Malchut shebe Netzach
Nobility within Endurance
Monday evening May 20 and Tuesday May 21
As I walk into this day, I listen to a podcast, Judaism Unbound, Episode 431, interviewing Rabbi Jess Belasco. Rabbi Belasco runs the Disability Justice Torah Circle, which hosts classes, facilitates connection, and provides pastoral resources for disabled, high-risk, and chronically ill people who desire Jewish community. In the podcast, and in life, they ask, “What does disability say about Judaism?”
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.
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.
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.”
Hod shebe Tiferet
Gratitude within Beauty
Saturday evening May 11 and Sunday May 12
That is 4,749 days I have counted since my bone marrow transplant on May 12, 2011.
Which was the 8th of Iyar that year.
This year, the 8th of Iyar is May 16th.
I’m going to go ahead and celebrate both days.
The sun glows extra warmly tonight as it sets and one by one, and group by group, so many people come to walk with me that a Biblical author would tell you we count in the thousands. Tens of thousands. Hundreds of thousands.
Read MoreNitzach 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.
Seventeen Days of the Omer
Tiferet shebe Tiferet
Harmony and Balance within Harmony and Balance
Thursday evening May 9 and Friday May 10
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote, “The more deeply immersed I became in the thinking of the prophets, the more powerfully it became clear to me what the lives of the Prophets sought to convey: that morally speaking, there is no limit to the concern one must feel for the suffering of human beings, that indifference to evil is worse than evil itself, that in a free society, some are guilty, but all are responsible.”
Gevurah shebe Tiferet
Strength//Boundaries within Harmony
Wednesday evening May 8 and Thursday May 9
The 5th of the Hebrew month of Iyar is Yom Ha’Atzmaut.
This year that’s the evening of Monday May 13th and the day of the 14th.
The Jewish calendar keeps moving forward and we keep moving forward with it.
If you’d like some gentle company, you are welcome to walk with me and my students for as long as you’d like.
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.
Malchut of Gevurah
Nobility within Strength
Monday evening and Tuesday
Evening May 6 and Day of May 7
Some teach that malchut is the most important sefirah. They say that in malchut God doesn’t act by God’s self, but through us and that malchut is the goal God had in mind when creating the world.
That isn’t my personal theology, but I respect it and it helps me to stretch and think this way. What if it were? What if malchut is God’s existence and God’s actions resonating along our veins?
What if Rabbi Regina Jonas is Jewish royalty?
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.”
Hod of Gevurah
Humility of Discipline/Justice/Boundaries
Saturday evening and Sunday
Evening May 4 and Day of May 5
“Maybe I should add the Golden Girls to my Shavuot playlist,” I laugh. “Yesterday I walked a while with Zelophechad’s wife. She could be a Golden Girl.”
“Have you caught up with Machlah, Noa, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirza yet?” he asks.
“Her daughters? Not yet, you?”
“Not yet.”
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 More
Ten Days of the Omer
Tiferet of Gevurah
Harmony/Integration/Beauty of Discipline/Justice/Boundaries
Wednesday evening and Tuesday
Evening May 2 and Day of May 3
“Well,” I say, “Are we walking toward Sinai to be closer to God? God said come close, but not too close. Are we walking toward Sinai to be closer to each other? I don’t even like all of these people. For that matter, I don’t even always like God. Are we walking toward Sinai to be closer to the Torah? Have you read the Torah? I mean, I love reading the Torah. I love our stories. I love our words. And also . . . have you read the Torah?” I know he has. I know he knows what I’m talking about. Two kids, I mean, they may as well have been kids they were so young, who just want to be closer and closer and closer to this . . . Eternal . . . this Divine . . . this Everything . . . get it in their heads to offer something they came up with themselves. I’m sure they thought it would be extra special. I’m sure they thought they’d feel more and know more and see more and be more. They wanted to soar with eagles and swim with whales and instead they burned with fire.
“I know,” he says quietly.
Read MoreNine Days of the Omer
Gevurah of Gevurah
Discipline/Justice/Boundaries of Discipline/Justice/Boundaries
Gevurah is also Strength
Wednesday evening and Tuesday
Evening May 1 and Day of May 2
I’ve secretly always wondered what Rebecca saw in him.
In Isaac.
Well, it was a secret.
Now you know.
