Yesod shebe Yesod
Foundation within Foundation
Sunday evening June 2 and Monday June 3
I look up to a sky full of clouds and think about that one - the first cloud to hold a rainbow. I think about the cloud Moses entered when he went up the mountain. I think about what Rabbi Strausberg offers us, that the rainbow itself said to Moses, “Take me with you. When you go up on the mountain, when you are before God, you are going to need all of this color.”
Hod shebe Yesod
Humility and Splendor in Foundation and Bonding
Saturday evening June 1 and Sunday June 2
Shavua Tov
40 are the days of night and day rain in Noah’s generation.
40 are the days Moses was on Mount Sinai before he returned with the stone tablets.
40 are the days we waited for him under the mountain.
40 are the days between the first day of Elul until Yom Kippur.
40 are the four sides of the world according to the Kabbalah, each containing ten Sefirot.
40 are the se’ahs (a measure of water) of a mikveh - a ritual bath.
40 are the years in the wilderness.
40 are the years at which - according to the Talmud (Avot 5:26) - a person transitions from one level of wisdom to the next.
40 are the days the spies scouted the Land.
Read MoreNetzach 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
Tiferet shebe Yesod
Compassion in Foundation (the salt of the earth)
Thursday evening May 30 and Friday May 31
“I wasn’t jealous,” she sounds put off, but also deeply sad.
The ox she leads has no bells on its horns
“Okay,” I say.
“When those men came, how was I to know they were angels?” she asks, but doesn’t. She looks at me expectantly.
“Okay,” I say again.
“If you think I’m going to tell you my story, you are mistaken,” she points at me.
“Okay,” I half-turn to continue on my own.
“Lot never thought he was good enough. He was always comparing himself to Abraham and me to Sarah,” Idit says. I keep walking with her and hold my peace.
Gevurah shebe Yesod
Strength and Boundaries in Foundation and Bonding
Wednesday evening May 29 and Thursday May 30
אני הולכת הביתה. | ani holekhet ha'bayita. | I am going home
“Na’eem m’od,” says the donkey kindly, blinking as she tilts her head this way and that, sizing me up. “Who are you?” she asks. “Where are you going?”
“You know who I am,” I respond, because of course she does.
“Well I don’t have to tell you that it’s been a while,” she huffs.
“No,” I agree. “You don’t.” Not that it’s been that long.
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.
Yesod shebe Tiferet
Foundation within Compassion and Harmony
Sunday evening May 12 and Monday May 13
“I think she is one of the young Egyptian women who served Batya,” I say.
“When she went down from her father’s palace to rescue Moses?” Rabbi Leff asks.
“I think so,” I say.
“Who is that with her?” he asks.
“I think it’s one of Miriam’s nieces,” I say. “One of Aaron and Elisheva’s daughters.”
“What makes you say so?” he wants to know.
I shrug and smile, “Nothing in particular. It’s the story I want today. I want to be walking with Miriam’s niece and Batya’s maiden who just ran into some Jewish and Palestinian kids from the Jerusalem Youth Chorus as we all make our way toward Sinai together.”
Yesod of Gevurah
Bonding and Connection within Discipline
Sunday evening and Monday
Evening May 5 and Day of May 6
Yom HaShoah
“Did you know that the clock over Buchenwald doesn’t count time?” asks Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie, quietly. He hands me a yellow candle.
“I didn’t,” I murmur. “Not until just now.”
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.
