Hod. Gratitude. Tiferet. Beauty. Hod she’b’Tiferet. Gratitude in beauty. It’s spring in the rain forest. So, I get to see lots of beautiful things. Cherry blossoms. Bees in flowers. Robins grazing in early gardens. In this season, I often feel overwhelmed by beauty. So, sometimes, I can’t believe my good fortune. How did I manage…
Category: Jewish Practices
Attachment: Omer 18
Netzach: Enduring, Lasting. Tiferet: Beauty. Netzach she’b’Tiferet: Lasting beauty. Wanting beautiful things to last forever. Isn’t that a kind of attachment? One best met with non-attachment practice? But where do I begin? Maybe with last night’s dream. We discover harmful bacteria in our pond. Then, I notice blue ink stains all over my white dress.…
Love with Beauty: Omer 15
Chesed: Love. Tiferet: Beauty. Chesed she’b’Tiferet: The love in beauty. Love that sees beauty. And love that seeks beauty. “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” At the simplest level, this means we all find different things beautiful. When we love someone, for example, they seem beautiful to us. Like my cat Koi. He’s…
Mother Wisdom: Omer 14
Malchut. Also known as Shechinah, Archetype of the Mother. One whose guidance is always present. Gevurah. Judgment. Malchut she’b’Gevurah. Maternal wisdom, a part of good judgment. Today I just want to celebrate wisdom of the Great Mother. Or, as she’s known in ordinary English, a grandmother. Last night I dreamed: I am driving on a…
Mantra Strength: Omer 13
Yesod. Foundation. Gevurah. Judgment. Yesod she’b’Gevurah. Foundation of Judgment What are the foundations of judgment? Are they feelings? Beliefs? Can we free ourselves from old foundations? See the world anew? And then learn to make kinder, gentler judgments? Apparently, this is a big question right now. There’s a hot academic debate about “affect theory.” Here’s…
Lasting Judgment: Omer 11
Netzach. Endurance. Gevurah. Judgment. Netzach she’b’gevurah. Enduring Judgment. Ever read evaluations of your own teaching? Or an event you led? If so, then you know. You might get 28 positive comments, with one negative outlier. And what do you remember most? What lingers in your thoughts and hurts your heart? The one negative comment. Even…
Good Judgment: Omer 9
Gevurah she’b’gevurah. Judgment in Judgment. I’ve been waiting for this one. Why? Well, my memory might be a little fuzzy. But I’m pretty sure I wrote my Ph.D. dissertation about this 30 years ago. So much, I said, goes into making good judgments. You have to listen and read carefully. Understand a social and political…
Love Quiets Judgment: Omer 8
Gevurah. Power. Boundaries. Judgment. Chesed she’b’Gevurah. Judgment tempered by Love. My husband is a cognitive psychologist. So he has thought a lot about how minds work. How people collect information, organize it, and use it to make judgments. So, today I interviewed him. Here’s a bit of what he said. Raw judgment is dangerous. Let…
Presence in Love: Omer 7
Malchut. Another name for Shechinah, the maternal Divine Presence we can feel in everyday life. Malchut she’b’chesed. Presence in Love. When I was a newlywed, I thought a lot about presence in love-making. How to be fully present to your own experience. And also be fully present as part of a team of two. How…
Forever Love: Omer Day 4
Netzach. Forever. Netzach she’b’chesed. Forever Love. What does that even look like? Like a mother’s love? Maybe? We talked about that today, in my Sacred Texts and Oral Traditions class. So many cultures tell stories about the Mother of all life. Why, we asked, is this archetype so powerful? Because, I said, we believe in…