את ה’ האמרת היום
וה’ האמירך היום
You have affirmed [he’emarta] God today . . . And God has affirmed you [he’emirkha] today.
(Deuteronomy 26:17-18)
The parallel word in these two phrases is he’emir, an unusual word which I have translated here as “affirm” but which could also have many other meanings. Whatever the meaning, the thing to notice here is that we and God are both engaged in the same reciprocal act towards one another — we are he’emir God and God is he’emir us. It is this feeling of a reciprocal relationship between us and God that we focus on in this meditation, making connections to tefillin, to teshuva, to the shofar, to the “king in the field” and to our breath, exploring what it might feel like to connect to God in this reciprocal way, to know that it is not just that we yearn for God, but also that God yearns for us.
Sources:
Talmud Brachot 6a
Ibn Ezra on Deuteronomy 26:27
Psalm 27:4
Photo by Peter de Vink at Pexels
