Birth Day. That’s one way of thinking about the last day of the Omer. The day we touch on Shechinah she’b’Shechinah. And complete our journey through the tree of sefirot. Sometimes I picture the tree of sefirot as a throne. Divine being, which I can’t really picture, sits on it. Some Kabbalists call this throne…
Category: Kabbalah
Yesod the Stream: Omer 41
Yesod. Foundation. Yesod she’b’Yesod. Ultimate Foundation. What kind of foundation? Not the solid one we see under a house. But a dynamic one, always on the move. Maybe you have a little glass carafe where you mix your salad dressing. You put in oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, sugar. Then you shake it up. And, when…
Creator? You there? Omer 30
Gevurah. Judgment, boundary, form. Hod. Splendor. Gevurah she’b’hod. Forms of splendor. The tradition of Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism, describes God as infinite energy. So infinite that It fills all space and time. Thus, It leaves no room for anything else. Except it also holds everything else. So, It’s formless, forming, and formed all at the same…
Justice in Beauty: Omer 16
Gevurah. Justice. Tiferet. Beauty. Gevurah she’b’Tiferet. Justice within beauty. How does beauty hold justice in it? Well, there’s Plato’s view, that all ideals converge. The best things are good, beautiful, and just. So when we see something truly beautiful, it’s because we also see justice in action. Injustice is ugly, and we find it jarring.…
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…
Beautiful Judgment? Omer 10
Tiferet: Beauty. Gevurah: Judgment. Tiferet she’b’gevurah: Beauty in Judgment. At its best, judgment activates our rational minds. So, let’s take a theory break. A little detour into philosophy. Just for a few paragraphs! Plato’s allegory of the cave tells of prisoners chained to a bench. Where they sit, they can only see shadows. They’re experts…
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…
Family Love: Omer 1
Love. Kindness. Two good translations of the Hebrew word chesed. If you’re counting the Omer, chesed is the word of the week. If you haven’t counted the Omer before, here’s a quick primer. https://www.sophiastreet.com/sefirat-haomer-counting-the-omer/ There are many different kinds of love. But today I want to focus on family love. It’s quite present to me…