Owner of Ma'yan Tikvah - A Wellspring of Hope
Rabbi Katy Z. Allen is the founder and leader of Ma'yan Tikvah - A Wellspring of Hope, a congregation without walls that meets outdoors all year long. She is the co-convener and President pro-tem of the Boston-area Jewish Climate Action Network, and the founder of the One Earth Collaborative, a program of Open Spirit in Framingham, MA.
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Day 13: Yesod b’Gevurah
Day Six of Week 2 (13th day of Omer): Yesod in Gevurah by Susie Davidson Yesod is about foundations, the base of support from which to enact these desired changes. And foundations are bonded together, which reflects Yesod's other attribute of bonding. With a firm foundation, a springboard that is also a grounded platform, we can join with like-minded others in a disciplined, Gevurah ...
Day 12: Hod b’Gevurah
Day Five of Week 2 (12th day of Omer): Hod in Gevurah by Susie Davidson Hod stands for humility and acknowledging limits. In concert with the restraint and discernment of Gevurah, you might want to lower those expectations. But don't, because Hod is also associated with splendor and glory. Sure, change can be difficult, and there is a certain comfort to same old same old. But it doesn't have to be huge, insurmountable ...
Day 11: Netzach b’Gevurah
Day Four of Week 2 (11th day of Omer): Netzach in Gevurah by Susie Davidson It all begins with ourselves. And Netzach signifies trusting in ourselves by summoning both strength and confidence (Gevurah) and facing challenges that can come from within. Thoughts or feelings can either inspire and empower ourselves, or stand in our own way. Netzach is associated with perseverance, endurance and victory. So hang in there, and don't be your ...
Day 10: Tiferet b’Gevurah
Day Three of Week 2 (10th day of Omer): Tiferet in Gevurah by Susie Davidson The aspects of Tiferet are harmony, compassion and mercy. "Tiferet is a blueprint for change, and how your plan for change takes into account the need for balance—both internally and with others.” (Chabad.org) In order for our desired change to manifest, we need reserves of Gevurah's discipline and careful planning. We need its restraint as ...
Day 9: Gevurah b’Gevurah
by Susie Davidson Day Two of Week 2 (9th day of Omer): Gevurah in Gevurah Focus, discipline, restraint, determination, careful measure - times two. This is steadfastness in the face of challenge. Michael Zank, who teaches biblical studies at Boston University's Department of Religion and is Director of the Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies, writes in his book Approaches to Ancient Judaism that the epithet Gevurah “ref...
Day 8: Chesed b’Gevurah
This week we welcome Susie Davidson as she writes about Gevurah in the context of agriculture, intrinsic to the human relationship with the Earth. Susie is a poet, journalist, author, and filmmaker who writes regularly for the Jewish Advocate, the Jewish Daily Forward, the Cambridge Chronicle and other media. She has also contributed to the Boston Sunday Globe, the Boston Herald and the Jerusalem Post, and Ha'aretz. She has written three books ...
Day Seven: Malkut b’Chesed
by Rabbi Judy Weiss Malkut: majestic dignity and unity of all with loyalty Talmud Sotah 30b: How did all Israel know the words to the song? When the Israelites ascended from the Red Sea, they desired to sing a song (Exodus 15:1). How did they sing it? Like an adult who reads the Hallel (Psalms 113-118) and they respond with the leading word, “Halleujah”. Moses sang, ...
Day Six: Y’sod b’Chesed
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Day Five: Hod b’Chesed
by Rabbi Judy Weiss Hod: loyalty based in gratitude and humility Talmudic Midrash: Megillah 10b The ministering angels wanted to chant their hymns of praise and rejoice when Israel finished crossing the sea, but the Holy One said “The work of my hands is being drowned in the sea, and shall you chant hymns? Question: To save Israel, God split the sea and then allowed it to crash down again drowning the ...
Day Four: Netzach b’Chesed
Netzach: endurance and decisiveness generating loyalty Midrash: Mekhilta de Rabbi Yishmael (translation by David Stern, JPS publication, 1993, pp 155-156) When the Israelites stood at the sea, one said: “I do not want to go down to the sea first,” and the other also said: “I do not want to go down to the sea first,” as it is said (Hosea 12:1): “Ephraim compasseth Me about with lies, and the house of Israel with ...
Day Three: Tiferet b’Chesed
by Rabbi Judy Weiss Tiferet: compassion, beauty, and balance to achieve loyalty According to early interpreters of the Bible, the splitting of the Red Sea involved more than one miracle. Midrash: Legends of the Jews 3:22 "The dividing of the sea was but the first of ten miracles connected with the passage of the Israelites through it. The others were that the waters united in a vault above their heads; ...
Day Two: Gevurah b’Chesed
by Rabbi Judy Weiss Gevurah: strength and courage in service of loyalty Midrash: Genesis Rabbah 5:6 At the beginning of creating the world, God decreed ‘Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together into one place.’ Whatever God brought to pass, is so humans will fear God (Ecclesiastes 3:14). Compare this to a country that rebelled against its king. The king sent a strong army and encircled them, so the inhabitants ...
Day One: Chesed b’Chesed
by Rabbi Judy Weiss Chesed b'chesed: the purest form of loyalty The beginning of the Omer period is marked by mourning customs, born from innate human anxiety about springtime grain production: will food production provide enough to sustain us or will weather aberrations ruin our crops? Midrash: Exodus Rabbah 21:6 When Israel stood at the edge of the Red Sea terrified by the approaching Egyptians, God commanded Moses to lift up his rod and ...
Preparing to Count the Omer
We are counting down the days to Passover, to our journey out of slavery and into freedom. And then, on the second night of Passover, we will begin counting in a serious way, we will begin counting the Omer. With the Counting of the Omer count seven weeks of seven days - 49 days - from crossing into freedom to receiving the Torah, from redemption to revelation, from Passover to Shavuot, from the Sea of Reeds to the Mountain of Sinai, from ...
Loss and Transformation – Earth Grieving
by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen I teach a class called Loss & Transformation: Connecting Sacred Texts to Family Stories to Help Deal with Loss, in which I set forth a theology of how our losses can lead us to be transformed, and how the joining of the stories of our familial ancestors with texts of Jewish tradition can provide a useful tool in transforming our grief into a deeper relationship with the Sacred and bringing us to a place of ...
Hanukkah Day 8 – Treasuring Grief and Moving Forward with Peace
by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen And so we arrive at the last night of Hanukkah, we fill the hanukkiahwith candles, eight candles for eight nights, plus the shamash, or helper candle. Once again we kindle the shamash, and then we kindle all of these eight candles. Our homes and our hearts fill with the light from so many candles. Shining together, the light of each individual candle multiplies and is magnified by the others around ...
Hanukkah Day 7 – Healing Hurts and Promoting Well-being
Hanukkah Day 7 - Healing Hurts and Promoting Well-being by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen Jewish tradition teaches that we are each to light our own hanukkiah - or Hanukkah candelabrum, and that even children should have their own. Lighting the hanukkiah is one of those mitzvot (commandments) that we can only do for ourselves. Unlike Shabbat candlelighting and many prayers, no one else can provide for us the fulfillment of thismitzvah. ...
Hanukkah Day 6 – Resisting Jealousy and Strengthening Gratitude
by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen A major aspect of the Hanukkah story is the message about identity - who was willing and ready to go with the flow of the surrounding culture and who was willing to fight in order to retain a Jewish identity and all that went with it. Hanukkah sends an enduring message about not assimilating. So many are the ways we can become assimilated into the mainstream culture! Some of them are indeed ...
Hanukkah Day 5 – Understanding Anger and Cultivating Compassion, Contentment, and Joy
by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen Another aspect of the observance of Hanukkah is that the lights from the hanukkiah are considered sacred, and we are not permitted to make ordinary use of them. (Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 21b) In other words, we shouldn't sit in an otherwise darkened room and read by the light of the candles from the hanukkiah. We are not to make "ordinary use" of the candles. We must instead make ...
Hanukkah Day 4 – Diminishing Despair and Growing Trust and Faith
Hanukkah Day 4 - Diminishing Despair and Growing Trust and Faith by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen Jewish tradition teaches us to take our time when we recite a blessing before doing a mitzvah (commandment). "Time should be taken to pause and consider the kindness of G!d or the gift of a mitzvah opportunity in which one is about to be involved." (Mishnah Berurah, Siman 5:1) On this fourth night of Hanukkah, we first ...
