Chesed — Words of Torah (my blog!) — Rabbi Amy Josefa Ariel (she/her)

43 Days of the Omer. That is 6 Weeks and 1 Day.

“What is the legacy of Ruth and Boaz?” I ask. “If not King David?”

Chesed shebe Malchut
Lovingkindness within Nobility/Sovereignty
Tuesday evening June 4 and Wednesday June 5

I don’t think she hears me. Her steps have quickened and as she approaches the back of a man about her height who has crossed in front of us she reaches out her arm and rests her hand on his shoulder. When the man stops and turns I see his green and brown eyes light up. They embrace, holding one another close. The throng moves like a river around them.

Jewish HolidaysAmy ArielJune 4, 2024Ruth, Boaz, Sinai, Shavuot, Chesed, Malchut, OmerComment

22 Days of the Omer. That is 3 Weeks and 1 Day.

Chesed shebe Netzach
Lovingkindness within Endurance
Tuesday evening May 14 and Wednesday May 15

Amira is shaped like a greyhound but her ears are long and fluffy.
She’s the color of sand and her eyes are bronze.
Running toward me she looks like the light at is shifts on the desert rocks, poetry in motion, right up until she pulls up in front of me and does her goofy whole-body-wag.

Jewish HolidaysAmy ArielMay 14, 2024Omer, Dogs, Chesed, Netzach, SinaiComment

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

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

Why Job? Why today? I’ve been working it out for almost 15 hours now, and am sharing these words only after counting the day.

Jewish HolidaysAmy ArielMay 7, 2024Omer, Job, Chesed, Tiferet, 15 Days, SinaiComment

8 Days of the Omer. That is 1 Week and 1 Day.

Chesed shebe Gevurah
Somehow I’m caught in the midst of a bustle of bodies in intense conversation . . .
In the crush of priests, two voices rise over the others. One brings up Ramban, Nachmanides, and says, ‘We are taught by the Ramban that justice and lovingkindness are a combination of fire and water, which is to say, salt. And salt, as we know, sustains all the worlds.’ ‘But this is false!’ His walking companion disagrees amicably. ‘The main purpose of God, the main purpose of the world is Chesed!’

Jewish HolidaysAmy ArielApril 30, 2024Omer, Gevurah, Chesed, Salt, SinaiComment

1 Week of the Omer

Malchut of Chesed.
Sovereignty of Loving-kindness
On this journey to Sinai, we are walking with all of the Jews who have ever been and who will ever be. That means we are also walking together, you and me and everyone alive and here now.

Six Days of the Omer

Yesod of Chesed
I would love to talk about this with Abraham, but he’s wandered a bit from the group. He does that sometimes. You wouldn’t think it to look at him, but he walks fast and often ends up near the front. Then he stops and just . . . looks. I don’t know at what. Do you? I only have ideas of what he might be seeing that the rest of us don’t as he gazes across the expanse.

Jewish HolidaysAmy ArielApril 28, 2024Omer, Day Six, Yesod, Chesed, AbrahamComment

Five Days of the Omer

I wish I could remember his name.
I definitely remember his face, and while I can’t say I’d recognize his long black coat or his black hat or the way he walks anywhere, I do recognize him here.

I know that’s him. Just over there shifting his bag to the other shoulder.

Jewish HolidaysAmy ArielApril 27, 2024Omer, Five, Day Five, Hod, ChesedComment

Four Days of the Omer

Netzak of Chesed
Determination of Lovingkindness

Erev Shabbat/Shabbat
Evening of April 26 through April 27

I wonder if they still dream of water. After 40 days and 40 nights of rain, 150 days of flood before the water receded I think even all these years later I might still dream of water. Water as endless as this desert. On the other hand, walking through day 202, 150 days feels . . . different. Sighing heavily, I notice that Na’amah has linked her arm through Noah’s and she is regaling him with a story. With her free arm she gestures dramatically and when she pauses he chuckles. It’s a very Jewish chuckle and it carries over the din of people walking and chatting.

Jewish HolidaysAmy ArielApril 26, 2024Omer, Noah, Na'amah, Day Four, Netzach, Endurance, ChesedComment

Three Days of the Omer

Tiferet of Chesed
An older woman has joined us. She has joined us only for this day; she is walking beside Sarah. The weight of their story seems to cling like pendants along their spines. There isn’t ease between them, they have history. They have bitterness and insult and jealousy and harshness and enslavement. Their gaits are a little stiff, but most of all not rushed as they walk together.

I wish I could hear what they are saying.

Jewish HolidaysAmy ArielApril 26, 2024Omer, Sarah, Hagar, Day Three, Tiferet, ChesedComment

Two Days of the Omer

Day Two of the Omer

Gevurah of Chesed
Boundaries/Discipline in Lovingkindness

I’m thinking about Yitro, Moses’s father-in-law and priest of Midian. I can see him there, just ahead of us. His eyes are sparkling as he walks with Caleb and Joshua. It’s hard to say what they might be talking about, but I think Joshua is . . . laughing? Yeah. He’s definitely laughing.

Jewish HolidaysAmy ArielApril 25, 2024Omer, Gevurah, Chesed, Sefirat haOmer, Day Two, YitroComment