Week 7 • Day 44

Blessing

Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe, who has sanctified us with His commandments, and commanded us concerning the counting of the Omer.

Barukh atah, A-donai E-loheinu, Melekh Ha-ʿolam, asher qid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu ʿal S’firat Ha-ʿomer.

Count

Today is forty four days, which is six weeks and two days of the Omer.

Meditation

Devotional

Simply stated, this is what God is saving us from: killing each other (Isaiah 2:1-5). Our cultures, institutions, laws and prohibitions are founded around the idea of mitigating violence and harm away from the collective. However, we continue to use so-called acceptable violence to save our groups from unacceptable violence. Therefore, our cultures disguise various forms of violence we have been conditioned to accept, anticipate and condone. But all forms of violence will bring about our collective undoing. Our approved acceptable violence often falls disproportionately on members of our groups we deem socially unacceptable (sinners). Some we forgive without penalty and other we don’t forgive and pay not only for their own faults but for ours also. It is this that Jesus says we do not see when he is being lynched upon a tree. All our human institutions have systems that judge and police members of our groups. Such human blindness and systems of murder were to come to an end among the groups who follow Jesus and remember his murder. They vow to do no harm and to share with and love one another. For those who ascend to see God, there is no violence, harm nor murder in His presence. God is non-violent. If God engages in violence, then this “God” must be saved from violence as well. We must not be deceived by violence and our complicity with its use in society. Violence seems to save us for the moment. But tomorrow it will return and find new victims. Our desires if unchecked can lead us to murder those we encounter like the murder of Abel by his brother Cain. When we don’t respect and share with those beside us, unchecked rivalry can erupt in violence that lead to murder. Consider road rage. Driving is a perfect example of the good and dangers of human desire. One car follows the other along the path another’s desire created. We are agitated when the car in front of us fails to clear the green light in a timely fashion. We hunk the horn. The other driver becomes upset and slows down. Then the road rage takes over. God, show us how we adopt the desires of others. Show us how they can lead us to lie, cheat, steal and kill. When we break free of these shackles, we will truly be free to see who you really are.