Shalom haverim.  Hello to all friends and actually to myself as well.  I had completely forgotten that I had created a blog years ago.  A friend was reading to me what AI compiled as a biography about me and it mentioned a blog as Red Rock Rabbi.  I was surprised as I hadn't remembered that at all!  So I looked it up, and wow, there are all these postings, the last group during Covid! So I decided to revive that blog and start writing again.  

I'm not sure how to communicate that the blog exists to others, but perhaps the writing is enough and somehow it will connect with people.  

We are now in the days during the week of Passover, as if reliving the Exodus from Egypt, that translates to emerging from tight, restricted space and consciousness to a more wide open expanse of new possibilities.  We are counting the Omer, a kabbalistic practice of self refinement and preparation, reviewing qualities and energies related to the seven lower spherot on the Tree of Life.  This week, focusing on Hesed, the outpouring energy of giving, love, and flow.  Next week will be the balancing energy of Gevurah, limits, discipline, containment, boundaries.  Then the following week, the combination of those first two, in the heart space, Tiferet, harmony and balance.  Each day within each week we cycle through all seven "middot" - qualities, energies.  It's a deep exercise in consciousness and honest self-reflection.  The seven weeks will culminate in the fiftieth day which is the holiday of Shavuot, the time of first fruits and early harvest, and also the gift of receiving Torah at Mt. Sinai.  There is a physical reaping of "wheat" representing nourishment, and there is also a spiritual connection with the basis of ethical living in community through the application of the Ten Commandments and all the laws that derive from them.  

I'm filled with emotion as I hear about the preparations for the celebration on May 3, 2026 being planned by my congregation, the Jewish Community of Sedona and the Verde Valley, to honor my twenty years of serving this community.  I'm praying for peace in Israel and a turning from violence to cooperation in this difficult world so filled with violence at the moment  I'm thinking of the Hebrew song Lu Yehi May it be, may all our prayers for a return to beauty, and safety, and compassion be realized.  Shalom.