Day 42-37 Sefirat HaBinyan/Building the Realm and Counting Up

Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalom (Reb Zalman) wrote:

“People who have worked on their awareness have pointed out that there are 49 days from the end of Tish’ah b-Av / the fast of the 9th of Av, to the day before Rosh HaShannah.  In counting S’feerah between Pesach andShavu’ot, we make our way downward from Chesed ofChesed to Malchut of Malchut.  During the Elul  season, we make our way upward from Malchut of Malchut toChesed of Chesed.”  (A Guide for Starting Your New Incarnation, 2001, ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal, p. 1)

I will use this way of counting up through the days between Tisha b'Av and Rosh HaShannah to cleansing spirit and soul, using the sefirot as a spark for personal daily meditations to map out and reflect on the journey. Below are my kavanot or intentions for climbing up from 5773 to 5774.

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BUILDING THE REALM-Day 42

A week of mourning the very roots of our existence and this week widening into the greater foundation. Tonight I am thinking about the fuel we need to nurture ourselves. What has happened to our intimate ties with the earth and what we feed our body? I try my best to grow living things in my container garden to eat, to buy foods local and fresh and yet here I am with a plate of hotdogs, potato chips, processed white hotdog buns and a beer. Mourning the steps backward I may take in this journey.

RIBBONO SHEL OLAM: I hereby prepare myself for Sefirat HaBinyan / a counting for building God’s realm during the time between Tisha B’av and erev Rosh HaShannah.

Today there are 42 days left until erev Rosh HaShannah, which is 6 weeks, Malchut Sheb’ Yesod.

Dear God: Please let me be a vessel for Your light and help to align me with Your will. May this period of Sefirat HaBinyan and the New Year be for good, for peace and for blessing for all of Israel, for all inhabitants of the earth and let us say Amen.

(Day kavanah by Menuhah Peters/prayer by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi & Gabbi Seth Fishman)

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BUILDING THE REALM-Day 41

A poet once wrote “no man is an island entire of itself”. We have need of each other even if we don’t always realize it. People can be wonderful but then they can also be difficult and hurtful. Still the foundation of our foundation is the bonds we make to acquire friends and to cement relationships with our families. Unkind words spoken in anger or haste can destroy in minutes what took years to build. This evening I am mourning the lost bonds of friendship and connectedness.

RIBBONO SHEL OLAM: I hereby prepare myself for Sefirat HaBinyan / a counting for building God’s realm during the time between Tisha B’av and erev Rosh HaShannah.

Today there are 41 days left until erev Rosh HaShannah, which is 5 weeks and 6 days, Yesod Sheb’ Yesod.

Dear God: Please let me be a vessel for Your light and help to align me with Your will. May this period of Sefirat HaBinyan and the New Year be for good, for peace and for blessing for all of Israel, for all inhabitants of the earth and let us say Amen.

(Day kavanah by Menuhah Peters/prayer by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi & Gabbi Seth Fishman)

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BUILDING THE REALM-Day 40

“Weeping may last throughout the night but joy comes in the morning”. This is a line in Psalm 30 and so has life imitated liturgy. Today a friend who read my lines of prose for Day 41 last night wrote to ask forgiveness for anything she said that might have caused me pain. My mourning was more general than that but I was uplifted and consoled to think about how closely my friend was listening to my words. Listening not just with her ears but with her heart. How splendid

RIBBONO SHEL OLAM: I hereby prepare myself for Sefirat HaBinyan / a counting for building God’s realm during the time between Tisha B’av and erev Rosh HaShannah.

Today there are 40 days left until erev Rosh HaShannah, which is 5 weeks and 5 days, Hod Sheb’ Yesod.

Dear God: Please let me be a vessel for Your light and help to align me with Your will. May this period of Sefirat HaBinyan and the New Year be for good, for peace and for blessing for all of Israel, for all inhabitants of the earth and let us say Amen.

(Day kavanah by Menuhah Peters/prayer by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi & Gabbi Seth Fishman)

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BUILDING THE REALM-Day 39

Whether it is living to work or working to live the concept of work is part of most of our eternal foundation. I have always tried to do work that makes me happy, that I want to get up for and that I am good at. I realize not everyone is able to do this. I mourn for anyone who must earn a living doing something they hate or that doesn’t inspire them. I mourn that they only wait for the minutes to count down so that their “real” life can begin.

RIBBONO SHEL OLAM: I hereby prepare myself for Sefirat HaBinyan / a counting for building God’s realm during the time between Tisha B’av and erev Rosh HaShannah.

Today there are 39 days left until erev Rosh HaShannah, which is 5 weeks and 4 days, Netzach Sheb’ Yesod.

Dear God: Please let me be a vessel for Your light and help to align me with Your will. May this period of Sefirat HaBinyan and the New Year be for good, for peace and for blessing for all of Israel, for all inhabitants of the earth and let us say Amen.

(Day kavanah by Menuhah Peters/prayer by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi & Gabbi Seth Fishman)

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BUILDING THE REALM-Day 38

Today marked the last regular Shabbat I will have with two children who were once my students for tomorrow they move to New York. Two wonderful loving brothers they came to my Tot Shabbat service to pray and I was honored. Their parents were in another service when it was time to ask parents to bless their children and so I took the liberty of putting my hand on the eldest’s head. May each of us be consoled unexpectedly by small loving bonds such as these.

RIBBONO SHEL OLAM: I hereby prepare myself for Sefirat HaBinyan / a counting for building God’s realm during the time between Tisha B’av and erev Rosh HaShannah.

Today there are 38 days left until erev Rosh HaShannah, which is 5 weeks and 3 days, Tiferet Sheb’ Yesod.

Dear God: Please let me be a vessel for Your light and help to align me with Your will. May this period of Sefirat HaBinyan and the New Year be for good, for peace and for blessing for all of Israel, for all inhabitants of the earth and let us say Amen.

(Day kavanah by Menuhah Peters/prayer by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi & Gabbi Seth Fishman)

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BUILDING THE REALM-Day 37

“God will bless the house of Israel, God will bless the house of Aharon” it says in Psalm 115. I sit comfortably in my condo writing, friends host me in their apartments and another friend just purchased a house. Everyone needs their own space, their own place to gather their strength, a foundation to rest, to eat and communally celebrate. This day is spent mourning for anyone without a home, big or small, to call their own.

RIBBONO SHEL OLAM: I hereby prepare myself for Sefirat HaBinyan / a counting for building God’s realm during the time between Tisha B’av and erev Rosh HaShannah.

Today there are 37 days left until erev Rosh HaShannah, which is 5 weeks and 2 days, Gevurah Sheb’ Yesod.

Dear God: Please let me be a vessel for Your light and help to align me with Your will. May this period of Sefirat HaBinyan and the New Year be for good, for peace and for blessing for all of Israel, for all inhabitants of the earth and let us say Amen.

(Day kavanah by Menuhah Peters/prayer by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi & Gabbi Seth Fishman)