Blog

Week 2 Days 8-14: April 16-22
Theme: Hope and Community

"In every community, there is work to be done. In every nation, there are wounds to heal. In every heart, there is the power to do it.” These words by Marianne Williamson tell us that the work of our community can be in and of itself a source of hope. Sharing moments via Zoom or Facetime, sending care packages, making sure people who need help getting food get it; these powerful communal moments teach us that we can endure hard things when we do them together. The entire world has had its pause button pushed. Time marches on while activity is suspended - let us find solace in the fact that we are in this together. Every day that we can say, “I made it through today,” contributes to all of us getting through. That is the hope of community.

1. Inspiration on Community
   An excerpt from Amen: Seeking Presence with Prayer, Poetry and Mindfulness Practice by Rabbi Karyn Kedar: Community comes from the word “common.” The word assumes an awareness that we share in the most basic way: tears, loss, love, illness, joy, fear, birth, death, life. We are not meant to live alone. We are not supposed to ignore or deny what we have in common as human beings. That is the power of community. It is the acknowledgment of the universals of life, the sameness, the common ground. It is the knowledge that I will never be alone when I am sick; that I can share the mixed emotions I will have when my children go away to college; that when I pray for the secret desires of my soul, I will be joined by others doing the same. I live amid strangers, acquaintances, friends, and even a few people whom I don’t like. What makes us a community is the sense of shared responsibility: when one is in need, the other simply responds.
2. Musicians unite communties and provide hope through art:
   https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/apr/06/stayin-alive-how-music-fought-pandemics-2700-years-coronavirus
3. Attend a service via Zoom and connect with your Temple Sinai Family: https://www.templesinaiatlanta.org/streaming

​​​​The Blessing: One stands when counting the omer, and begins by reciting the following blessing:

Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu Melekh ha’Olam asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav v’tizivanu al sefirat ha’omer.

Blessed are you, Adonai our God, Sovereign of the Universe, who has sanctified us with your commandments and commanded us to count the omer.

After the blessing, one recites the appropriate day of the count and after 6 days, the week is also included in the count. For example: Today is the seventh day, or one week, of the omer.