The mystics of our tradition saw great meaning in the counting of the Omer. In its cycle of 7 days, counted 7 times, they saw a parallel to the sefirot, Divine attributes of Kabbalistic understanding. Each week, then, was dedicated to a particular attribute, and each day of that week focusing on the intersection of 2 Divine attributes. This week, we focus on yesod: rootedness and foundation.
Today is the 37th day of the Omer.
Gevurah she-b’yesod: Strength at the foundation
For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have assigned it to you for making expiation for your lives upon the altar; it is the blood, as life, that effects expiation.
— Leviticus 17:11
The Book of Leviticus is not an easy one to read, especially as modern Jews (and special apologies to the vegetarians and vegans amongst us). Rabbi Stern spent last week unpacking some of the texts and their relevance, but today—I want us to look at one of the gory details.
Dr. Naomi Janowitz, a professor of religious studies at UC Davis, writes of the sacrificial system:
It was for them the most flexible and efficacious antidote to everything that ails human-divine interactions. Priestly action and, in particular, their use of blood mediated between human and divine. Blood was their ultimate purifying agent.
Over and over in the book of Leviticus, the book of Torah we will finish reading this Shabbat, we read the phrase yesod ha-mizbeah: the base, or foundation, of the altar. It is here, according to our texts, that the blood is poured out as the end of the sacrifice. But it is also here, to some extent, that the sacrificial system–the system by which our ancients accessed the Divine—is built.
The blood on the base of the altar, then, is a constant reclamation of the foundations of the sacrificial system. How can we, today, reclaim our connections with the Divine? How do we ensure that our spiritual foundations are strong, and how do we continually refresh them?
— Rabbi Sari Laufer