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Counting Down

what's the meaning of this liminal time known as the Omer?

Counting Down
Omer drawings by the incomparable, brilliant Jacqueline Nicholls (IG @jacquelinenicholls). Of her choice to draw hands for each day of the 49 days of the Omer this year, she writes, "Tim Ingold in his book Making argues that the verb ‘to tell’ has 2 meanings, both of which can be done by one’s hand. the hand can tell a story, through gestures. And the hand can tell by touch, getting a haptic understanding." (Photo of a frame arranged in a 7x7 grid, with brown paper and clips covering all but the first 11 frames, each of which show different drawings of hands in various positions, with Hebrew words next to them.)

Hi, hi!

A few things:

1) I'm delighted to share that I'll be interviewing the wonderful Rebecca Solnit at the Chicago Humanities Festival this Shabbaturday, May 10th, in honor of her newest book. Join us? (and get the book!)

Rebecca Solnit: No Straight Road Takes You There
Hope for how to navigate the uneven terrain of our times
Chicago Humanities Festival

2) REGISTER FOR THE MAY ZOOM SALON!

(The Rock says Right Here and he means it)
REGISTER HERE
Between Truth and Empire: Lag B'Omer 🔥
Sunday, May 11, 2pm ET/ 11 am PT

REGISTER HERE

Lag B'Omer-- a celebration of respite during the liminal time between Passover and Shavuot-- is, no matter how you slice it, about the tensions between truth and Empire. We'll look at some key Rabbinic texts unpacking this from an historical and spiritual perspective-- as always, with an eye towards what it might mean for us in this moment, today, and the implications for us now.

3) As implied by #2, we're deep in the OMER ZONE– that is to say, this 7-week in-between time between Passover and Shavuot, the holiday of the receiving of the Torah on Sinai. No longer working for Pharaoh, not yet in covenant with the divine. Letting go of the past, not yet taking on the future. It's marked by counting the days, literally.

And while on Sunday we'll get into some very very juicy Rabbinic texts, I thought that it might be nice to look at a few texts today with a different kind of expression of this time.

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