13/21: (Tuesday) Today marks 13 days along the journey of the three weeks where the crack in everything beckons a polishing the luminal darkness of this time. Yearning for divine presence amidst apparent absence the more you meditate on this time and place of your life. Such contemplation of this absent presence is expressed here Benjamin Shevili’s recent collection, Poems to Yova (2022):

He could have been able
to be in every
place even though
now he
is here & this is
dangerous

Questions for self-reflection:

1. If your yearning for divine presence deepens amidst apparent absence the more you meditate on this time and place of your life, why then does any sense of presence “here” then appear “dangerous”?
2. What value is there to contemplating the “open space of the void” [hallal ha’panui] which the Creator withdrew from in order to make space for human existence on earth possible? How do you feel a deeper sense of inner divine presence in the face of outer divine absence?