Day 34: CURSE OR BLESSING, SICK OR HEALED—YOU CHOOSE

BLESSING FOR COUNTING THE OMER:

Baruch ata Adonai, ELOHEYNU melech ha-olam, asher kiddeshanu bidvarecha

v’tzi-va-noo al sifeerat ha-omer.

Blessed are you, O Adonai our GOD, King of the universe Who has sanctified us by your Word and commanded us concerning the Counting of the Omer.

Today is thirty-four days, which is four weeks and six days of the Omer.

"Thus says HaShem (LORD, יהוה), “Cursed is the man who trusts

in mankind and makes flesh his strength, and whose heart turns away from the

LORD.” Jeremiah 17:5

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, and whose trust is

the LORD. For he will be like a tree planted by the water," Jeremiah 17:7-8

“The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick;

who can understand it?” Jeremiah 17:9

“Heal me, O LORD, and I will be healed; save me and I will be

saved, for You are my praise.” Jeremiah 17:14

Our Haftarah portion today comes from Jeremiah and is the ‘address’ of many well-known biblical concepts. In week 4, we take a deep dive into the mussar of ‘hod,’ with the main definition being ‘humility.' Today, we consider the mussar of ‘yesod’ within that of humility. Yesod is a powerful concept. Human beings were created to be relational. And yesod is the agent that bonds us together in an emotional connection. And in some relationships, this can lead to a complete fusion of the two involved. As I and the Father are One. Like I want to imitate my Messiah! They do say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!

‘Like the letter vav, ‘ֿו’, yesod, a picture of a hook that ‘connects’ two items together. It is the super-glue that the Eitz Chayim prayer (Tree of Life) speaks of, Proverbs  3:18, She is a tree of life to those who hold STRONGLY (machazikim-מחזיקים) to her, and her supporters are peace.” Do you see a Hebrew word you know inside of machazikim? Clue, we say it at the end of each book of the Torah (chazak–חזק) Be Strong! HaShem is cheering us along with ‘Be strong and be strengthened!’ “Her supporters” are those renewing their covenant with HaShem through regular reading of the Torah. And as much as Yeshua supports us, we support Him when needed.

The prophet starts with ‘cursed is one who trusts in mankind, (but) blessed is the one who trusts in HaShem.’ This wise man is represented as ‘a tree planted by the water.’ Sounds really great so far, right? But Jeremiah is our party crasher and cries out, ‘reality check people’, and with target precision speaks the truth that “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?” This would suggest that, despite being offered blessings, we often ‘choose poorly’, exercising our free will. And many of us show an appalling inability to clean ourselves up, while refusing help right in front of our faces. We're sick physically and spiritually because of sin, and we know it. So, we run to see every doctor under the sun, always ending up without a brilliant diagnosis, helpful medications, or sustained improvement. Yet for some, in a moment of clarity, for a split moment; an evocative scent sends us to an old ‘déjà vu’ memory that requires a huge reality check. This time may be the last chance we have to choose wisely. This time, there is no room for arrogance. From here on, humility must replace our cocky attitudes and arrogant spirits. Here we finally turn (shuv - like teshuvah - repentance) to Our Creator remembering His promise to never leave us or abandon us. And we cry out: “Heal me, O LORD, and I will be healed; save me and I will be, for You are my praise.” Jer17:14

From curses to blessings, deception to despair, we find freedom when we remember and acknowledge that only the Father and the Son can provide the permanent cure for whatever ails us physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Acknowledging this truth, we proclaim boldly that it is by His grace alone that we can ‘superglue’ ourselves to Him, our ‘eitz chayim’, Messiah, is our Tree of Life, the Lover and Supporter of our souls, our Great Physician and Redeemer; who died to save us from our sin and live with us for eternity! As we marry together the words of Jeremiah with the mussar traits of bonding in humility on this 34th day of the Omer, we see the theme of trusting HaShem for everything. We aim for an attitude of gratitude at all times. With an open hand and a good eye (being generous physically and only believing the good about others), we will merit the privilege to do the mitzvot for the simple reason “We love our Heavenly Daddy and want to please Him!” Humility that draws people to us, because they know they can trust our word and find safety in forging deep

commitments, ‘supergluing’ ourselves together. In Messiah first and one another next. Bring on those ‘divine appointments’ as we advance Your Kingdom at every opportunity.

Father in Heaven, You and Your name are holy. We want Your Kingdom and Your Will now! Establish Your earthly Kingdom now! Keep us humble and grateful for Your daily provisions. Open our hearts to understand truth. Less of us and more of You. In smallness and anonymity, we wish to serve you. We choose to be blessed, not cursed. We refuse to coddle our old victim mentality. We take personal responsibility for our actions. No one can tempt us to do anything contrary to Your Word that we haven’t already decided to do. We thank you for delivering us from the schemes of The Adversary. You own everything and we want to be good stewards of all You entrust to us. Gratitude becomes too meager a word to describe the deep sense of indebtedness we have towards You. It calls us into a process of transformation where we move from receiving to giving, not just counting the days of the Omer but counting our blessings. This year, may we join the cloud of witnesses at the base of Mt. Sinai once again, where we partner with You by holding fast to Your Torah! She is no burden; rather She is our delight! She is the answer to our inner desire to give back; to partner with You. We choose blessing, wellness and Your presence forever!