Omer Day 8: Tasting Some Low Hanging Fruit

Welcome to the second week of our Omer Counting!

Now that we've accounted our inventory in various aspects of our lives, this week will be dedicated to planning.  But before we really plot things out in order to put things into action, it is important that we also taste a little low-hanging fruit.  Shavuot is still quite a while away, and we can wear ourselves out with all the reflection and planning phases so that we have no energy or motivation left to implement our strategies. We MUST avoid this at all costs!!

For those of you unfamiliar with the term, "Low-Hanging Fruit," it refers to an easily accomplished goal. There must be something on one of the lists that we've made that we could probably rectify pretty quickly and easily, and therefore "taste" the reward of accomplishing something without making a monumental effort. Go back and scan your journals, find a task that is low effort/high reward . . . if you only have high-effort items, then pick a piece of that idea and go for it.  If I have the goal of cleaning off my piles on my desk, which might take too much effort to do well, then maybe today I clear off one pile.  And if you haven't kept up with it, no problem, brainstorm an easily achievable goal that can be done today and feel really good about having checked it off your imaginary list.

This is one of the reasons we cling to ritual in Judaism. If we are constantly striving for lofty ideals - the kind of personal growth that takes an entire lifetime, we might all become jaded and disparaged over time.  We might give up the pursuit.  So, along the way, we focus in on easily achievable rituals that provide us with structure for our journeys, re-focus our long-term goals, and push us back towards becoming the person each of us hopes to become (and at the same time bring us in contact with one another, lift our spirits with liveliness and food, and help us break the monotony of time that can lead us to states of atrophy).  This Omer period, for instance, is one of those ritualistic invitations.  The low-hanging fruit is just the recitation of the omer blessing, and the pause in doing so.  The fuel we get from its sustenance, though, can help us reach for bigger and better pursuits in ourselves.

Here's to filling us up as we continue to reach higher and higher!

Day 8 Omer Action: Pick a low-hanging fruit and cross it off your to do list!

Day 8 Omer Journaling: Describe how your low-hanging fruit is part of a bigger goal you have for yourself.

OMER DAY 7: Resources

For our final day of accounting and taking stock of what we have, we turn our thoughts to what is around us that can help move us forward in our journeys.  By now, we are all probably bursting at the seams to start taking some action . . . and if you've already done so, good for you!

We'll get to action together soon enough, but before we do, it is important for us to realize that we do not live in isolation.  We do not have to work alone, nor are we meant to.  We may delude ourselves into thinking that we have been the ones who are solely responsible for all accomplishments and achievements we have ever experienced - but there is always someone or some resource that helps us along the way (or a few someones).

Yesterday, the Boston Marathon was run in a beautiful and stirring way.  Marathon running: the most solo of solo acts.  How many people did it take to make the event happen?  And I'm not just referring to the security personnel.  Droves of volunteers, organizers, city planners, people in the city who willingly give up access to parts of their hometowns, health care providers, good-hearted people cheering on the runners . . . they make the task of running 26.2 miles more elevated and worthwhile than the experience of running one's own marathon route at home.  They help the participants go further than they might have expected of themselves, they make sure the runners have water/safety-from-cars (especially in Boston - if you have ever driven there, you know what I mean!)/a route so that they can accomplish the feat.  Not that I'm trying to take anything away from the inspiring runners - but they all had resources they could turn to in helping them get to their desired outcomes.  

Each one of us is surrounded by potential resources who can help us in whatever improvements we hope to see.  Whether they are people to support us, people to criticize us (lovingly, of course), books to read, classes to take, educational television shows to watch, Torah; there is always help we can find. . . we do not have to go it alone.  The question of utilizing resources becomes sometimes the uncomfortable reality that if we are going to let someone help us, it means we have to admit, there is something in us in need of changing. We often have to allow someone else into our personal process and insecurities, to make ourselves vulnerable.  Doing so can be scary and off-putting.  Yet, it is essential to real change - if we are going to turn weaknesses into strengths, fight fate and determine our destiny, bring our hopes/dreams to reality, well, we may need to bruise our egos a bit.  Don't journey alone - it just isn't nearly as fulfilling.

DAY 7 JOURNAL: List the resources around you that could be helpful to finding change in an area of weakness that you have identified or in a dream/hope you wish to make come true.  For this list, do not only put down the resources you know you might use, go ahead and list the resources that are available to you - this way, if one approach is not working down-the-line, this list will still exist with ideas of places you might turn to kickstart the process.  For example, if your goal is to drop 5 pounds, list Weight Watchers and a personal trainer and a nutritionist, even if you do not have any intention of going one of those routes.  

DAY 7 ACTION: Contact one of these resources (or purchase/borrow/peruse) and see if it will be a good help for your journey.

Ha-Yom Shivah Yamim, she-hem Sh'vua echad la-Omer

Today is the 7th Day, which is one week, of the Omer

MY JOURNAL:

So, I know that I mentioned in this post that we have to bruise the ego a bit and show our incompetence, somewhat publicly.  I am still working up to doing so for myself.  A blog may be too public of an arena for all the work I am doing on myself, and so it might not work for all of my personal journaling.  I'll have to keep a separate log for certain ideas, but here, I'm going to at least list the resources I have that can help me accomplish the dream of being a more consistent blog-writer - throughout the Omer and beyond

• Calendar and Advance Plan
• Other Omer counting books and resources
• Notes from Organizational Development class
• Engineering brain
• Supportive wife who encourages me to do this kind of thing
• Feedback from people who are reading the blog
• A desire to help others
• A desire to continually improve myself 
• So that I can be better at helping others
• So I can live more meaningfully and happily
• Internet
• Mentors
• Multiple technological input devices (already blogged from a mobile device!)
• An acceptance that it will not be perfect
• Typing gloves (I don't have them, but I think I would look really cool in them and they would make me excited during the moments when I love motivation)
• Eating regularly (Took on an extra, unscheduled meeting today when I was supposed to have had lunch.  Hungry blogger = shortcuts and incomplete )
• Humor
• News stories
• Literature -- I HAVE to blog about Brothers Karamazov for one of these posts!
• Rabbis Organizing Rabbis and the I Stand with Ruth Campaign
• Voice-to-word recognition software . . . the novelty (it's still a novelty for me) will make me want to blog.
• Patience

  

OMER DAY 6: Weaknesses

So far, we've been a bit happy-go-lucky in our Omer assessment, but it is time for us to get down to

business.  No one is perfect.  We each have our flaws. Sometimes our flaws are minor and insignificant. Other times, our challenges turn into our strengths, even when they don't feel particularly perfect to us; and there are certainly the times when our flaws get in our way and impact us quite negatively.

Rabbi Lucy Dinner, with whom I have the privilege to work and to learn, shared with me a lovely excerpt from a book by Rabbi Karyn Kedar who was quoting a person I did not know until coming across this text, Marion Woodman (How's that for a convoluted introduction to a text? Hey, it's the rabbinic way - downright Talmudic, even!).  Ms. Woodman expounded on some of the life lessons she had gained from some of her times of weakness - in this case physical weakness, as she was coping with cancer.

"What I learned is the difference between fate and destiny.  

We are all fated to die. Destiny is recognizing the radiance 

of the soul that even when faced with human impossibility, loves all of life.

Fate is the death we owe to nature.

Destiny is the life we owe to soul."

- Marion Woodman. Bone:Dying into Life. 

New York: Viking, 2000.  p. xvi

(Quoted in Our Dance with God. Karyn Kedar. 

Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights, 2004 

-- emphasis my own)

On many levels this quote is helpful for our Omer reflection, today.  Ms. Woodman turned a weakness of hers into a strength, by allowing herself to find a new, more important perspective than she was motivated to have found in her years before facing a stark reality.  She offers us the beautiful paradigm of a difference between fate and destiny - one I took to heart through the lens of identifying our weaknesses.  

Those parts of our character we find to be flawed, they are a part of our fate.  For example, I will never be the most organized thinker or the most rememberful person (I know it's not a word, but it should be! I love it!).  That is my fate.  But it does not have to get in the way of who I can become.  I do not have to allow that fate to dictate my own limitations, but I can only do so by admitting the weakness and seeking ways to work around, through, and in spite of the challenge.  My brain is not wired for routines - to those who are structure-oriented, making it to day 6 of a daily blog seems to be no big deal, but for a person of my character, man is this tough!  I love it, I look forward to it, but I still worry about my ability to keep up with it, because of the ways I think.  I have put ticklers in my calendar to remind myself to write and post and facebook-share.  And it is all a part of a learning process for me.  But these are all ways I am trying to shape a destiny that is different from my fate.  It's a much more inspiring way, I think, of saying, "In our weaknesses, we find opportunities."  Which is probably what I would have said to some extent, had I not been exposed to the above quote.  Instead, the big idea of today is that it is time for us to accept our own fate in order to be able to shape our own destiny.

So, with that bit of personal anecdote meant to reveal a bigger idea (hopefully it worked?), we are ready for today's reflection:

OMER REFLECTION DAY 6: List your weaknesses/challenges/things that get in your way of getting where you want to be that are a part of your current fate.  

• KEY RULES TO THIS PROCESS: 
• Do not be overly harsh on yourself - be as factual as possible, and use calm, non-pejorative language.
• Do not nitpick (Don't go to your list of strengths and find flaws in those areas)
• Do be totally honest - part of why we live with flaws others see in us but we cannot see in ourselves is because humans are good at being delusional. . .  don't let that be one of your flaws.  If it is, list it so we can work on it!
• Do not walk away from the list totally despondent or overwhelmed. . . if this is how you're feeling, time to stop the list for now, and revisit your list of strengths.  Call a friend.  Take out your list of happy places from earlier. 

OMER ACTION DAY 6: 

• Pick one or two from the list you've created to work on for the next couple of weeks (on our workshop reflection days - you'll see what I mean when we get there).
• Share your chosen "weaknesses" with a loved one or confidant or an omer-journaling buddy, so you can have someone to hold you accountable and cheer you on in your ongoing attempts to change your destiny

Ha-yom shisha la-omer

Today is Day 6 of the Omer

My Reflection:

Oy, it feels like too many to list . . .

• Time management
• Things take me a long time to accomplish
• Wanting to do everything and having trouble saying "no."
• Following-up on well-intended ideas
• Actually hoping the Heat win the NBA Championship (I did grow up there, folks!)
• Never enough time for study
• Not changing gears quickly enough at times when interrupted from something I am focusing upon
• Writing out the thoughts that seem to come so much more fluidly when I speak them
• A self-perspective that notices my flaws shining out and my strengths to remain muted
• An ego that I try and try and try to keep in check - when I ignore its needs and its ability to take over, it becomes a weakness.
• Letting others become my source of confidence too often
• Organizational structure
• Putting too much detail into stories
• Not Slowing down
• Putting others ahead of myself too constantly - leaves me with not enough to keep giving
• I never learned how to switch hit!  I think I could have been a great lefty bunt-for-a-base-hit guy!

Alright. . . there's room to work from here!!  Sweet - I love a challenge!

OMER DAY 5: Strengths

Yesterday, we cataloged our hopes and dreams... At least some of them. As we continue this week of accounting, we turn to some character analysis to help us figure out how we can move a little closer to those aspirations.

Each one of us has strong characteristics that can help us move towards our goals. (We each have weaknesses that get in our ways, too, but that's for tomorrow's omer counting). Talents, gifts, perspectives, luck, good people who surround us; no matter what form they take, it is important for us to take note of those opportunities within ourselves that can lead us towards more fulfillment and meaning.

The key, however, is to maintain humility while recognizing our strengths. This is not about making ourselves ego-maniacs and deluding ourselves into thinking we're perfect. That would be a recipe for inaction, for if there is nothing to change, why try?  Also, when we say, "I am good at x, which makes me better than Ploni" (that's ancient rabbinic for 'John Doe'), we turn a strength into a weakness by devaluing another, while also setting ourselves up to devalue ourselves in other comparisons. Let us avoid comparisons altogether, today, and just take note of the arsenal of told we do have at our disposal for helping make the world around us better.

And a Happy Easter to those friends who celebrate this holiday!


Omer Journal Question: List your strengths.

Omer Actions:

• Pick a strength and perform some kind of act of loving-kindness using that characteristic.
• Share with a loved one a strength you see and appreciate in them

Ha-yom chamishchamishah yamim la-omer

Today is day 5 of the Omer

My journaling:

• Wit
• Being able to put myself in other's shoes and see multiple perspectives
• Compassion and sympathy/empathy
• Knowledge of and comfort with the fact that I am not in control
• Loving family, friends, and community
• A spouse who is a friend, confidant, resource, and way-more-talented educator than I am (d'oh, I was supposed to avoid comparisons)
• Wide-range of educational experiences and interests
• Intellectual Curiosity
• A love of challenges
• Engineering-brain
• A job Career occupation lifestyle that suits me well and offers me a platform to share ideas and learn from others
• A love for humanity, as well as my fellow Jews
• Connections worldwide because I am part of a particular group of people (Chicago Cubs fans)

OMER DAY 4: Hope

Shabbat Shalom!! Day four of the omer falls on Shabbat. Shabbat is a day on which we remove ourselves from the everyday details that often seem to shape our lives and dictate our behaviors and choices. Instead, we take a step back to dream of the world as it could be, to invite ourselves to spend a day on an Island in time, as Rabbi Heschel described.

Therefore, Day 4 of our (ac)counting involves reaching into our hearts and taking stock of the hopes we hold for ourselves, for our loved ones, for the world. Hertzl, one of the leading figures in establishing the modern state of Israel, taught, "If you will it, it is no dream." Well, if you don't allow yourself to dream, it is impossible to find the will to make any changes for the better. Dream with me?

Day 4 Journal Activity: List some of your own, personal hopes and dreams. We sometimes think we know our hopes/dreams, but it always helps to put them down on paper (or word document) so as to concretize a bit of the vague wishes we hold in our hearts.

Day 4 Activity: Share one of your hopes/dreams with someone else you love, and ask them to share with you something they are hoping for. (Key to this activity's success: make sure your wish is not a veiled request for that person to take some action of their own. I.e. "I've been dreaming of a clean corner of our bedroom on your side of the bed...hint...hint...)
(Please forgive any odd typos, grammar, or formatting... Publishing for the first time from a tablet)

Ha-yom yom r'vi-i LA omer

Today is the fourth day of the omer.

My journal entry:

• A Cubs World Series victory (or appearance)
• Helping my daughters grow with confidence, knowledge, courage, silliness, and love
• Saying something original that has never before been said
• Making someone else's life better for having known me
• Making my life better for having known each person with whom I interact
• Seeing Australia
• Recording my Bauby's incredible stories
• Playing my trumpet in front of the congregation
• Feeling more in control of my calendar 

OMER Day 3: Reflection

The next stop in our Omer (ac)counting involves reflection.  Until we know where we've been, it's sometimes hard to know where to go.  That is one of the reasons we tell and re-tell the Passover story each year: to recall what hardship is, to remind us of how sweet freedom can be.  In doing so, we are supposed to inspire ourselves to ensure that no one suffers such oppression in our midst, moving forward.  And to help each of us see a glimmer of hope: that no matter how far we may feel we are from our own, personal freedom from that which plagues us, we have to keep working without giving up, so that we too can sing on the other side of our own parted seas.




One of those places on the other side of the sea that I've been working towards this year has been rights for those with questionable immigration status here in the U.S.  If you read my own journal entry below, you'll understand a bit more about it, and why it's a part of my own day of reflection. . . Or you can read Rabbi Karyn Kedar's understanding of it, as well.

Day 3 Omer journaling: Reflect: What lessons have you learned about yourself in the past year?  You can bullet point a list, but I'm going to go in depth on a certain area in this one (and introduce another recurring theme for this Omer blog).

Day 3 Omer action: Do something good for someone else, based on your new insight. . . I know, vague, right?  Sorry, but each of us has learned something very different about ourselves.  If it's a strength: use your strength for good.  If you found a weakness, go ahead and see if someone else can help you address the weakness - sometimes when we ask others for help, it turns out we offer them the chance to feel really good about being of service to someone they love. . . Just sayin' (Thanks, Rabbi Kipnes, for that lesson).

Ha-yom Shlosha yamim la-omer.

Today is the third day of the omer.

My journal: This year, I have learned a lot about developing my own voice when it comes to seeking justice.  I've been timid about speaking out on matters that are somewhat controversial in the public sphere, even when I feel there is clear, compelling reasons to do so.  I'm not a rock-the-boat type of guy: in high school, people nicknamed me "Benvolio" when we were reading Romeo and Juliet (for those who can't remember the poor fellow, he was the guy who continually tried to make peace between the Montagues and the Capulets).  But I have learned this year that there comes a time that in order to bring peace, one must bring the issues to the surface and create a dialogue and understanding.

I learned to use my voice through our work here at TBO on supporting the Moral Mondays movement.  And I have learned a great deal about political action through my work on immigration reform with the Rabbis Organizing Rabbis group.  I joined a group of rabbis who met with the offices Senators in DC prior to the Senate's approval of a comprehensive immigration reform bill.  Since then, we have been working on how to keep the dream of a better path to immigration than the one that exists.

Along the way, I learned that our current system does not only negatively impact those who have crossed a border without the proper papers to do so.  A colleague of mine was threatened with deportation when her work visa was not going to be renewed.  Another colleague could not enter the country for the first two months of her contract with a congregation in the northeast because she was Canadian and the visa would not go through quickly enough.  Another Canadian-born, talented Jewish educator in Texas had to leave a job because a visa had run out.
And for those who did come here illegally, it does not change the fact that they have children here who are citizens. And there are children who have grown up here without knowing anything else.  Entire sectors of the economy depend on those who are willing to come here to work, because those who have grown up in America do not want the jobs (which brings up an entirely different issue about fair wages, but I digress).

We never know when the person who comes here will be like our biblical hero, Ruth.  She gave up all she knew in order to live among her deceased husband's people.  She chose to support her mother-in-law.  She chose to fully join her new society.  And in the end, she gave back to the community way more than it could have given to her.  We never know when the person who comes here will be like our own grandparent or great-grandparent: the person whose bravery and resolve, whose willingness to infatilize oneself by diving into a new place where everything is different, down to the words one must use, to put up with the stigma of being "foreign," to start over from whatever was, has given us the chance to be as comfortably who we are today.  I'll get more in-depth as to the issues in the weeks to come, and I understand that we can't just have the entire world move here - but the system as it stands has the potential to tear families apart, to ruin sectors of our economy, to push away talented people who could be a part of our country's revitalization.  For so many reasons - those that affect us directly and those that affect us because we are caring individuals who seek justice - we just cannot stand idly by.

This is a big part of what I have learned this year.  For myself, my action today will be to help out with a Rabbis-organizing-rabbis campaign, and change my profile picture on facebook to the above picture.  I'll also post the RavBlog entry about the "I am Ruth" campaign on social media, and I'll invite a few other rabbis to do so.  If you'd like to join me in the efforts, I'd love it!  I didn't say the action had to be huge, but for the next few weeks, when people interact with me via social media

OMER DAY 2: Taking Note of What Has Become "Clutter"

OMER DAY 2: Taking Note

Any good accounting starts from knowing what you have.  Therefore, I'm dedicating this first week of Omer (ac)counting to inventory.  During my engineering days, I once had a manufacturing job that involved streamlining the workspaces for certain processes.  Before we could make improvements to the infrastructure, we had to first identify what we had to work with.  Instead of coming in and knowing the changes to make, I'd sit with my teammates and figure out what they had in their workspaces and understand why it was there.  Often, we'd find a tool that was taking up valuable space on their worktable that had no need to be there, but it didn't "live" anywhere else.  It became so much a part of their everyday work environment, that the person who used the workstation no longer noticed the tool, but instead worked around it.  A few people did not even include such large tools in the list of objects we had asked them to make that were at their workstations.  Until we gave them the option of having the tool elsewhere, they chose to just not notice its existence, anymore - it was a fabric of their reality.  The tool had become clutter.  But it was actually a very important tool to have, from time-to-time, when it was needed.  It just wasn't usually needed by that person.

We live this way, often - items, relationships, problems, hopes - they just lie around our space, cluttering our lives.  (If anyone has seen the corner of my room near my bed, you'll know I need to work on this, severely . . . Rachel is in a constant state of noticing it, but I walk right by it far too often).  Every day, we walk by the same people at work, we drive by those on the sides of the street, we step past beautiful flowers or ugly weeds without giving a second thought to their existence.  Even those we notice everyday because we work with them, drop off kids with them, transact with them: they become objects to us, the source of the output of what they are doing.  Do we spend enough time realizing their humanity and noticing who they are?  Do we see the wonder and amazing aspects of our surroundings, or does it just serve to be more clutter?

Today, may it be a day of noticing that which surrounds us.  It may overwhelm. . . as I'm typing this, I'm noticing all the little bits of paper un-filed on my desk and starting to get a little exasperated.  But it's okay, don't worry about the sorting, yet.  Just take it in and allow yourself to incorporate the theme of the yotzer or blessing - Thanks for the constant creation that surrounds us, that we notice by the impact of light.  At each moment, we perceive what we see because new light hits our eyes.  Every second is an opportunity to see newness - but do we take note?

Day 2 Omer-Journaling: 

• Make a list of things or people you noticed today that you do not usually pay attention to (Again, don't have to be comprehensive, but do a nice accounting of what you've seen today, and see if there's anything you did not notice on first glance)

Day 2 Omer Activity: 

• Take one of the objects from the list above that does not belong where it lives, and put it in a new place. 
• Stop to have a personal conversation with a person who has become a bit of an "object" in your life (if you do not have time for this today, it's okay - we'll re-visit this one later. . .)

Today is Day 2 of the Omer

(Here's my journaling so far):

• Papers on my desk that need filing
• Magen David Adom Tzedakah box hidden amongst said files. . . (not doing anyone any good there!)
• My TBO nametag that I could not remember where I had stored it (it's sitting less than six inches from my monitor
• I saw the most incredible tribute from a grandchild towards a grandfather at a funeral today - so touching, personal, and filled-with true knowledge of the person about whom he was talking.
• The aforementioned pile of "stuff" I have in the corner of my bedroom.
• A piece of furniture that Rachel wants to get rid of that is just sitting against a wall
• My Rhea Hirsch School of Jewish Eduation graduation gift that sits on my wall with the following lesson:
• Raba said, "When people are led in for Judgment they are asked: 
• Did you deal faithfully [i.e. with integrity]? 
• Did you fix times for learning? 
• Did you engage in procreation (or the act of raising/educating children)? 
• Did you hope for salvation (or a better situation than we now have)? 
• Did you engage in the dialectics of wisdom? 
• Did you understand one thing from another?

- Babylonian Talmud: Shabbat 31a

• Laila's ears stick out a little bit under all that hair! (Not as much as mine, though)
• I have not followed up with one of my coworkers about a personal thing going on with them that I should have checked-in about.
• And it shall go on from here. . . .

OMER DAY 1: Accounting Blessings

It is still the chag, the festival period of Passover, a time of joy.  So, I'm going to start my accounting from a place of joy and happiness.  At the recent CCAR conference (it's the big rabbis union), I heard from a number of folks that hope and inspiration is a much better motivator than fear.
I heard that phrase and just took it in - I thought, "Sure - makes sense." But now that I reflect on it in context of our Omer accounting, it makes more sense. What we love drives us to think bigger about doing what is truly right and just, to dream for the heights and swing for the fences.  Fear may more urgently drive us, but only so far as to do just enough to get us out of the fearful zone.  Living in fear for too long causes too many neuroses, so the constant fear option doesn't work for me either.

Today's Omer accounting involves taking stock of that which makes you happy.  So far, the format I'll be using is to introduce the accounting theme of the day, a reflection question (or two), and some active tasks.  Will I be able to do it all each day?  Who knows?  But we can't get there if we don't try!  This blog will serve as my journal.  I invite you to do the same for yourself - journal your own Omer accounting.

Personal Omer reflection #1: Take stock of the blessings you are feeling right now (do not put too much pressure on yourself to be comprehensive)

• Though I'm often too busy to notice, I am feeling incredibly blessed right now.  And I don't use the word "blessed" lightly: the overtly religious connotation sits in my throat a bit every time I talk use it - it feels almost supernatural.  Yet, when I allow myself to get over the word's cultural context, it represents the idea that I am able to experience happiness and joy from things that are not fully under my own control.  I may be able to influence the love my wife has for me through acts of care and careful listening (which I know I would like to do more of than I actually end up doing) - but, ultimately, I cannot control her love for me - it is her willing choice to insanely feel such sentiments for a guy like me.  And so I cannot take for granted and think it is in my own hands - it is a blessing.

• So, random word-association list of blessings:
• The love of an incredibly talented and beautiful inside-and-out partner in my wife.
• Kids that make me smile just by taking breaths
• Sunshine
• Chicago Cubs baseball, no matter how futile this year's hopes are
• Daughters who know not of such futility, but instead laugh with joy and say "Go Cubs" every time they see a big, red "C" or a pitcher throwing a ball, regardless of his team.
• Community
• Dancing
• Ability to think and solve problems
• DVR
• Kosher-for-Passover jelly fruit slices (sorry, Rach, but those things just make me happy)
• Random phone calls/emails from friends 
• That the movie Starship Troopers exists
• The moments when someone notices the effort I put in
• Catching one's breath while running and getting into the zone
• Living in the present

I could go on and on, but the omer accounting is not intended to take up the entire day.  Already, though, I'm feeling much smilier (not-a-word, but it should be) than when I sat down at the computer!

Omer task #1: Show someone they are your blessings

• Say "Thank  you" to someone who looks out for you on a daily basis, above and beyond the "call of duty"
• Say "I love you" to a friend or family member you haven't spoken to in a while.
• Write a hand-written note (thank you card, letter, anything) to someone who makes you happy.

Today is Day 1 of the Omer. . . Ha-yom yom echad la-omer.

(Ac)Counting the Omer - 5774

Happy Passover, 5774.  This is the time of year in which we celebrate our own freedoms and commit ourselves to ensuring that all those around us are liberated from bondage, as well.  

We also count these days between Passover and Shavuot, spiritually preparing ourselves to celebrate the receiving of Torah.  Each day, one was to sacrifice an Omer's worth of grains, in order to mark that these weeks are different from all other weeks.  They remind us that the Passover story did not just end on the other side of the sea; that the work of the Israelites was just beginning at that moment when they stopped their dancing and celebrating.  The hand of God had delivered them from Egypt, but it would be the hand of the people that would determine for what purpose.  Shavuot represents the time in which this aimless group of wanderers were given a meaning and a mission - to create a just society, predicated on equality and shared responsibilities.  The Israel they were compelled to create was to be the anti-Egypt: a horizontal human leadership structure.  

Enough historical context: this brings me to this year's Omer counting.  Each day we count, we are supposed to advance our own spiritual connection with bigger ideas than our everyday routines. In doing so, we have the chance to solidify our own personal purposes.  And so, I am going to use the Omer this year as a means of accounting justice and freedom in our time.  I could certainly fill this space with reflections about super-sized issues that plague millions of fellow humans across the world.  But I do not wish to ignore the individual accounting that I believe to be a part of this Omer period - we are to take stock of our own struggles to create just living.  If you'll count with me, we'll visit topics such as modern slavery, addiction, hunger, immigration, oppression of the checkbook, oppression of the calendar, to name a few.  

While in the past, I have viewed this omer counter primarily as an educational tool for others, to help the reader find spiritual growth and an invitation to find one's own holiness; this time around, I see it as a personal journey, as well.  Rather than counting, this is my Omer accounting.  And as any good accounting practice should do, I hope it will lead me to understanding my own priorities and the resources from which I can put my reflections into action.  I hope that this space will help your own accounting, as well.  

Oscars and Idols - The Power of Art

"And the Oscar goes to . . ."

Today's Golden Calf?

These words kept many of us on the edge of our seats this weekend, as the Academy Awards celebrated the finest artistry in the major motion picture industry.  Together, we lifted up the contributions of the arts, allowing ourselves to remember how art can move us, comfort us, disturb us, help us find perspectives that we have never before seen.  It is not at all about the money, power, pageantry, scandal, and fashion that seem to be bigger than life, right? 

It's fitting that the Oscars coincided with our portion Ki Tisa this year, as we see the contrast between valuing artisanship and making art into a false idol.  We read about the craftsmanship of Bezalel, the artist, who completes the finer elements of the Mishkan - the Tabernacle - in which the Holy of Holies is housed.  Bezalel's artwork, as prescribed by God, is there to adorn and complement the holiness of its setting, to move those who behold it, not to become the focal point itself.  I can only imagine that beholding its beauty would be awe-inspiring, helping us to feel the importance of the space in which it is placed.

Was this dinky thing REALLY worth it?

On the other hand, Ki Tisa also relates the crafting of the golden calf.  Another piece of art that the Israelites create while Moses is away receiving Torah from God.  This sculpture serves the opposite purpose of Bezalel's works - the calf is the center, it becomes bigger than life.  I'm sure it too must have been an awe-inspiring sight, but one that inspired the worship of money, power, pageantry, and scandal.  This golden calf became a focal point for the community - diverting their attention away from what was important in their lives, instead filling their attention with a wasteful emptiness.  And what were they filled with?  A competitive drive to lift this creation of their own hands over and above the One God who created us all - the Israelites wished for their idol to be the champion, the winner, of the pageantry of divine worship. 

Now, I love the Academy Awards, especially after living in Los Angeles for five years.  But reading these words of Torah as I prepared to celebrate the art of motion pictures certainly has offered me a different perspective on this spectacle. I could not help but think about the comparison of these Oscar statuettes and the golden calf.  Our society's emphasis on winning has taken what could be a true nod to the craft of acting and directing and costume design and the potential for what art can inspire in each of us, and instead can become empty icons of status and popularity. So many of these performances and movies are worthy of celebration for the ways they move us, make us think, give us hope, and inspires us to change the world.  We sacrifice our opportunities to see the deeper gifts that art offers us when we allow the pageantry to become the center, the definition, the height of artistic achievement.

The Academy Awards happen to be the timely victim of my Ki Tisa message, but we have to be aware that as humans we have a tendency to create our own golden calves. We allow the objects of our artisanship to become bigger than life, and ends of themselves.  Doing so only tears us away from our opportunities to find holiness in our world. Instead, if we allow our crafts to express and complement our values, to unlock our imaginations, and to inspire us towards meaningful ways to improve our world, our relationships and our lives, we can all experience the gifts of art - even more so than the Oscar winners from this weekend.

- Rabbi Ari N. Margolis

Parashat Ki Tisa 5773