Today is the fifth day of the Counting of the Omer - a time when many Jews note each day between the Second Day of Passover and the next major holiday, Shavuot, or “weeks”. Each of the seven weeks and each of the seven days of these weeks correspond to a particular “sefirah” or “sphere”, or perhaps better, “a divine emanation/human aspiration”. These themes allow us to reflect on the days as we move from liberation to revelation in the Jewish calendar..

Today is the day of splendor, or the beauty of the tiny, or humility (“hod”) in the week of loving-kindness (“chesed”).

With the reading on the mysterious nature of the Tao below, I am reminded about a particular image to explain this idea of “hod”, which seems so difficult to translate. I imagine myself laying on my back, in an open field, looking into a clear night sky, seeing stars, knowing that they are a tiny amount of the total of stars in the universe. Around those stars might be countless beings looking up at them too. In this sea of vastness, I can float feeling the earth spin beneath me, and me carried away as an infinitesimal speck in creation. This seems a good image of humble meaning that I think “hod” may be aiming for.

We can be kind and compassionate, and do so out of humility, our of our sense of having little and still having something to give. We know that there is no naming of it that means anything more than that singular moment of generosity. That moment is precious and tiny all at once.

Wishing everyone generous moments of meaning, and a Shabbat Shalom, and Happy Passover.

Before and after meditating today I read this:

[From The Lao Tzu (Tao-Te Ching) as found in Wing-Tsit Chan (translator and compiler), A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy, (1963), page 156, slightly adapted by Jonathan Freirich]

32.
Tao is eternal and has no name.
Though its simplicity seems insignificant, none in the world can master it.
If kings and barons would hold on to it, all things would submit to them spontaneously.
Heave and earth unite to drip dew.
Without the command of people, it drips evenly over all.
As soon as there were regulations and institutions, there were names (differentiation of things).
As soon as there are names, know that it is time to stop.
It is by knowing when to stop that one can be free from danger.
Analogically, Tao in the world (where everything is embraced by it), may be compared to rivers and streams running into the sea.