Last week was week 2 of the Omer period. The quality we focused on was gevurah/inner strength and our core text was Who is strong or mighty? One who controls their impulses. (Pirke Avot 4:1). During our Omer project we discussed what is means to control our impulses, especially when angey and looked at a scene from the Torah when Moses and the Israelites, “lose their cool”.
When the Israelites are wandering in the desert and they have no water, they get angry and they lash out at Moses and Aaron: “Why did you make us leave Egypt to bring us to this wretched place, a place with no grain or figs or vines or pomegranates? There is not even water to drink!” (Numbers 20:5). God hears the complaints of the Israelites and orders Moses to “Assemble the Israelites and while you are standing in front of them order [sometimes translated as speak to] the rock to provide water. By doing that you shall get water for the Israelites from the rock and provide drink for the people.” (Numbers 20:8) Moses in turn seems to lash out at the Israelite, “Listen, you rebelling Israelites, shall we get water for you out of this rock?” And Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod. (Numbers 20:10-11)
Students acted out this text with body language and then rewrote and acted out the scene with the Israelites and Moses having more gevurah/inner strength. Students then used their bodies as instruments to make the sounds of anger and the sounds of feeling calm. We focused on crescendos and decrescendos and debriefed how it felt to make angry noises verses calm noises.
Lastly, students considered what colors might represent their inner strength and put a gevurah pom pom made of the color of their inner strength in their Omer cube. Their reasons for why they chose the colors they did reminded me that children are the best philosophers!
This week our focus is tiferet/inner beauty and natural beauty.
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