31 March 2021

Julie's Birthday: Loving Kindness and Beauty

 Today is Julie’s birthday in the Hebrew calendar when loving kindness and beauty come together.   

It is the third day of the counting of the omer marking the 49 days from the Exodus from Egypt to the receiving the Torah at Mt. Sinai. Each of these days has a unique character. It is most fitting that Julie’s birthday falls when the Divine attributes Tiferet (beauty that combines compassion with inner strength) and Hesed (loving kindness) merge.

Women in the Torah represent each of the ten Divine attribute in the Tree of Life that describes the creative process of both God as the Creator of all and human creativity.

Ruth represents Hesed by refusing to leave her widowed and destitute mother-in-law Naomi, following her from her land of Moav to the land of Israel. 

“Where you go, I will go. Your home will be my home. Your people will be my people, and your God my God.”  (Ruth 1: 16-17)

Rebecca represents Tiferet by her giving a drink of water to a thirsty stranger and to his camels.  It was the sign that he has found the right woman to become for Isaac’s wife. Tiferet is an aesthetic integration of Hesed and Gevurah (inner strength). She demonstrated her Gevurah by refusing to wait to leave her home to go forth on the long trip to meet and marry Isaac.

Abraham’s emissary prayed when he left on a mission to find a bride for Abraham’s son Isaac.

“If I say to a girl, ‘Tip over your jug and let me drink,’ and she replies, ‘Drink and I will also give water to your camels, ‘she will be the one designated by God for Isaac.” (Genesis 24: 14)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR DEAREST JULIE. MAY ALL YOUR PRAYERS BE ANSWERED.  

MAZEL TOV!

LOVE, IMA AND ABBA

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