There are 50 days between the Second Night of Passover and Shavuot, which this year begins the evening of June 1. For many years I have taken on a personal project. Some years it has been as simple as remembering to buckle my seat belt, or unpacking one box a day. (That one isn’t simple!). One year I finished the draft of a book.  

Traditionally these seven weeks (7×7=49) are about the sefirot, the mystical emanations of the Divine. Those are based on the 13 Attributes of the Divine that were part of my Bat Mitzvah Torah portion which happened during Pesach 51 years ago. The first one is chesed. Lovingkindess. Each day you pair up one attribute with another. The first day is chesed shel chesed, lovingkindness of lovingkindness. That’s alot of love. Today, the seventh day, therefore, using a traditional schema  is Malchut of chesed.   

Tonight is the beginning of the second week. And it is Chesed shel Gevurah, Lovingkindness of Discipline or Strength. But this year I want to try something different. With so much going on in the world, I want to keep focusing on chesed all 50 days. Can we do it? What is your favorite quote, Biblical or otherwise about love? Can we make the world a better place by focusing on lovingkindness? What illustrations go with this? Who else is counting? We know that Alden Solovy is. Rabbi Jill Hammer is, using Biblical women. Chabad is. Rabbi Lisa Bellows is.  

Can we come up with an action each day that illustrates chesed, gemilut chasadim?  

This year has been tough. On so many levels, not the least of which was being in the hospital when we started counting. Some say that if you interrupt the counting, it’s all over. I am choosing to begin again. It is not all over. Begin again.