There have been moments, small moments, in the past few weeks, where it has felt close to normal. Moments when I’ve been with another person and we’ve talked about something other than the past year and a half, moments when I’ve been reminded that there will be an “after the pandemic,” moments when there is joy. We have long been wandering in the wilderness, waiting to enter a promised land. We are hopefully closer to the end than we are to the beginning, though we aren’t there yet. There is a tremendous sense of waiting and anticipating.
Our ancient Israelites, at this time, were also wandering, waiting. Marked by the counting of the Omer, this period between Pesach and Shavuot, between Redemption and Revelation, was a time of unknown. We know that after 49 days the Israelites reached Mount Sinai and were given the Torah, but as they wandered, they didn’t know that!
The Kabbalists taught that each week of the Omer connected to a different realm, a different attribute of the Divine, and each day of that week as well, creating 49 unique combinations of traits to offer us spiritual connection. I think of each of those particular combinations as spiritual methodologies to help navigate this period of waiting and approaching the next phase.
This Shabbat marks the 41st day of the Omer. An inconsequential number, it tells us it’s been 5 weeks and 6 days since we celebrated our liberation from Mitzrayim as we count towards Revelation. We are currently in the week of Yesod, and it just so happens that Shabbat’s attribute is also Yesod. It is double Yesod, the Yesod of Yesod.
Yesod’s literal meaning is foundation. It asks us to think about what grounds us, what makes us feel firm and stable. But Yesod is also often translated as connection, and I find this meaning, and this attribute to be particularly grounding at this time, this year.
If these daily attributes offer us spiritual methodologies for navigating this time period, foundation, grounding, and connection seem particularly appropriate. It is precisely the connections that I have with others that comprise my very foundation. It is connections that I have with individuals, and connections that I have with community, that remind me that my foundation isn’t shaky and can’t be knocked down. These are the elements that help me make my way through periods of unknown, through phases of waiting, anticipating.
It’s not surprising that I’m feeling this in a heightened way just as we’ve started to have more people in shul, and as we’ve started to plan for more gatherings together. In many ways, we are out of practice, and our gathering muscles are ones we have to retrain, over time. The joy of being in shul with more people, of hearing voices of adults of all ages and B’nai Mitzvah students, all davening together, it is overwhelming in the best kind of way. This Shabbat, as we embrace yesod of yesod, this foundation of connection, I am feeling grounded by the connection to all of you, to our community.
Shabbat Shalom Rabbi Sarit
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