Essential Discipline, 9 Days Omer 5785
Today is nine days, which is one week and two days of the Omer in the year 5785. גבורה שבגבורה, Gevurah ShebeGevurah, Discipline within Discipline. The core of Discipline is understanding the Right Path and choosing to follow it. Making time to contemplate our unique paths and discerning the way towards spiritual liberation and expanded consciousness.
Choosing the Derech
A derech is.a path, a way forward. When folks leave a Haredi community, they’re known as going off the derech.
Halakhah is often (somewhat incorrectly) translated as Jewish law. The literal translation is “the Way.”
It is quite silly to only label Haredi or Modern Orthodox Jews as “religious.”
Progressive Jews are just as committed to their Jewish identity as any other Jews.
We too can seriously grapple with our wisdom tradition.
We too can choose a Jewish Way.
I choose ethical mysticism, the framework set by my forefathers in Musar and Kabalah, always intertwined and always interconnected.
Living an ethical life leads one closer to the Pulsing Heart of the Universe.
Contemplating the Ground of Being impels us to live moral lives.
A Jewish Year, from Spring Forward
Spring: barley harvest. Renewing our Essence. Stripping away ego and allowing Divine light space within.
Counting: mindfully considering how Ultimate Values can speak to our daily lives.
Weeks: Revelation, often from converts or other seekers. The Truth seeking us at this precise moment in time. Reminder to harvest your wheat now.
Three Weeks: The walls are breached, our lives are forever changed by communal disaster.
Seven Weeks: We rise from the ashes, preparing ourselves for the spiritual new year.
Seventh Month: We are born, we take stock.
Ten Days: We reflect, we apologize sincerely and offer renumeration for the harm we caused.
Death & Rebirth: We spiritually die and are reborn, reinvesting in our individual and collective liberation
Fall Harvest: We tarry in holiness, breaking bread with our ancestors as we bask in liminal space.
Rain Dance: We pray for rain with our whole bodies.
In Darkness, Rededication: We tell stories to paper over painful history and remind ourselves that G!d is with us, even in darkness.
Trees’ Birthday: The physical land of Israel is intrinsic to our understanding of self.
Back to Spring.
Who Do You Want to Be Today?
A hedonist?
An activist?
A thinker?
A peace-maker?
A servant?
A leader?
Find The Way.
Find your center.
Find your community.
Walk Together.
Previously on the 9th Day of Omer Counting…
Boundaries and Judgment, 5783 / 2023
Strength within Strength, 2022 / 5782
Strength Through Presence, 2021 / 5781
The heart of discipline during a pandemic, 2020 / 5780
Image by Next Voyage via Pexels.