Day 30 of the Omer

For this 30th day of the Omer, we focus on Gevurah in Hod, Restraint in Humility.

The sand is soft beneath our bare feet as we walk along the beach. It is firm near the water where it is still wet from the waves that alternately cover and uncover it. Higher up the beach the sand is dry, making it harder to walk as our feet sink in with every step, searching for firm footing.

Thinking of sand as a myriad of tiny rocks is difficult. How many times was a thick slab of sandstone been broken apart in order to create these tiny grains of sand, as numerous on a single beach as the stars in the sky? A beach in Bangaladesh extends for 75 miles - how many grains of sand shift alternately seaward and landward on that amazing stretch of shoreline? What is the journey of a single grain?

In our community of human beings, we are each like one grain of sand on a beach - as insiginifcant and as critical to the whole. Our humility comes in understanding our insignificance, and our restraint and discipline, too, for we are each just a grain of sand, and to think of ourselves as a boulder is to misuse or to lose the spiritual power that comes with acknowledging our insignificance.

Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu melech ha'olam, asher kid-shanu b'mitzvotav, vitzivanu, al sefirat ha'omer.

Blessed are you Adonai our G!d, ruler of the universe, who sanctifies us with mitzvot and commands us regarding the counting of the Omer.


Today is thirty days which is four weeks and two days of the Omer.