יי אֱ-לֹהֵינוּ חֵי הָעוֹלָמִים אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשֶׁנוּ בְּמִצַוְּתֶהּ וְצִוֶּנוּ עַל סְפִירַת הָעֹמֶר
Brucheh ateh Adonai, Eloheinu khei ha’olamim, asher kidshenu bemitzvoteh v’tzivenu al sefirat ha’omer.
Blessed are You, Eternal, Life of all worlds who has made us holy with Their commandments, and commanded us to count the Omer.
Feminine Language for God
בְּרוּכָה אַתְּ יָ-הּ אֱ-לֹהֵינוּ רוּחַ הָעוֹלָם אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָׁנוּ בְּמִצְוְּתָהּ וְצִוָּנוּ עַל סְפִירַת הָעֹמֶר
Bruchah at Yah, ru’akh ha’olam asher kidshanu bemitzvotah v’tzivanu al sefirat ha’omer
Blessed are You, Yah, our God, Spirit of the universe who has made us holy with Her commandments, and commanded us to count the Omer.
Masculine Language for God
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יי אֱ-לֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו וְצִוָּנוּ עַל סְפִירַת הָעֹמֶר
Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu melekh ha’olam asher kidshanu bemitzvotav v’tzivanu al sefirat ha’omer.
Blessed are You, LORD, our God, ruler of the universe who has made us holy with His commandments, and commanded us to count the Omer.
Count the day and week
Today is the _________ day, which is _________ weeks and _________ days of the Omer.
Today:
הַיּוֹם אֶחָד וְעֶשְׂריִם יוֹם
שֶׁהֵם שְׁלֹשָׁה שָׁבוּעוֹת יָמִים לָעוֹמֶר.
Hayom echad v‘esrim asar yom
shehem shlosha shavuot yamim la’omer
Today is twenty-one days of the Omer.
That is three weeks of the Omer.
Sefirat HaOmer Blessing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8hCiPI1tMQ