And I believe that God is speaking to me and through me when I feel that way. I believe that God has planted in me very one of us the desire for more, the reluctance to settle for what we have and what we are, with all of its ambivalence. Our challenge is to want more of the right things.
There is a part of me that insists on loving people though I know it makes me vulnerable to the pain of loss, bereavement, and rejection, because my life would be bland and empty without it. There is a part of me that yearns for a better world, a world without war, without fraud or violence, and refuses to accept the idea that this is the way it is, always has been and always will be.
Harold S. Kushner, The Lord Is My Shepherd
Baruch Ata Adonai Elo-hei-nu me-lech ha-olam a-sher ke-d-sha-nu b- mitz-vo-tav, v-tzi-va-nu al s-fi-rat ha-omer.
Praised be you Adonai our God who rules the Universe instilling within us the holiness of mitzvot by commanding us to count the Omer.
Today is the thirty-fifth day of the Omer.