Netzach shebe Yesod
Endurance in Foundation and Bonding
Friday evening May 31 and Saturday June 1
As I’ve walked today, I’ve finished writing my first public piece about Israel and Palestine. I’ve been working on it for months. It isn’t conclusory. My words are where I am right now as I continue to think and feel and share.
It feels right to share these words today on this day of the Omer, in Endurance in Foundation . . . and bonding.
Shabbat Shalom
Netzach shebe Hod
Endurance in Splendor/Gratitude
Friday evening May 24 and Saturday May 25
Shabbat Shalom
As I was walking today I got to thinking about Samson.
I was, although even I can’t quite believe it now that I’ve read more, already thinking of him when I heard that the 7th Armored Brigade had discovered the tunnel shaft and Shin Bet had retrieved the bodies of three more hostages.
I don’t know much about Samson, really.
I know he was in some ways a human golem with super strength.
I know he had beautiful hair and was betrayed by a woman named Delilah.
Not much, really, what I know.
Yesod shebe Netzach
Foundation and Bonding within Endurance
Sunday evening May 19 and Monday May 20
Jonah walks like he’s on stage, and not just any stage. Jonah walks as though he were in a musical and any moment the opening bars of a song will pour from the sky. Jonah walks like Chaim Topol as Tevye and Barbara Streisand as Fanny Brice . . . or probably as Miss Marmelstein.
Surrounded by children, Jonah is telling them his story.
Hod shebe Netzach
Hidden Splendor within Endurance
Saturday evening May 18 and Sunday May 19
Shavua Tov
Devon Spier is sitting on a big rock and shouting out her poetry into the sky.
It falls around us like rain if rain were fairy dust. . . .
Enjoying the soft butterfly kisses of her words on my skin, I’m watching Joseph and Asnat dance in the light. They are a swirl of blues and reds, greens and yellows, and of course they are wearing bells. When they lean together and their heads touch their curls, hers bouncing on her shoulders and his loose and flowing down his back, intertwine.
Netzach shebe Netzach
Endurance within Endurance
Friday evening May 17 and Saturday May 18
There is old, and then there is 969 years old.
Which is to say, there is old, and then there is Methuselah son of Enoch.
Tiferet shebe Netzach
Compassion within Endurance
Thursday evening May 16 and Friday May 17
Tzivia turns to me and asks, “Did I ever tell you about the vessels?”
“No,” I say. “Tell me?”
She grins and gestures to the people near us. “They were all part of it,” she says.
“All of them?” I ask.
“Every one,” she nods. “It was like this. My husband, Obadiah, had died. My children and I were really suffering. Of course, we missed their father, but also we were so poor and so hungry. A creditor came to our house and threatened me. ‘Pay your debts, woman!’ He scolded me. ‘Pay them or next time I come I will seize your children as slaves.’”
I sigh, “What did you do?”
Gevurah shebe Netzach
Strength/Might and Judgment within Endurance
Wednesday evening May 15 and Thursday May 16
I don’t feel compelled to ship together all of my favorite women from the TaNaKh, and I wouldn’t have thought Judith and Devorah . . . but here we are, and here they are, and . . . welcome to the way my mind works. Watching them together, they sure seem well-matched.
I’m liking the idea of a romance between these two elders.
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.
Nitzach shebe Tiferet
Endurance within Harmony and Balance
Friday evening May 10 and Saturday May 11
The yahrtzeit of Irena Sender
Sometimes I feel like I’m walking in circles as if it’s a bad thing.
Then I see Choni haMe’agel, Choni the Circle Maker. His linen tunic is blowing about him in the breeze, a belt at his waist.
Choni isn’t much of a talker. He prefers to walk by himself, even with all of us around.
Seeing him, I remember that circles can also be miracles.
Netzach of Gevurah
Determination/Endurance of Discipline/Justice/Boundaries
Friday evening and Saturday
Evening May 3 and Day of May 4
A elderly woman whose name I’ve never known comes up next to me and takes my arm. I slow my pace to match hers. We exchange pleasantries and then . . .
“Where is Zelophechad?” I ask after her husband.
Read MoreFour 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.
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