If you know me at all, you know the meditation (and silence) is not my strongest suit. But @RabbiYoshi challenged/encouraged me to open our Pirke Avot study this evening with a meditation--and I offer it here if it helps or inspires anyone else.

Sit—close your eyes. 1/

You have left Egypt, the place that you’d known, the place that was familiar.

You have crossed through a sea, wet, murky, frightening.

And now, you are wandering in an unfamiliar place.

Take a deep breath. Take another.

2/

Tonight, we count the 7th day of the Omer—a week of wandering, a week of putting one foot in front of the other. It is the final day in the week of chesed, the week centered in loving-kindness. 3/

Take a deep breath, and picture the face of someone in your life who has shown you chesed this week.

Tonight begins the focus of malchut in chesed, loving-kindness as a crowning achievement. In mysticism, though, malchut—kingship, Divine presence, is centered in our feet. 4/

It is the closest part of us to the ground.
Place your feet on the ground. Breathe deeply. Imagine yourself rooted in kindness. Imagine loving-kindness emanating up through your legs. Deep breath in. Imagine it centered in your belly, breathing in and out. 5/

Loving-kindness flows through your arms—wiggle your hands and let kindness flow. Kindness floats up, up through your through, into your mind, out through your breath. Breathe deeply. Enter this night, this day, this hour, this learning, with kindness. Open your eyes, and we begin