"We remember our grandparents, our great grandparents and all those whose actions have helped us to create our lives. And we remind ourselves that we, right now, are shaping the world for those who will someday call us ancestors."
That text for day 28 from Rabbi Yael Levy's Counting the Omer, A Journey Through the Wilderness, resonated so deeply with me that I copied it into the Visual Journal I made in 2011, when I first learned to count the Omer.
The image is a copy of a photo etching I made many years ago that includes a picture of my grandmother, my mother's handwriting showing her mother's dates as 1874-1952, a footprint from my own birth certificate, and Hebrew fragments from the Kaddish, the mourner's prayer.
In addition to Rabbi Levy's guide, I also use this more traditional guide:
Sometimes the challenge is in figuring out the relationship of the two different approaches! Rabbi Levy names today, the 28th day, "Shechina Sh'b Netzach / The Flow of Eternity". She is emphasizing this fourth week of Netzach as Eternity, and the particular quality combining with it for the last day of the week as Shechina, or the feminine aspect of the divine. Rabbi Jacobson names today as "Malchut of Netzach / Nobility in Endurance". Malchut is the kingship, masculine aspect of the divine. What is the relationship of The Flow of Eternity with Nobility in Endurance?
I don't know the answer, but I can see from this image of the Tree of Life that each branch has many other branches as well, and many many more leaves!
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