Omer Counting Journal

by Rabbi Shai Gluskin

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Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii, March 1982 (by Shai Gluskin)

Today is the 30th Day of the Omer (May 7-8, 2001) which is gevurah in hod:

Strength in glory.
Divine justice within divine contemplation.
A flower growing beside a volcano.

Gevurah is calling us to see clearly: the limits, the injustice, the broken. It's a seeing which mobilizes. But this seeing is also dangerous. Rabbi Eliezer's truth-seeing awakened divine forces in response to his calling which were destructive (Baba Metzia 59a).

In the context of hod, the piercing nature of gevurah moves from transcendence to imminence. The seeing becomes an unfolding of the micro instead of a critique of the macro. Does this flower know of the erupting volcano 500 yards away? Is this flower about to be paved over by 1000 degree F. lava?

No matter what happens, it's a life fulfilled, with no claim on the future.

Shai Gluskin
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