COUNTING THE OMER – This prayer is traditionally recited between sundown and sunrise of each day.
Day 41: Yesod she b’Yesod
The Blessing (Day 41):
Baruch atah Adonai elohaynu melech ha’olam asher kidshanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu al sephirat ha’omer.
Blessed are you, G-D, Source of Foundation, You make us holy through your mitzvot, commanding us to count the Omer.
Ha yom echad v’arbaim yom, shehem chamisha shavuot v’shisha yomim l’Omer.
Today is the forty-first day, which makes five weeks and six days of the Omer.
Week Six- Yesod (Foundation)
Day Forty-one: Yesod she b’Yesod (Foundation within Foundation) – GENITALS to GENITALS
We all experienced having the foundation of our lives put under a lot of stress as the recent coronavirus pandemic attacked the structure of our days. Over the years we experienced other disasters that had their own effects on our world. Some disasters were physical in their effect, while others were less structurally based. No matter what the triggering event was, the realities always show l that if one foundation is affected, many other foundations will be changed. As an example, let’s consider the varying effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on a family who has owned a home at the Jersey shore for generations. Over many years of summers spent at this beach house, the grandparents and grandchildren, cousins and siblings, had built memories and family connections that are part of the framework of the family’s Foundation. In the first year of the pandemic, that tradition was not able to occur. In addition, as they were unable to take care of the home because they were not able to be there, there were effects on the physical home and its foundation. The family gatherings all happened within the structure of a building built on a different kind of Foundation. As we go even further, we realize that each component of the building’s Foundation requires a Foundation of its own. Each stone used in the foundation is composed of crystals arranged one upon another in its own kind of Foundation. At the end, we acknowledge that there is another invisible support under the building blocks of the world: the support of G-D.
As we consider Yesod she b’Yesod, we realize that each Foundation, such as the one of the family, relies on the strength and firmness of the other Foundations. If one falters, it will have an impact, large or small, on the other structures. For this reason, it is important to recognize our reliance on each Foundation, and create our own strong yet flexible base to provide the best Foundations possible in all areas of our world.
As we manage our way through our lives and the situations that we come across, we lean on the Foundations we have built along the years, our connection to each other as well as our connection to G-d to give us the strength.
*The basis of the information in today’s topic comes from and is inspired by Rabbi Min Kantrowitz’s book “Counting the Omer: A Kabbalistic Meditation Guide”
Yedi'a 