• On the second night of Pesach the order of prayers in the Sh'ma, On Retiring (p. 119) is the same as for every festival. [1]

Wednesday Nissan 16, 5703, 2nd day of Chag Ha'matzot (Pesach); first of Omer. **
Torah Lessons (5703)	Chumash: Acharei Mot, Revi'i with Rashi. Tehillim: 79-82. Tanya: Yet in fact (p. 211)...and the like. (p. 215).

Even one who is, G-d forbid, orphaned from his father, declares before beginning the Ma Nishtana, "Tateh Ich Vell Ba Dir Freggen Feer Kashess" ("Father, I am going to ask you four questions").

In a similar vein, even one whose mother and father are, G-d forbid, no longer alive, nonetheless says in Birkat Hamazon (grace after meals) "May the Merciful One bless my father my teacher, etc., my mother my teacher, etc." (p. 93).

   

Notes:

1. (Back to text) However, on the first evening of Pesach, called Leil shimurim, the "protected evening," we say only the first paragraph of Sh'ma (p.119) and the closing B'racha, Hamapil (p. 123).

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Week one - Chesed

Love is the single most powerful and necessary component in life. Love is the origin and foundation of all human interactions. It is both giving and receiving. It allows us to reach above and beyond ourselves. To experience another person and to allow that person to experience us. It is the tool by which we learn to experience the highest reality - G-d. In a single word: love is transcendence.

Day one

Chesed of chesed

Examine the love aspect of love. The expression of love and its level of intensity. Everyone has the capacity to love in their hearts. The question is if and how we actualize and express it.

Ask yourself:

• What is my capacity to love another person? Do I have problems with giving? Am I stingy or selfish? Is it difficult for me to let someone else into my life? Do I have room for someone else? Do I allow room for someone else? Am I afraid of my vulnerability, of opening up and getting hurt? How do I express love? Am I able to communicate my true feelings? Do I withhold expressing love out of fear of reaction? Or on the contrary: I often express too much too early. Do others misunderstand my intentions?

• Whom do I love? Do I only love those that I relate to and who relate to me? Do I have the capacity to love a stranger; to lend a helping hand to someone I don't know? Do I express love only when it's comfortable?

• Why do I have problems with love and what can I do about it? Does my love include the other six aspects of chesed, without which love will be distorted and unable to be truly realized.

From:

A Spiritual Guide to the counting of the Omer

Forty-Nine Steps to Personal Refinement

The Forty-Nine Days of Sefirah

by Simon Jacobson

$7.95 Soft Cover

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