15 Days of the Omer. That is 2 Weeks and One Day.

Pixabay. Aleixie.

Chesed shebe Tiferet
Lovingkindness within Harmony
Tuesday evening May 7 and Wednesday May 8

“I don’t know how he joins us every year, his entire story is a fable,” says Samuel ben Nachmani, Talmudic sage from the 3rd century, waving his hands in front of his face. 
Simeon ben Lakish counters, “His story is a fable, but he, as we can see,” Simeon gestures across the path, “is very much flesh and blood.”
“Long walk from the Roman provinces of Judea?” asks Samuel, irritated.
“Not too long,” Simeon responds in good spirits.
Abba bar Kahana declares, “Of course he lived, he married Jacob’s daughter, Dina.”
“Impossible,” says Bar Kappara. “He was a contemporary of Abraham.”
“I understand he, Yitro, and Balaam consulted with Pharaoh about how to reduce the number of Israelites not long before my brother was born,” offers Miriam.
“Yes,” nods Batya, “there are sages who teach he was a servant of my father’s. Oddly, I don’t remember seeing him around the palace.”

Mordechai, walking by, overhears the conversation. “About whom are you speaking?” he asks in that formal way of his.
“Job,” they all answer in chorus.
“Ah. Well, I can tell you this much, despite what some of your contemporaries have said, I never saw him in the palace of Achashverosh.”
“Our contemporaries?” asks Miriam gesturing between herself and Batya.
“Theirs,” Mordechai inclines his head toward the Talmudic sages and continues on his way.
Yochanan speaks up, “Job was one of those who returned from the Captivity.”
“Yes,” agrees Eleazar, “his beit hamidrash was at Tiberias.”
“Impossible,” Simeon ben Lakish shakes his head. “He’s not even Jewish.”
“Then why is he walking with us?” asks Samuel ben Nachmani.
“Why am I?” challenges Batya. All concede her point.
“What are we discussing?” asks a newcomer.
“You are a little late to the party, Chananel ben Chushiel,” teases Miriam. “We’re discussing Job. Which, come to think of it, seems like a terrible idea. We should be talking with Job, not about him.”
Chananel ben Chushiel, 11th century rabbi and Talmudist, nods.
“Wise,” he says. “Shall I invite him to join us? Oh look, here he comes. It seems he can hear us well from where he has been walking. Perhaps he has heard everything you’ve been saying.”

“Good people,” Job begins, and then . . . “yes.”
“Yes?” someone asks.
“Yes, and,” says Job.
“Yes, and?”
“Yes I walked with Abraham, and I married Jacob’s daughter. Yes I consulted with Pharaoh. Yitro is lovely, by the way, and Balaam tells a fabulous story. Yes I prepared the feast for Queen Esther. Yes I returned from Babylon, and yes I had a school at Tiberias. Yes I am a descendent of Esau, and yes I am a descendent of Jacob.”
Everyone is quietly waiting, but Job doesn’t continue.
“And?” asks an unnamed scholar optimistically.
Job doesn’t smile, exactly, but the corners of his eyes crinkle, just a little, as he looks at each of us one by one and then turns to walk away.

It’s very unlike me, but I rush forward and catch him in a great, great, great granddaughter’s embrace before I can stop myself. It’s the kind of long hug of someone who has been crying . . . or wants to. He hugs me back and rests his chin on my head. People continue forward around us. We stand still. He smells of fennel and garlic. 

I think of how, like Job and his supposed friends, the Israelite community that re-assembled in the land of Judah and probably wrote his story was fractured by debate. Not this kind of debate, but a debate over who belonged, who should lead them, and who was worthy to enter the restored Temple. I think about how like Job they realized their restoration didn’t fully compensate for what they’d lost. Life in restored Judah didn’t match what those in exile had dreamed of. I think of all of the people I’ve known who’ve struggled to reconcile the reality they are living and the life they’d hoped to live. I think of us, now, holding the impossible heartbreak of Israel and Gaza and our fractured community. I think of us desperately trying to deny what we know, that there is no way forward that will not have to carry the grief for all we’ve lost. 

I feel his sigh and I let him go.  

In the tree of sephirot, Tiferet harmonizes and balances every other sefirah in the lower branches. I can understand why all of these ancestors are joining me and talking about Job during the week of Tiferet. In some ways, everything in our tradition also journeys through Job. Job turns it all into nonsense and yet it is also only with Job that our tradition makes any sense at all - at least to me. Job preserves multiple voices, records debates, refuses singular answers, allows God to appear in multiple forms, and opens multiple entry points into Biblical Israel and its people. 

There is a kind of beautiful harmony in that. 

But . . . why Chesed shebe Tiferet. 

How this day in this week?

I’ve been working it out for almost 15 hours now, and am sharing these words only after counting the day. I had to first find Sotah 35a where it is said the whole world mourned Job’s death. The whole world? Buber and Schechter both help us understand why. Like Abraham, they taught, Job built an inn at the cross-roads with four doors opening to the four cardinal points in order that wayfarers might have no trouble finding a way in. Joshua ben Hyrcanus said Job worshiped God out of pure love, but I think it is his openness to people that gives him this day of chesed. At least for me. 

Maybe Job was Jewish all along.
Maybe Job is Jewish now.
Maybe Job has never been Jewish.

Maybe yes, and.

Maybe all this time, all these millenia, we’ve been traveling to Sinai to receive the Torah as a mixed multitude . . . just as we left Egypt. 

I don’t know, but I see that Job has gone on ahead of us, and I’m pretty sure when we get there we will find he’s holding the doors open for us. 

All of them. 

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 חֲמִשָּׁה עָשָׂר יוֹם
שֶׁהֵם  שְׁנֵי  שָׁבוּעוֹת וְיוֹם אֶחָד  לָעוֹמֶר.

Hayom  chamishah asar yom
shehem sh’nei shavuot v’yom echad la’omer

Today is fifteen days of the Omer.
That is two weeks and one day of the Omer.
Sefirat HaOmer Blessing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8hCiPI1tMQ