I thought I'd make a post each day of the omer (its a counting period bewteen the Jewish Holiday of Passover, and the Jewish Holiday of Shavuot(pentacaust I think))

The omer is a period of 49 days, (7 weeks) between passover and Shavuot, each day we count. In Jewish tradition there are Seven scales on which all emotions and human interactions come from. They are, Chesed, Gevurah (strength/restraint), Tipheret(Beauty, harmony, balance), Netzach(endurance, splendor), Hod (humility, grace), Yesod (Foundation, Bonding), and Malchut (Kingship, Leadership). Each of these seven are in turn made up of the 7, and so week is devoted to one of those Sephirot(meaning: Sapphire, Story, Number, or Telling), and each day is a sephir devoted to the sephir of the week.


Well, Friday was the 1st day of the Omer, and is called Chesed's aspect of Chesed.

This can be translated as, The aspect of LovingKindness, of LovingKindness. On this day you should reflect on how the power of giving and love can overflow to others. But you must ask yourself, Is my love to make the other person happy, or to make me happy? Find a way a new way to show someone you love them.

Saturday was the 2nd day of the Omer, which is the aspect of Gevurah inside of Chesed.

Total love must have a purpose or else it can overwhelm, smother or even hurt another. Strength is the act of restraint, it is harder and thus takes more strength to take many small steps then to go the equal distance with large steps.

Today, focus on showing love to another in a small restrained way, smile to other when you talk to them, and greet the people you know with happiness. Chesed with Gevurah gives purpose and direction to your love, making it more meaningfull.

Sunday was the third day of the Omer, This is the aspect of Tipheret within Chesed.

If Chesed is the overflowing of love, and Gevurah the restraint of love, Tipheret is "True or Objective love." Show love and kindness to a stranger and go out of your way to find ways to help those you do not know.

Daganev You're a Jew as well? I never knew...

Hag Sameah!

Though I have no idea how you spell it in English to sound just right... I made it so it will resemble the way we say it in Israel.

I wonder, were you ever on a Birthright group? I once accompannied them as a soldier and all, was nice.

Yeah, soon we'll have Lag Ba'omer, you're invited to my bonefire... though I doubt you'll book a flight for the ocassion...

Anyways. Hag Sameah once again my man.

any excuse to go to israel is a good one, but I'm going to too many weddings to make it out this year.

Never got to do Birthright, but all my friends did... normally I spell that Chag Samaeach or something.

You wedding crasher!

Well if you do manage it, I might drop by and pay a visit. Just for the heck of it

Woohoo!

I'm Jewish too, and proud!

For the poor, stupid souls who haven't noticed, the 10 aspects are the Sephiroth that make up Highmagic.

(there are ten of 'em, mate. No idea where you got the 7 from. see This article)

There are ten sephirot, however, the first three sephirot deal with cognitive function and not emotional/charachter development, so for some reason the rabbis decided to leave those out during the omer which is suppose to make you ready to recieve the Torah. Apprently, the aspects of Keter(will/desire), Binah(wisdom) and Chachma(understanding) are not really factors into making a person more "holy" and thus able to receive the Torah.

I find the lack of the first three sephirot very telling about what it means to improve yourself from a Jewish standpoint, compared to that of Western sociey which views knowledge and wisdom as more important than say, restraint... especially since the western version of Kabbalah really like to focus on Solomon who was known most for his Wisdom.

Heyas. As an a man whose native language is hebrew... I am forced to correct you Daganev... forgive me?

Keter means crown. Binah means intelligence or cleverness while Hochma means wisdom.

Just my little donation.

Yom tov- good day

d'oh, always get those two mixed up.. crown isn't a good translation for Keter in this context I think because it doesn't mean anything in english... though I doubt it means naything in hebrew also, other than the fact that its a symbol for malchut... meh too much thinking.

Malkuth is royalty

Yeah, Keter is crown... not the best choice...

they wanted "exotic" words...

it will never cease to amaze me that people feel Hebrew is unique... though it definately has a certain beauty.

Latin though... now there's sorcery related language right there...

have fun and keep on rocking in the Jew's world

Fear Harry Potter!

And they already used Latin for Rituals.

(Whee! Typed this with only one finger!)

so today is the fourth day. Netzach of Chesed.

Endurance of lovingkindness, A single act of chesed can go a long way, however the endurance of continuing chesed is what makes it true. (It takes the sephira of Netzach to make Tipheret happen.)

Questions raised today are.. Do I give and withhold love according to my moods or is it constant, regardless of the ups and downs of my life? Am I willing to work for my relationships and fight for the ones I have? Can I be counted on in good times, and in bad?

Netzach is eternity though

And Chesed... is grace. Or an act of kindness as you said.

Sorry for not being too cheery, another terror attack...

Yes.. I just read about that on www.bbc.co.uk/news



How's the throat, Narses?

It has seen better days...
Thanks for the concern

The first 33 days are traditionally a time for mourning.

Netzach means eternity, however what does eternity mean? Whenever I read something about the Sephirot, each one is given atleast 5 translations, each basically meaning the same thing when seen as a group, even though each individual word can be translated differently. The best example is Tipheret which is often translated as Truth, Beauty, Balance, Harmony. Since the Sephirot are concepts more than words, its hard to translate them with single words.

Well.. Tipheret us a tough one... but Eternity isn't.

Eternity, as eternal, simply means something which is ageless and shall never die or vanish...

Tipheret... I might go with grandness on this one.

I am drawing upon my experience of learning the Torah in Hebrew and normal usage of words. But it is possible that I am mistaken

I don't think your mistaken.

I'm pulling what I'm writing from this pamphlet I got for the 49 days, and its clearly not the most accurate of translations and such. However, when it comes to humans and emotions, I can clearly see why the translated it as Endurance instead of as Eternity. Personally I think Eternity makes more sense in the general construct of sephirot, and was always confused by what Netzach and Hod were since nobody ever transaltes them the same.

maybe it is written differently in Hebrew... but Netzach has no other meaning...

Happy Pesach.

...Anyone else love dates and prunes?? *weep* This year my body's loving me less than usual during this ...wonderful time. And big hugs to everyone going through this.

The high point was getting to read my "animated haggadah". It's covered with wine (*cough* grape juice) stains and there's matza in the pages where we're supposed to make the sandwiches, drink the wine (especially during the plagues...man) etc. Ooh, and I finally got a younger cousin. Thus I do not have to sing! Damn it, though, she's only 4.

Chag sameach!