Friday, April 21st, 2023 30th of Nisan, 5783
"...the roots of Judaism are the desert, streams, and mountains - the wilderness where our religion was created and where the Torah was received.” (pg. 1)
יַעֲרֹ֤ף כַּמָּטָר֙ לִקְחִ֔י
תִּזַּ֥ל כַּטַּ֖ל אִמְרָתִ֑י
כִּשְׂעִירִ֣ם עֲלֵי־דֶ֔שֶׁא
וְכִרְבִיבִ֖ים עֲלֵי־עֵֽשֶׂב׃
May my teaching come down as the rain,
My word shall flow as the dew,
As winds upon the herbage,
Like showers on the grass.
קהלת רבה פרשה ז
בשעה שברא הקב”ה את אדם הראשון נטלו והחזירו על כל אילני גן עדן ואמר לו ראה מעשי כמה נאים ומשובחין הן וכל מה שבראתי בשבילך בראתי, תן דעתך שלא תקלקל ותחריב את עולמי, שאם קלקלת אין מי שיתקן אחריך
Midrash Kohelet Raba 7:28:
When the Holy One of Blessing created the first human He took him and showed him all the trees of the Garden of Eden and said to him ‘See My works, how beautiful and praiseworthy they are. And everything that I created, I created it for you. Be careful not to spoil or destroy My world – for if you do, there will be nobody after you to repair it.’
(ט) שִׁבְעָ֥ה שָׁבֻעֹ֖ת תִּסְפָּר־לָ֑ךְ מֵהָחֵ֤ל חֶרְמֵשׁ֙ בַּקָּמָ֔ה תָּחֵ֣ל לִסְפֹּ֔ר שִׁבְעָ֖ה שָׁבֻעֽוֹת׃
(9) You shall count off seven weeks; start to count the seven weeks when the sickle is first put to the standing grain.
(טו) וּסְפַרְתֶּ֤ם לָכֶם֙ מִמָּחֳרַ֣ת הַשַּׁבָּ֔ת מִיּוֹם֙ הֲבִ֣יאֲכֶ֔ם אֶת־עֹ֖מֶר הַתְּנוּפָ֑ה שֶׁ֥בַע שַׁבָּת֖וֹת תְּמִימֹ֥ת תִּהְיֶֽינָה׃ (טז) עַ֣ד מִֽמָּחֳרַ֤ת הַשַּׁבָּת֙ הַשְּׁבִיעִ֔ת תִּסְפְּר֖וּ חֲמִשִּׁ֣ים י֑וֹם וְהִקְרַבְתֶּ֛ם מִנְחָ֥ה חֲדָשָׁ֖ה לַה'
(15) And from the day on which you bring the sheaf of elevation offering—the day after the sabbath—you shall count off seven weeks. They must be complete: (16) you must count until the day after the seventh week—fifty days; then you shall bring an offering of new grain to the LORD.
ומפני כן, כי היא כל עיקרן של ישראל ובעבורה נגאלו ועלו לכל הגדולה שעלו אליה, נצטוינו למנות ממחרת יום טוב של פסח עד יום נתינת התורה, להראות בנפשנו החפץ הגדול אל היום הנכבד הנכסף ללבנו, כעבד ישאף צל, וימנה תמיד מתי יבוא העת הנכסף אליו שיצא לחירות, כי המנין מראה לאדם כי כל ישעו וכל חפצו להגיע אל הזמן ההוא.
Sefer HaChinuch*, Mitzvah #306
Since the acceptance of the Torah was the goal of our redemption and serves as the foundation of the Jewish people, and through it we achieved our greatness, we were commanded to count from the day after [the first day of] Pesach until the day that the Torah was given. This manifests our great desire for that awesome day which our hearts yearn for just as a servant yearns for shade. We count constantly – when will the day come that we yearn for, the day that we left slavery? Because counting [towards a certain date] shows a person that all his desire and longing is to reach that time.
(כ) ד"א היה ר' יהודה אומר: לעולם הוי כונס דברי תורה כללים ומוציאם, שנאמר יערוף כמטר לקחי, ואין יערף אלא לשון כנעני, שאין אדם אומר לחבירו "פרוט לי סלע זו" - אלא "ערוף לי סלע זו", כך הוי כונס דברי תורה כללים - ופורט ומוציאם כטיפים הללו של טל; ולא כטיפים הללו של מטר גדולות, אלא כטיפים הללו של טל שהם קטנים:
(20) Variantly: R. Yehudah was wont to say: One should acquire words of Torah as (general) principles and "expend" (i.e., "implement" them as particulars, it being written "My taking (Torah) ya'arof as rain," "ya'arof" connoting acquisition. An analogy: One does not say to his neighbor "P'rot" ("break") this sela (a coin) for me, but "arof" (acquire) this sela for me. Similarly, one acquires words of Torah as (general) principles and implements them in small drops, like dew, and not in large drops like rain.
Moses saw the bush burning with fire, and the fire did not consume the bush, and the bush did not extinguish the flames of fire. Now the bush does not grow in the earth unless it has water beneath it. Moses saw and was wondering very much in his heart, and he said: What kind of glory is there in its midst? He said: I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the thorn-bush is not burnt. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: Moses ! Stand where thou art standing, for there in the future will I give the Torah to Israel, as it is said, "And he said, Draw not nigh hither; put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground" (Ex. 3:5).
Anna L. Tsing is an anthropologist who writes about matsutake mushrooms and the people who cultivate & harvest them. Matsutake are known for their ability to grow in inhospitable settings, often at sites of environmental disaster. Tsing calls for the practice of what she calls "arts of noticing," which she sees as a way of navigating out of the dead end of late-stage capitalism's two main modes: individualism & the need to scale-up, to amass ever more resources. Bigger is better.
"Human-disturbed landscapes are ideal spaces for humanist and naturalist noticing. We need to know the histories humans have made in these places and the histories of nonhuman participants.” (p. 126)
How might notice differently, especially during this time of Counting the Omer? What do we know about the place we are in right at this moment? What came before us? How did this place come to be in the form it is now? How do our spaces shape us?
“Thinking through self-containment and thus the self-interest of individuals (at whatever scale) made it possible to ignore contamination, that is, transformation through encounter. Self-contained individuals are not transformed by encounter. Maximizing their interests, they use encounters—but remain unchanged in them. Noticing is unnecessary to track these unchanging individuals. A 'standard' individual can stand in for all as a unit of analysis. It becomes possible to organize knowledge through logic alone.” (p. 32)
Tsing offers a few propositions to keep in mind as we try to notice differently:
“Latent commons are not exclusive human enclaves. Opening the commons to other beings shifts everything. Once we include pests and diseases, we can’t hope for harmony; the lion will not lie down with the lamb. And organisms don’t just eat each other; they also make divergent ecologies. Latent commons are those mutualist and nonantagonistic entanglements found within the play of this confusion.
Latent commons are not good for everyone. Every instance of collaboration makes room for some and leaves out others. Whole species lose out in some collaborations. The best we can do is to aim for “good-enough” worlds, where “good-enough” is always imperfect and under revision. Latent comments don’t institutionalize well. Attempts to turn the commons into policy are commendably brave, but they do not capture the effervescence of the latent commons. The latent commons moves in law’s interstices; it is catalyzed by infraction, infection, inattention—and poaching.
Latent commons cannot redeem us. Some radical thinkers hope that progress will lead us to a redemptive and utopian commons. In contrast, the latent commons is here and now, amidst the trouble. And humans are never fully in control.” (p. 191)