 | The Omer journey that began at Passover (liberation) leads through this seventh and final week to Shavuot (revelation). Along the way, we delved into inner capacities and character traits, aligned with the mystical (kabbalistic) sequence borne of the medieval era. Week by week, we've made our way through love (hesed), strength (gevurah), balance (tiferet), resilience (netzah), splendor (hod) and foundation (yesod). It all funnels into this week: presence (malkhut), bringing our full selves into the world so that we can receive Torah anew with our full selves. |
By Rabbi David Evan Markus
This seven-week series of posts about the Omer journey maps to our "Soul Stretch" mini-series on Tuesdays 8:00pm - 8:30pm through Shavuot. Each week's post summaries themes covered in the prior Tuesday's session.
Omer's first six weeks were for love (hesed), strength (gevurah), balance (tiferet), resilience (netzah), splendor (hod) and foundation (yesod). A veritable rainbow of qualities arrays before us, and flows through us, leading us to this seventh and final week of presence (malkhut) – showing up fully to ourselves, the world, and the Sacred.
The Hebrew word malkhut, literally means sovereignty as in מלך (melekh, king). These three Hebrew letters are the core of the Hebrew alphabet, for both our individual core and the core spiritual truth that the sacred we call sovereign permeates the world. We invoke it each time we sing Aleinu: "in gratitude we bow, praise and rise lifnei melekh, malkhei ha-m'lakhim HaKadosh Barukh Hu – before the Sovereign, the Sovereign of Sovereigns, the Holy Blessed One."
When we really get this truth in our bones – the truth that holiness permeates the world – then its Presence (capital-P) becomes obvious. It fills our awareness. Our awareness, in turn, hones on the sacred in the world, in each person and in ourselves. In turn, the Presence becomes truly sovereign in our own lives.
Presence – and our awareness of it – is the destination of this seven-week Omer period, the purpose of our Passover liberation from bondage, the purpose of Jewish and spiritual life. Malkhut asks not a theoretical awareness or just thinking about it (which can be helpful), but a life animated by it – how we walk in the world, how we "show up" in the world, how we ourselves become fully present and ever more fully ourselves.
In that understanding, malkhut asks all we've got, because we keep forgetting. We get distracted, hurt, focused on other things in ways less fully present to the Presence. It takes all we've got – all our love, strength, balance, resilience and all the rest – to flow through and keep us fully present. to what is truly sovereign in the world.
And in turn, the Presence manifests – perhaps through us, perhaps in Itself. It manifests as love, strength, balance, resilience and all the rest. And – here's the tie-in to Shavuot – it manifests as the revelation we call Torah. The first Hebrew word of the Ten Commandments – I AM (as in the first commandment: "I AM YHVH your God, who took you out of the Land of Egypt, out of the House of Bondage") – in Hebrew is אנכי / Anokhi – which our ancestors realized is an abbreviation for אנא נפשי כתבית היבית / I wrote and gave My soul. God's very Self, God's own Presence, on Shavuot takes the form of receiving Torah anew.
Only when we stand in our full presence, with all we've got, and only as we stand together in the presence of the people everywhere, can we receive anew this Presence manifesting as Word, sacred inspiration, sacred revelation. Only then can we fully transform our awareness, and ourselves, and our communities, and the world.
So this week as we prepare for Shavuot, perhaps ask yourself deeply: to what am I not yet fully present? Can I summon my full self to open my heart and mind so fully to the Presence that it becomes truly sovereign in my life? Can I dare to fully show up and be transformed?
The Omer count reaches its conclusion. After seven weeks, we stand at Sinai again, and the Mountain speaks, and we receive anew the I AM, the Presence, that always journeys with us....
See you at Sinai.
This seven-week series of posts about the Omer journey maps to our "Soul Stretch" mini-series on Tuesdays 8:00pm - 8:30pm through Shavuot. Each week's post summaries themes covered in the prior Tuesday's session.
Omer's first six weeks were for love (hesed), strength (gevurah), balance (tiferet), resilience (netzah), splendor (hod) and foundation (yesod). A veritable rainbow of qualities arrays before us, and flows through us, leading us to this seventh and final week of presence (malkhut) – showing up fully to ourselves, the world, and the Sacred.
The Hebrew word malkhut, literally means sovereignty as in מלך (melekh, king). These three Hebrew letters are the core of the Hebrew alphabet, for both our individual core and the core spiritual truth that the sacred we call sovereign permeates the world. We invoke it each time we sing Aleinu: "in gratitude we bow, praise and rise lifnei melekh, malkhei ha-m'lakhim HaKadosh Barukh Hu – before the Sovereign, the Sovereign of Sovereigns, the Holy Blessed One."
When we really get this truth in our bones – the truth that holiness permeates the world – then its Presence (capital-P) becomes obvious. It fills our awareness. Our awareness, in turn, hones on the sacred in the world, in each person and in ourselves. In turn, the Presence becomes truly sovereign in our own lives.
Presence – and our awareness of it – is the destination of this seven-week Omer period, the purpose of our Passover liberation from bondage, the purpose of Jewish and spiritual life. Malkhut asks not a theoretical awareness or just thinking about it (which can be helpful), but a life animated by it – how we walk in the world, how we "show up" in the world, how we ourselves become fully present and ever more fully ourselves.
In that understanding, malkhut asks all we've got, because we keep forgetting. We get distracted, hurt, focused on other things in ways less fully present to the Presence. It takes all we've got – all our love, strength, balance, resilience and all the rest – to flow through and keep us fully present. to what is truly sovereign in the world.
And in turn, the Presence manifests – perhaps through us, perhaps in Itself. It manifests as love, strength, balance, resilience and all the rest. And – here's the tie-in to Shavuot – it manifests as the revelation we call Torah. The first Hebrew word of the Ten Commandments – I AM (as in the first commandment: "I AM YHVH your God, who took you out of the Land of Egypt, out of the House of Bondage") – in Hebrew is אנכי / Anokhi – which our ancestors realized is an abbreviation for אנא נפשי כתבית היבית / I wrote and gave My soul. God's very Self, God's own Presence, on Shavuot takes the form of receiving Torah anew.
Only when we stand in our full presence, with all we've got, and only as we stand together in the presence of the people everywhere, can we receive anew this Presence manifesting as Word, sacred inspiration, sacred revelation. Only then can we fully transform our awareness, and ourselves, and our communities, and the world.
So this week as we prepare for Shavuot, perhaps ask yourself deeply: to what am I not yet fully present? Can I summon my full self to open my heart and mind so fully to the Presence that it becomes truly sovereign in my life? Can I dare to fully show up and be transformed?
The Omer count reaches its conclusion. After seven weeks, we stand at Sinai again, and the Mountain speaks, and we receive anew the I AM, the Presence, that always journeys with us....
See you at Sinai.
RSS Feed