Week 1
10 April | 16 Nisan
“All my days I grew up amidst the sages and I never found anything as beneficial as silence.”  
– Pirkei Avot, 1:17
During the first week of the Counting of the Omer (Days 1-7 corresponding to April 10-16, 2020) we will be focusing on the middah of silence.
Understanding Silence
Rabbi Akiva says that “Silence is a fence for wisdom.” This seems to imply that there is a wisdom within each of us that is sometimes drowned out by the noise (both external and internal) of the world. Silence offers us the inner space to make meaning of our lives and be more attentive to our actions and intentions. Alan Morinis says that the “soul needs silence as the body needs sleep.” Silence is essential to our spiritual growth. Giving ourselves the gift of even a small amount of silence each day allows us to open ourselves to a deeper spirituality/holiness which is always present, but is often hidden from before our eyes.
Cultivating Silence – An Invitation to Practice
Choose one or both practices for this week of the Omer.

  • While the time you spend in meditation is dedicated silent time, you may also try this practice: Upon waking in the morning, take some moments in silence to drink your first morning beverage – coffee, tea, orange juice, etc. Simply focus on the taste, temperature, the feeling of the beverage in your mouth without any other distractions and notice what may arise.

  •     Count each day of the Omer this week (Days 1-7) by reciting the following blessing: 
Baruch atah, Adonai Eloheinu, Melech ha-olam, asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu al s’firat ha-omer.

Blessed are You, Adonai our God, who orders the universe, allowing us the opportunity to experience holiness through the commandments and commanding us to count the Omer.

Today is the _____ day of the Omer. May I experience the blessing of humility this day.
Cultivating Silence – An Invitation to Meditate
Sit for 10-20 minutes of meditation each day this week. You may listen to the audio or simply set your own intentions during your practice.
Audio Transcript:

Shalom. Mindfulness meditation is the practice of setting an intention to focus our awareness on the physical sensations of breath in our bodies. In this first week’s meditation, adapted from a teaching of Sharon Salzberg’s, we are simply trying to sustain our attention on the breath. To begin this meditation, take a comfortable seat someplace where you will not be disturbed for at least 10 minutes. Close your eyes and do a quick scan of your body, noticing if there are any places where you feel a tightness or where you are holding tension. If you feel any places of constriction, try to breathe into those places or try to relax a bit more into your body.

Now begin to bring your awareness to your breath. Notice how the breath moves in and out of your body. Notice where your body moves, as the breath moves through. Perhaps you feel the rise and fall of your chest … or the expansion and then release in your belly. Perhaps you can feel the breath as it passes through your nostrils, or in your throat. You don’t have to control the breath or elongate the breath. Just notice the natural pattern of YOUR breath, where you feel the breath in your body today.

As you feel these breath sensations, make a quiet mental notation of breath, breath – with both the inhalation and the exhalation. Note breath on the in-breath, and breath on the out-breath. When a thought arises that takes your attention away from the breath, just notice it and note it as not breath. It doesn’t matter if this thought is a beautiful daydream or a self-criticism or a future plan about your day. In this meditation, it is simply not breath. No judgments, no self-criticism. You don’t have to get lost in making up a story about what triggered the thought. All you have to do is notice the thought, recognize the thought and very gently let it go by noting, not breath. Then return to your breathing, noting breath, breath on the inhalation and exhalation. In this short meditation you may have to do this 5 times, 10 times, even 100 times. No matter. That is the meditation. That is just how it is today. 

We will continue in silence now - noting breath, breath … or not breath, and then back to breath, breath again – until the bell rings.
Added Inspiration
Sabbaths 1999 VII by Wendell Berry

Again I resume the long
lesson: how small a thing
can be pleasing, how little
in this hard world it takes
to satisfy the mind
and bring it to its rest.

With the ongoing havoc
the woods this morning is
almost unnaturally still.
Through stalled air, unshadowed
light, a few leaves fall
of their own weight.

The sky is gray.
It begins in mist
almost at the ground
and rises forever. The trees
rise in silence almost
natural, but not quite,
almost eternal, but
not quite.

What more did I
think I wanted? Here is
what has always been.
Here is what will always
be. Even in me,
the Maker of all this
returns in rest, even
to the slightest of His works,
a yellow leaf slowly
falling, and is pleased.
 

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