![]() Marge Piercy writes in “The Maggid” in The Art of Blessing The Day, Below are prompts for reflection, one for each day of counting (to follow the blessing for counting each day, should you wish to incorporate that practice):ĭay 1 : What are the places or situations in which you are stuck right now, that would urge you to wake up?ĭay 2 : What does “waking up” mean to you right now? To what have you woken up in the past year?ĭay 3 : What parts of your particular journey this year involves recognizing pain or suffering?ĭay 4 : Reflect upon where you have found moments of joy in this journey.ĭay 5 : What parts of your particular journey this year inspires you to keep walking?ĭay 6 : In your life, does waking up involve noticing discomfort or recognizing joy? How does this contribute to your journey?ĭay 7, which is One Week : How can the restfulness of Shabbat give you what you might need for the journey ahead? ![]() This is an opportunity for us to be waking up. ![]() Their outcry is their waking up – their courage to hope for and fight for something different.įOR EACH DAY: We have been in a kind of spiritual bondage. We do not know if the slavery suddenly got worse because of a new ruler, or if the weight of their chains finally became too unbearable. The Israelites cry out in pain as they feel the bondage of their 400-year slavery. God heard their moaning, and God remembered the covenant with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.” The Israelites were groaning under the bondage and cried out and their cry for help from the bondage rose up to God. “A long time after that, the king of Egypt died. Our core text for this week is from Exodus 2, verses 23-24: Together, we are going to share these seven weeks by reflecting on our journey to this moment and going forward. Each year, we travel a journey we did not necessarily choose. Like our ancestors, we became living poetry, believing in something that we could only know once we arrived, believing in something that could not be fully understood with words.” We imagined ourselves leaving Egypt in haste toward an unknown promised land, toward a covenant that had not yet been revealed. “ we began – once again – to live inside a metaphor. Īnd so, we begin this year’s journey of counting our days and making them count. בָּרוּךְ אֲתָּה יְיָ, אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, אֲשֶׁר קִדְשָׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו וְצִוָּנוּ עַל סְפִירַת הָעוֹמֵרīaruch atah Adonai Eloheinu melech ha’olam, asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu al sefirat ha’omer.īlessed are You, Adonai our God, Ruler of the universe, who makes us holy with mitzvot, and commands us concerning the counting of the Omer. The daily practice will begin each evening, with the reciting of the following blessing: We were closed off for safety and protection this journey gives us the opportunity to explore how we reconnect with ourselves and one another to trust being open once more. At this moment in time, we are seeing places and times opening up around us, and it can be hard for us to know how we go forward, how we re-enter the journeys of our lives. Lack of physical movement can actually make our joints stiff lack of spiritual movement can make our souls stuck. Being held in place can generate inertia we know that time continued forward, and we stayed put in our existing state of being and waiting. This year, we are all in a particular place of having been closed up in one way or another, or in many ways. We count the Omer in a careful and focused manner in order to help us recognize the completeness of these days and of each day. Following Pesach, we begin the journey toward spiritual freedom, unlocking the shackles of all that oppresses us and readying ourselves to be open to inner wisdom. Detached from its agricultural roots, “Counting the Omer ” became known as a season of soul refinement. ” This period of time was originally rooted in the spring harvest. Sinai, where we receive Torah (Wisdom.) This is known as “Counting the Omer/ Sefirat HaOmer. According to Jewish tradition, we count the forty-nine days (7 weeks) from when we become free from our slavery until our arrival at the foot of Mt.
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