Enduring Will, 25 days Omer, Netzach ShebeNetzach

Today is twenty-five days, which is three weeks and four days of the Omer in the year 5781. נצח שבנצח, Netzach ShebeNetzach, Enduring Will. The ability to reach beyond the inclination towards destructiveness and accomplish your vision. Ultimately, deciding to keep on your upright path, despite the many ways the real world fails to live up to ideals.

The pounding voice of external reality

The farther inward I go, the deeper I feel the pain around me.

Black and Latinx children and adults dying from encounters with the police.

Horrific abuse and murder of Asian neighbors.

Skeptical refusal to accept the public health imperative to wear masks in public.

Sharp clarity regarding white skin privilege. Others firmly rooted in the denial of structural racism.

Splintering anger between those who assert "white Jews" exist and those who define themselves as "white-passing" Jews.

The divisions within us are real and growing. Yet, these are only social differences. We build our identities around material world views, never allowing for the possibility that our enemies share our enduring concerns.

Counting the Omer orients me towards the Eternal and Enduring. I waffle between wanting to share the metaphysical thoughts inspired by the day's count and feeling drawn into the never-ending struggle to bend the arc of the moral universe towards justice.

Live into the truth pursuing you

I do not know how to compel a child to complete their homework. Clearly, yelling is not the answer. It is unclear to me exactly what is. So we plod along, praying that tomorrow the child will find the internal inspiration to complete his work.

I pray for the Enduring Will to complete this school year without pressure on my children or my spouse. May I have the focus to begin writing my thesis and the willpower to continue the journey. I pray the constant distractions that surround me daily are thwarted by my growing clarity and will.