11
Netzach b’Gevurah
Endurance within Discipline / Strength
This is the middle day of the second week: day eleven, the day of netzach she’b'gevurah, endurance within discipline and strength.
Think about the disciplines you may have taken on, over your life, and perhaps discarded. Exercise programs, diets or dietary practices, the intention of working out every day or praying every day or writing every day. Now imagine choosing a discipline — be it yoga, exercise, mitzvot, prayer — and imbuing it with endurance, so that the discipline becomes a part of you and does not fade away.
This is the eleventh step toward Shavuot, toward revelation, toward Sinai.
As I count the Omer, let my counting create a tikkun, a healing, between transcendence and immanence, God far above and God deep within.
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ, אֱלֹהֵינוּ רוּחַ הַעולָם, אָשֶר קִדשָנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו וְצִוָנוּ אַל סְפִירַת הַעמֶר.
Baruch atah, Adonai, eloheinu ruach ha’olam, asher kidshanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu al sfirat ha-omer.
Blessed are You, Adonai our God, breath of life, who makes us holy with mitzvot and gives us this opportunity to count the Omer.
Today is eleven days, which are one week and four days, of the Omer!
