Kabbalah Root Medicine
As spring blossoms throughout the land, let us journey together to gather the deep root medicine of Kabbalah, the Jewish mystical path, as a guide for our hearts and a balm for our souls. The ancient tradition of counting Omer — the seven weeks between Passover and Shevuot — begins today, March 29. Each week, I’ll be sharing teachings to help us use these weeks to meditate on the divine presence in and around us, and to cultivate our own goodness.
Each of the seven weeks presents us with a Sephirah, or middah, an energetic quality on the Tree of Life. Our work is to take the middah personally and use it as a lens through which to see ourselves more distinctly. In the Jewish world, this kind of focus is understood to increase our self-awareness and, ultimately, to transform our character. In a Kabbalistic sense we are here to become a tzinnor, a channel, for the divine powers. This mystical practice is not limited to Jewish practitioners, it is accessible and available to anyone who wishes to engage it.
We begin the counting this week with grace, Chesed, the kind of love that comes freely, without strings or conditions. The Kabbalists called Chesed "Itaruta de leAyla," an arousal from above. Imagine dew falling freely from heaven, without sound or fanfare, enlivening your spirit and healing your wounds.
This year, spring brings with it a bittersweet renewal. After months of loss and upheaval, we pause as we set out into spring expansiveness. Here in Boulder, our community is in collective grief marking today one week since the mass shooting, in which we lost ten beautiful souls. This photograph of a memorial cairn built by Michael Grab in Boulder Creek to honor them. I see the painstaking care and generosity of this altar as a gift of Chesed, freely given love to all of us.
The Mystics teach that when we get quiet and tune in, behind the story line and dramas of this world, we can sense an ever present vitality flowing through the world, to us and through us. Their teaching can be an affirmation to say aloud this week:
“The Holy Blessed One sent a taste of freely given love, Chesed, to me, and through an arousal from above, (sends) the dew of Grace to help and redeem me.”
—Zohar, 13th century, Vol.III 128
This week, take time to go behind the breaking news, the ever-present storyline that keeps coming our way to a private corner of your home or out in nature. Get quiet and sense the Chayut, the life-force flowing to you from the Source. Feel the generosity of spirit flowing through you. Breathe it in, fill your cells with its freshness. And know that you are not a whim of nature, but a cell of the living Earth, an integral part of the soul of the world, the anima mundi—what the Kabbalists call a Chelek Eloha Mi-ma’al. Exhale, and send that loving-kindness, that Chesed energy, onward to those you love, to those in need, to the communities that hold you.
I welcome your reflections and sharing on these freely offered weekly meditations.
You can also follow the Omer journey with me on Instagram @tirzahfire.