Bracha
Baruch atah, Adonai Eloheinu, Melech haolam, asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu al s’firat haomer.
Blessed are You, LORD God, ruler of the Universe, who hallows us with the mitzvot, commanding us to count the Omer.
Today is the thirty-fourth day — four weeks and six days of the Omer.
Today’s Reflection
Rabbi Kedar teaches in today’s reflection about the idea of seeing that the Divine presence leading us, even when — especially when — we are surrounded by the dense fog of confusion and chaos, limiting our ability to see the way forward. The Torah teaches us in Exodus 13:21 that when we wandered in the wilderness, we followed a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night to guide our way. Rabbi Kedar writes that we often “…squint into the cloud to discern some eternal message of hope and resilience” (Kedar, pg. 115).
Yet sometimes, we perceive the descent of fog and clouds in our lives that impair our vision and perception as blocking our connection to the divine, and keeping us stuck, waiting for the clouds to dissipate so we can see our path forward once again. There is some magic in the waiting as well; “…the waiting becomes imagining, envisioning the person we want to become, the paths of our complicated and twisting road. And then, the Torah teachers, we know the God is in the cloud” (Kedar, pg. 115).
May we learn to see and seek out the presence of God in all - in the sublime, in the bleak; in the light, and in the dark; in the joy and in the pain.
And so it is. Amen selah.