Today’s topic is resilience. I think it fits with the day’s quality. Gevurah means Judgment. Malchut is another name for Shechinah, the Divine Mother. So, Gevurah she’b’malchut means: Judgment in the mother. I’m thinking today of judgments I made as a mother. Good judgments, actually. One of my young children, for example, was not very…
Category: Love
Caretaking: Omer 40
Caretaking. A hidden foundation of the world. One that merits much gratitude. But gets little. Today in the Omer, Hod, gratitude meets Yesod, foundation. Today’s quality is Hod she’b’Yesod, gratitude for a solid foundation. Also today: What to do with myself? I’m not sure what day it is. I know I haven’t slept in three.…
Love Imperfect: Omer 36
Chesed, love. Yesod, foundation. Chesed she’b’yesod, love that’s the foundation! We all know love is the foundation. Children need it to thrive. To feel secure as they explore and learn. So they don’t see the world as a threat. And thus, defensively, turn on everyone they meet. Adults need love too. Because, at any age,…
Going Home: Omer 35
Malchut, another name for Shechinah, Dweller. Divine Dweller, that is. Thus, a Divine Presence. Hod, Splendour. Shechinah she’b’hod, Divine Presence in Splendour. But Shechinah isn’t just any Divine Presence. It’s like the presence of a loving mother. One who follows you into exile. Physical exile, but also spiritual exile. Emotional exile. She cries for you…
Endure: Omer 26
God is eternal. Humans temporarily endure. We’re so different. But the Omer count gives us only “seven sefirot to describe them all.” (If I might paraphrase The Lord of the Rings.) Hod she’b’Netzach might mean two entirely different things. One to express God’s nature. And another to express human nature. God’s Nature is Eternal Hod…
Mrs. L's Love: Omer 22
Chesed. Love. Netzach. Endurance. Chesed she’b’Netzach. Love that keeps us keeping on. Today, I’d like to tell a Sophia Street story. It’s about lasting love between friends. True confession: We have an indoor-outdoor cat. His name is Koi and he is 16 years old. He’s quite friendly. So, after 14 years in the neighbourhood, he…
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…
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…
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…