Foundations

Continuing the count of the Omer, which again is the 49 days between the second night of Passover and Shavuot, we are ending the week of Yesod, meaning bonds/foundation. We are so close to Shavuot now, when the Israelites are said to have received the 10 Commandments. To me, it's only a story, but so is The Lord of the Rings, and that had a huge impact on me. I draw lessons from stories, and therefore I draw lessons from the Torah.

What's the importance of the 10 Commandments? For these people - who had grown up slaves, and many generations of their ancestors were slaves - they were now learning how to govern and to be responsible for themselves. Freeing yourself from a bad relationship, it takes some time until you find out who you are without that toxic person and what you're supposed to do with the freedom. So the 10 Commandments gave them a foundation, several easy enough rules to follow if they were to be a proper free society. If this is so important, why does the week of Yesod come so late in the spiritual counting of the Omer? Shouldn't "foundation" be the first thing?

All of life is that journey in the desert...

The weeks we've passed include (in order) loving-kindness, strength/discipline, beauty/compassion, endurance, and humility. Wouldn't it make more sense for foundation to be the first week? The first explanation that comes to mind for me is "foundation is difficult to explain to a child." However, kindness and being gentle with animals is super easy to impart. So is discipline ("if you draw on the wall, your crayons will be taken away") and strength ("you can do it," letting them know they're stronger than they realize).

Compassion is a bit more of a grown-up emotion, something I'd expect more from 9-year-olds and up, rather than toddlers. Endurance... yeah, even babies need to be consistent in their attempts to walk, but again, this is a hard concept to teach. They are doing it, but it's kind of abstract and would get tied up in the "you can do it" of strength. Humility is definitely a more adult concept to fully understand. So maybe this child-development approach of guessing why the sages put Yesod in the sixth week works in the end. Continuing with the analogy, one should definitely have a foundation of the other five once they're an emotionally mature adult. And now they can focus on the importance of that foundation as a whole, rather than its parts.

The wood, nails, workforce... maybe we have to gather those first before focusing on foundation

Tying back in the 10 Commandments, the final week of the Omer focuses on Malchut - majesty and sovereignty of God. So perhaps it's like, once the child has finally matured and can reflect on the foundation of good middot they've built over the years, now they are ready to contemplate things beyond themselves, specifically God. That includes being able to receive a gift from God like those 10 Commandments.

People in general need to be able to receive - you can't just give someone something because you want to (especially advice). It's kind of like Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs: the person needs to work on themself and be in a good place before being able to focus outward. It doesn't mean you can't be religious until you've finished your internal work or like you can't be compassionate until you've first mastered discipline. It's not linear. It's just that it's hard to do stuff for other people when you're not feeling your best. I think I'm going too deep, but at least the Omer weeks make more sense to me now.

What do I hope to receive in doing the Omer every year? Some clarity of mind, some insight into myself or the world, some kind of karmic gift. The Israelites received instructions by which to live. I'm looking for ways to understand life better, what I should do next, what I need to work on to be a better person. Plus it's just a fun self-reflection journaling exercise. The counting itself is interesting, because when else in the year do you really count days for fun? Maybe counting down to a wedding, but it's not often that we count up.

My Omer counter, showing 5 weeks and 7 days.