Indwelling of Flow, Day 7 of the Omer 5781, Shekhinah ShebeChesed

Apr 3

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Today is the seventh day of the Omer, which is one week in the year 5781. שכינה שבחסד, Shekhinah ShebeChesed, Eternal Presence of Covenantal Love.

Finding Words Beyond What I Already Said

I am struggling this year to write something that feels necessary to read.

I highly recommend my post from last year, where I poetically described how the Indwelling of Chesed is the full-bodied feeling of Grace.

Or perhaps my words from two years ago interest you. I wrote about the Sovereignty of Love.

These posts bookend how Shekhinah, Indwelling and Malkhut, Sovereignty refract Chesed, Covenantal Love.

Stumbling around Shekhinah

The reality is that the Kabbalists saw Shekhinah / Malkhut as a purely passive refraction of the Divine. It is the only explicitly feminine sephira in the Omer count. Originally, Shekhinah existed as the blind receptacle for male creative energy.

First of all, I can’t believe that every person involved in this system had that little understanding of feminine energy. Nor do I believe their sex lives were that uninspired that their wives simply laid there. After all, Yesod is connected to the penis and Shekhinah to the womb.

Of course, I haven’t even gotten to the heteronormativity of traditional Judaism, nor it’s demand that a gender binary reign supreme.

So, we complete a week of counting today. We close our journey through the iterations of Flow / Covenantal Love / Lovingkindness. And I stare into the abyss of androcentricity coursing through Jewish traditions.

Prayer for Indwelling Flow

Holy Mother, Source of Creation: help us not fear You. May we be willing to see You in all Your strength and beautiful glory. God of Breasts, El Shaddai, may you hold us and comfort us during these uncertain times. May we have the presence to connect with Your Sovereignty in every moment of our days, and may Your Lovingkindness flow through us with ease.