Twelve Days of the Omer 5778

Today is twelve days, which is one week and five days of the Omer. הוד שבגבורה, Hod ShebeGevurah, Splendor (Prophecy) of Power (and Judgment).

Hod channels the energy of בינה, Binah, Understanding, and גבורה, Strength into the material world. How beautiful it is to shine forth knowing the true path to soul expansion. How powerful it is to walk the truth and share your truth with those around you.

Give yourself permission to share your truth. Ignore people who say there are “topics to avoid in mixed company.” As long as you speak with a generosity of spirit, with a sincere desire to understand the other’s experience as deeply as you want to share your own, your words will receive a warm welcome.

I dedicated this semester to finding my Hod ShebeGevurah without realizing it. I knew I was taking homiletics to find my speaking voice, I just didn’t realize how much I would connect that to this sephira. It is scary, sometimes terrifying, to write a sermon. And it’s hard to deliver a sermon well, especially when you wish you could live up to the standards set by your own Rabbi who speaks deeply, with conviction, and without a prepared text.*

So may you push past the voices in your head and find the pure place within you that wants to be heard. I am sure when you communicate your inner self, you will find community rather than silence or indifference.

*Please come visit Rabbi Mordecai Finley at Ohr HaTorah to experience a master class in preaching. I’m there most Shabbats, though this week I’ll be at Capital Retreat Center for an inter-seminary rabbinical student retreat.

Also, יום השואה, Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, begins this evening as well. Please join me in lighting a virtual candle to honor a victim of the Holocaust.