Along the Way: Journey to Holiness

 


Dear Friends,

As we journey from Passover to Shavuot, we perform a ritual called counting the omer. for the seven weeks between these two major festivals.

This was a grain offering that represented the agricultural significance of the spring planting and harvest.

Spiritually, counting the omer provides us an opportunity to think about what it means to journey from slavery to freedom (Passover) and then onto the revelation of receiving the 10 Commandments at Mt. Sinai on Shavuot.

As we journey toward revelation I am reminded of when I stood on Mt. Nebo in Jordan, looking at the Promised Land the way that Moses did  As we remember Moses was not allowed to go into the Promised Land and was only given a glimpse.  I had hoped to see Israel from the mountain top but it was a hazy day and I could only see haze.  I was sad until I thought  that perhaps revelation may be the realization that our promised lands and goals are not always clear and easy to see.  As we journey through the challenges of life, perhaps being free means to accept ambiguity and realize that we may never feel that we accomplished completely what we had hoped to do.

As I think about this journey from Passover to Shavuot, and reflect upon the counting of the omer, I am mindful of the following seven emotional attributes which accompany us during this period of time. (See below)  If we can make these attributes part of our journey, then we may never need to reach our promised land.  We will have filled our journeys with sacredness.

So...as many of us have been asked by children or others traveling with us, "when will we get there,"  the question we should be asking is when we will begin to treasure the journey.

Safe travels to all of us as we continue our journeys.  Please search for information about counting the omer online and if you wish to count the omer, please click on the following link.  

Homer Omer Calendar


Shabbat shalom,

Rabbi Bruce Aft

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What Makes The Ninth of Av Different This Year

  Dear Friends and Family, We are back from most of our travels and I wanted to share a blog about the Jewish Commemoration of Tisha B'Av which we are observing today. Tisha B'Av is the 9th day of the Hebrew month of Av and we remember the destruction of the Temples in Jerusalem and other tragedies that have occurred to the Jewish people. As we remember these events this year, we think about the horrible Hamas attacks on Israel  which took place on Oct. 7 of 2023 and the subsequent tragic loss of life which continues.  We are all hoping and praying for the release of the hostages and for peace in the region.. I recently gave a talk about what makes this year's observance of Tisha B'Av different from other years.  I spoke in response to the significant division in our Jewish community and beyond, about what an appropriate response should or could have been to the attacks on Oct. 7. This blog is not an attempt to respond to that question.  My desire is to enc...
Read more

What Holds Us Together

 Dear Friends, I will be writing two blogs about our recent trip to Poland with college students from George Mason University. This week in our scriptural reading, we read from the conclusion of the book of Exodus.  We read about many of the details about the construction of the holy Tabernacle that our ancestors built in the wilderness.. One of the items that we read about during the last parts of Exodus, is the construction of the clasps that held things together.  I am intrigued by what helps anything holy stay together. While we were in Poland and were visiting the sites of the Warsaw Ghetto, the villa and zoo in Warsaw which is described in the book and movie, "The Zookeeper's Wife,", Treblinka,  the Lublin Yeshiva (place of study), the Grodzka gate, Majdanek, Auschwitz/Birkenau, the Labyrinth, Plaszow, Schindler's factory, Kashmierz, and the Krakow ghetto.  As you can see we saw many things. What does this have to do with clasps that our ancestors bui...
Read more

MLK's Message 2.0

Dear Friends and Family, As we celebrate Shabbat in the week that we commemorated MLK Day, I wanted to share some meaningful quotes from Dr. King Jr which I believe provide us some guidance for challenges with which we are dealing in our world today. First of all, Mahalia Jackson encouraged Dr. King to talk about his dream when he gave the iconic "I Have A Dream Speech."  He departed from his prepared text at one point and the rest is history.  I personally think that perhaps Mahalia's advice is important for all of us to consider.  We have our prepared speeches and thoughts about contemporary  issues ranging from the Middle East to Presidential politics.  Perhaps it is time for us to think about what our dreams are.  I believe that each of us share a dream for a more peaceful world and a world where people can talk to each other.  If I was adapting sections of the "I Have A Dream Speech" for today's world I would make the foll...
Read more