Forty-six days of the Omer 5778

Today is forty-six days of the Omer, נצח שבמלכות, נצח שבשכינה, Netzach Shebe Malchut, Netzach Shebe Shechinah. Eternity of Sovereignty, Eternal Indwelling Presence.

Facebook has been an extremely divided platform today. Perhaps that is why today’s meditation from Chabad spoke to me:

“We are not passive observers of this universe, but rather partners in its creation. We are the ones who assign each thing its meaning, who bring definition and resolution to an otherwise ambiguous world.

Don’t imagine that you are just “telling it the way it is.” Choose your words, choose your perspective, like a witness on the stand. Because the way you tell it, that is how it is.

From the wisdom of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, of righteous memory; words and condensation by Rabbi Tzvi Freeman.”

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I’ve been accused of being an apologist and of not caring enough about death today. I take mortality and theodicy deeply seriously. I mourn the deaths of Palestinians in Gaza. And I mourn the inability of people to see the humanity in their opponents.

Today, I also learned of a great man’s passing from on this world to the next. He deserved many more decades with his family. His family deserved many more decades with him.

I imagine every death creates this sentiment in someone. Hold your loved ones close. And if you feel alone, know that the Eternal Presence is always with you.