Meron: everyone worships differently

Let me first say that Bibi Netanyahu's speech was absolutely amazing. He could not have said it better. If you have not seen it yet I recommend that you drop what your doing and watch it immediately!


Now that I've said that, let me tell you about my experience in Meron, Israel for a crazy Lag B'Omer experience. It was out last organized in-shabbat (meaning staying on campus for shabbat) of the year, so many of us stayed to enjoy each other's presence on the Ramat Ef'Al campus for one last time. Lag B'omer was beginning Saturday night and we planned to  head right to Meron as shabbat concluded. Meron, if you didn't know, is the sight of where Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai is buried (the man of the holiday). Thousands upon thousands of people attend and it is just one huge celebration for what Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai represents.

So we leave the Ramat Ef'Al campus about an hour after Shabbat to head to Bnei Brak where every couple of minutes buses depart up to Meron. 50 shekels later, we got onto a bus (37 of us decided to go regardless of the warnings we got about it being super packed and getting pushed-and to not take the event as a representation of the Jewish people) and we were on our way. 2 1/2 hours later we arrive and we walk up mount Meron together to see one of the largest Jewish dancing crowds ever. There was a na nachman guy DJ playing crazy trance music and everyone was just jumping up and down. It was pretty religious and many more men were dancing than woman (and when we tried to dance a few woman yelled at us), but I didn't really care. The environment was making me feel part of something truly amazing.

We walked a little more to see even more large crowds of people. Then me and a few friends decided we wanted to attempt to enter the actual Kever (tomb) of R. Shimon (despite the masses of people). So we did just that and were exposed to something much more than people just praying towards the Kever. It was like a mob (and this was on the woman's side!) I felt like I was in a sardine can of chassidic woman! People were literally pushing their way through to either A-pray or B-go watch the crazy mob of men dance around the huge fire. Even though there were a few parts of the night where I couldn't breath due to lack of space for my lungs to move, I couldn't stop smiling. People were gathering, and sacrificing their personal comfort all for an amazing purpose. To attach themselves to the bigger picture.

In Meron on Lag B'omer for the sun rise

Lag B'omer is about the story of R. Shimon and how he was in the cave for 12 years, than came out and saw people tilling the land and thought 'how could they do something else other than learning Torah (since he was in the cave for so long only learning) so G-d sent him (and his son) back for 12 months to learn more. The second time they left they witnessed a man carrying two bushels of myrtle. R. Shimon asked him what he was doing and the man answered 'these two bushels are for shabbat. I have two to honor the aspects of Shamor/Zachor!' From this R. Shimon found a way to love this and said something to himself like 'wow! look how the Jews are honoring the Torah!'-basically this was a very short way of telling this story, but the beauty was that he stepped back and realized that every way a Jew honors the Torah is beautiful! He realized this, unlike the other 24,000 students of R. Akiva (he was one of R. Akiva's students) leading ultimately to their death, and ultimately creating the omer to mourn these students. So we take from this to not judge others on the way they are honoring G-d.

Anyways, the whole Meron experience was great-we arrived at 3 AM and left after we prayed to the rising sun around 8:30.

I turn 20 in 11 days, and this program ends shortly after it. I'm going to be writing a reflection of this year soon, but I don't want to yet. I'm still going through crazy life changes every day. For example, I've been challenging myself with an early b-day present to myself to practice being shomer negiah. I've done this before, and unfortunately failed, but I feel like I am stronger this time. I know that this journey, that my 19th year of life has endured has been very long, rigorous, but extremely rewarding. I feel empowered by the life choices I have made and cannot wait to see what my 20th year of life has to offer me.

http://www.imninalu.net/Sefirot.htm

One extra thing I'm going to add in is that today is the 37th day of the Omer. In kabbalah (Jewish Mysticism), there is a concept called the 10 sefirot. According to inner.org,  "sefirah (pl. sefirot) is a channel of Divine energy or life-force. This most fundamental concept of Kabbalah is that in the process of creation an intermediate stage was emanated from God's infinite light to create what we experience as finite reality. These channels are called the Ten Sefirot, Ten Divine Emanations, Ten Divine Radiances, Ten Divine Eluminices, or Ten Divine Powers which are the basic terms and concepts of the inner wisdom of the Torah which is called Kabbalah." (http://www.inner.org/sefirot/sefirot.htm) Each day during the omer you say the sefirah of the day paired with one of the other six or itself (you only use the bottom seven). It is supposed to be a self-help system. For example take Chesed (love/kindness) and Hod (thankfulness) and ask yourself am I being thankful to the people that give to me? the things that G-d provides me? And things along these lines.

I found it interesting that today's was Yesod Shebi-Yesod Foundation and foundation. Foundation is something that has come across my mind a lot lately. This year had been about building some sort of foundation, gaining some sort of knowledge that you can always look back into no matter what happens. Regardless of the mistakes or lessons I learned this year I know that I built an extremely firm foundation. I know what I want in life, I know my goals, I have my visions, and I see my dreams. I've been striving to put these into effect and have so far succeeded in the terms of what I think I am capable of. But I know that I have much to learn and a lot of room to grow-but my foundation, my Yesod, is here and it's here to stay..