Since the beginning of Pesach (Passover), we have been counting the 49 days that lead up to the holiday of Shavuot - the anniversary of receiving the Torah on Mount Sinai.
Shavuot itself means "weeks". We count every day of the seven weeks in between Pesach and Shavuot. This entire process is known as the Counting of the Omer (For an understanding of Omer, and the Scriptural source to do this counting of days and weeks, see Lev. 23:15)
Besides the straightforward Torah command to count these days, there is another aspect to this practice.
Jewish mystical (Kabbalah) wisdom assigns a sephira to each week, and each day within each week.
They are:
-Chesed (Kindness)
-Gevruah (Strength)
-Tiferet (Splendor - balance of Chesed and Gevurah)
-Netzach (Victory, or endurance towards victory)
-Hod (majesty)
-Yesod (secret, inner knowledge)
-Malchut (Kingdom - the physical world)
This means that day 1 of our counting is the day of Chesed of Chesed (Week 1, Day 1). Day 2 is Chesed of Gevurah (Week 1, Day 2), etc.
Why am I writing about all of this today? Because today, day 41 of the counting of the omer, is:
Yesod of Yesod
Today is the day to explore the secret of secrets. Who are you? Forget about who you're supposed to be, or who other people expect you to be, or who you pretend to be in social settings - who are YOU, at the core of your existence?
Take this day and explore your Yesod of Yesod. Decide who you are, what is important to you, and how to improve this inner aspect of your being.
