On The First Night of Gevurah Week...
Yom Tov, and with it Pesach, sended two hours ago. Tomorrow I'll be leaving the hotel formerly known as the Fallsview. I've been thinking a lot; these Catskill hotels are fascinating. Someone thought they were doing a great favor by making all the buildings connected so you never have to walk outside. I guess deep down somewhere, someone cared about the mountains, otherwise they could have opened these hotels in the city (unless of course it's just that the price was right up here). I had three outdoor moments since I came up here four days ago. Right after lunch there was a guided tour to the nearby waterfalls, Sunday early A.M. I sat by the lake and watched a holy mist rise over the mountains. Yesterday I took a walk on the road leading up to the hotel. On Sunday A.M. there was no-one around except a fellow and his dog, hanging by the lake. It was a cool time.
Right after I arrived on Friday I ate lunch and then went on a hotel sponsored walk. The guide was a professional nature man. Later, in the gift shop, I bought one of his photos of a bird. The crowd of about twelve people moved slowly and cautiously up to the falls. Then they sat and rested for a while. Then we turned back. A colleague of mine once presented a lecture at an Orthodox Jewish educators convention that took place over a Shabbos at the nearby Homowack. In his talk to rabbis and teachers he said , "I'm sure that every one here at some point over the week-end looked around and thought 'mah rabu ma'asecha Hashem.'" I'm not sure at all. I think somehow the beauty of the location here gets muted by eating and a other diversions.
I have more to say - want to writ about what I learned in Psachim about Ohr and clean language, in Rav Pam's sefer on that topic and more (and why his sefer is called Atarah LeMelech), what I read in Nechamah about Yosef, Hegyonei Halachah on half Hallel on Pesach. I want to write about conversations, interactions, insights.
Phoebe Snow just died
It wasn't Poetry Man
Which song touched me so?
John Mayer won't stop
So he claims about the train
Midnight and I write
posted by rabbi neil fleischmann @ 11:59 PM
3 Comments:
At first glance (i.e. the title of your blog) I thought, gee, RN should have posted this at the start of week three, Tiferet, of the Omer because Rabbi Jacobson says that Tiferet gets its name ("beauty") from blending compassion, harmony and truth. But reading your blog I realized that you are talking about much more than seeing physical beauty. We have to be ready to see and then feel the beauty of HaShem all around us. (The photos were gorgeous--made me long for a green spring!) I felt refreshed just reading your words--such power in HaShem's creation. Thanks you for pointing us in the right direction.
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I had wanted to write about the end of the week of chesed and the start of gevurah week only to have reached sleepy time. So I just alluded to it in the title, not intending the title to match the content but writing the title after the post as part of the "one more thing" syndrome." And yet I like your take. I've been at 3 books that deal with the sefirot of the sefirah: Jacobson, Goldfeder, and Haber/Sedley - each with a different take on these somewhat amorphous spheres and combinations of spheres.
Thanks for the feedback - there are more photos that I feel encouraged to post... I think it's important to marry G-d's word to His world.
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