Week 5
8 May | 14 Iyar
“Awe enables us to perceive in the world intimations of the divine, to sense in small things the beginning of infinite significance, to sense the ultimate in the common and the simple; to feel in the rush of the passing the stillness of the eternal.” – Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
During the fifth week of the Counting of the Omer (Days 29-35 corresponding to May 8-14, 2020) we will be focusing on the middah of awe.
Understanding Awe

In Hebrew, the word yirah means both fear and awe. It is the feeling that comes upon us when we witness, experience or find ourselves in the presence of something larger than ourselves. We can experience awe amidst the wonders of nature, standing before a breathtaking work of art or listening to an inspiring piece of music. We can also train our hearts and minds to experience awe in smaller moments as well. Allowing ourselves to focus on something as simple as the way our breath enters and leaves our bodies can inspire awe each day. In Pirkei Avot (3:21) we read, “Where there is no wisdom, there is no awe. Where there is no awe, there is no wisdom.” What kind of wisdom does awe inspire? Dr. Juliana Breines writes: “Central to the experience of awe is a sense of smallness, but not the kind associated with shame or self-doubt—rather, awe involves feeling interconnected with others and broadening our horizons, like a camera lens zooming out to reveal a more complex and inclusive picture. From this vantage point, everyday concerns tend to feel less overwhelming—as we get smaller, so do they.” The cultivation of awe manifests our intuitive wisdom that we are not alone in this world. Awe reminds us that we are connected to all other beings, to the earth and to the ultimate Oneness that fills the earth.
Cultivating Awe – An Invitation to Practice
Choose one or both practices for this week of the Omer.

  • Blessings are a Jewish practice that allow us to experience awe during many moments of our daily lives. Consider reciting a blessing at least once a day, thanking God for experiences you might normally take for granted. You might say HaMotzi, the blessing over bread, before one of your meals each day. Or you might recite this blessing (adapted from the traditional prayer) for the wonderment of your body:

Blessed are You, our God, Spirit of the World, who wisely formed the human body. You created it with openings here and vessels there. You know well that should even one of these stay opened, or one of those stay closed, we could not long survive. Blessed are You, Healer of all flesh, who makes the wonders of creation.

Or click HERE to choose a blessing expressing your awe over the wonders of nature.

  •     Count each day of the Omer this week (Days 29-35) 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 awe this day.
Cultivating Awe – 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.
Please note: It has come to our attention that our meditation audio files are not currently compatible with some devices, such as iPhones, and iPads. We have reached out to our technology teams to see if we can modify this and make it so that the audio works from any device. In the meantime, to ensure the most high quality meditation experience, we ask that you please access and play the recordings from a computer desktop or laptop. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your understanding. We will keep you posted on this situation.
Audio Transcript:

This week we are sharing a meditation designed to cultivate within us a sense of awe.

For this meditation, if you can, go outside. Find some quiet space in your yard or in a park or in a wooded area. If you cannot go outside, then find a seat near a window. Count to five as you inhale and five as you exhale. Feel the air move through your nose and listen to the sound of your breath.

Feel your feet on the ground and pause to listen to the surrounding sounds. What do you notice? Return to your breath. Count to five as you inhale and five as you exhale.

Shift your awareness now to what you see all around you. Things that are vast and unexpected. Things that are small, that might bring to you a sense of surprising delight. Return to your breath. Count to five as you inhale and five as you exhale. 

Now allow your awareness to be open to what inspires awe within you. It might be something your eyes rested on. It might be something you heard. Bring your full attention to whatever brings you awe and allow yourself to notice all of its textures and subtleties.

Bring your attention back to the breath. Count to five as you inhale and five as you exhale. 

Now turn your attention within and notice what awe or wonderment feels like in your body. 

Bring your awareness back to the breath. Count to five as you inhale and five as you exhale. Rest in this feeling of awe until you hear the bell ring.



Added Inspiration
A Brave and Startling Truth, by Maya Angelou


Dedicated to the hope for peace, which lies, sometimes hidden, in every heart.

We, this people, on a small and lonely planet
Traveling through casual space
Past aloof stars, across the way of indifferent suns
To a destination where all signs tell us
It is possible and imperative that we learn
A brave and startling truth

And when we come to it
To the day of peacemaking
When we release our fingers
From fists of hostility
And allow the pure air to cool our palms

When we come to it
When the curtain falls on the minstrel show of hate
And faces sooted with scorn are scrubbed clean
When battlefields and coliseum
No longer rake our unique and particular sons and daughters
Up with the bruised and bloody grass
To lie in identical plots in foreign soil

When the rapacious storming of the churches
The screaming racket in the temples have ceased
When the pennants are waving gaily
When the banners of the world tremble
Stoutly in the good, clean breeze

When we come to it
When we let the rifles fall from our shoulders
And children dress their dolls in flags of truce
When land mines of death have been removed
And the aged can walk into evenings of peace
When religious ritual is not perfumed
By the incense of burning flesh
And childhood dreams are not kicked awake
By nightmares of abuse

When we come to it
Then we will confess that not the Pyramids
With their stones set in mysterious perfection
Nor the Gardens of Babylon
Hanging as eternal beauty
In our collective memory
Not the Grand Canyon
Kindled into delicious color
By Western sunsets

Nor the Danube, flowing its blue soul into Europe
Not the sacred peak of Mount Fuji
Stretching to the Rising Sun
Neither Father Amazon nor Mother Mississippi who, without favor,
Nurture all creatures in the depths and on the shores
These are not the only wonders of the world

When we come to it
We, this people, on this minuscule and kithless globe
Who reach daily for the bomb, the blade and the dagger
Yet who petition in the dark for tokens of peace
We, this people on this mote of matter
In whose mouths abide cankerous words
Which challenge our very existence
Yet out of those same mouths
Come songs of such exquisite sweetness
That the heart falters in its labor
And the body is quieted into awe

We, this people, on this small and drifting planet
Whose hands can strike with such abandon
That in a twinkling, life is sapped from the living
Yet those same hands can touch with such healing, irresistible tenderness
That the haughty neck is happy to bow
And the proud back is glad to bend
Out of such chaos, of such contradiction
We learn that we are neither devils nor divines

When we come to it
We, this people, on this wayward, floating body
Created on this earth, of this earth
Have the power to fashion for this earth
A climate where every man and every woman
Can live freely without sanctimonious piety
Without crippling fear

When we come to it
We must confess that we are the possible
We are the miraculous, the true wonder of this world
That is when, and only when
We come to it.
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