Day 31 of the Omer

Today, the third day of the fifth week, we consider the Divine Attributes of Tiferet in Hod - Harmony or Balance in Humility.


Balance exists in the rock cycle, among solid bed rock, boulders, rocks, sand, silt. 


In the Earth, everything is in motion, even if the motion is so miniscule as to be beyond our perception without machinery of some kind. Rocks change, and they move. Plates of the Earth's crust pull away from each other or push against each other. The pressure builds up until, abruptly, two plates slide past each other. Earthquake! A sudden centimeter of movement and the pressure is relieved. 


At some fault lines, strings of volcanoes are outlets for moving rocks. Magma, hot molten rock, spews forth from deep underground, a volcano in action, splendid and awesome in its power. It hits the atmosphere, cools and forms solid rock. Solidified deposits of flowing lava may form, or if the volcanic eruption is explosive, ash or larger lava fragments may be hurled into the air. All are igneous rocks. Most of the Earth's crust is made of basalt, a heavy, dark, igneous rock, formed from the cooling of hot magma. And so it goes, the cycles of rock, the cycles of pressure build-up and release, the cycles of heating and cooling, always keeping the Earth in balance. Sometimes spectacularly, sometimes unobtrusively, but always change to keep a balance.


We, too, need to stay in balance, and that requires change, for we live in this constantly changing world. We must change in order to stay in balance, and changing requires humility. It requires us to know that we are not always right, to recognize our limits, to know that we must always be in process, and to know that we are not in control. It requires us to recognize the Divine in our world.


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-one days which is four weeks and three days of the Omer.