Eli the High Priest died upon learning that the Holy Ark containing the Tablets was captured by the Philistines, and that his two sons were killed in battle. Eli was the 13th in the line of the "Shoftim" ("judges") who led the People of Israel during the four centuries between the passing of Joshua in 1245 BCE and the crowning of King Saul in 879 BCE.
Link: The High Priest Eli
Rabbi Isaac Al-Fasi (1013-1103), known by the acronym "Rif," was one of the earliest codifiers of the Talmud. In 1088 he was forced to flee his hometown of Fez, Morocco, to Spain, where he assumed the position of rabbi in Alusina (Lucene).
Tomorrow is the twenty-sixth day of the Omer Count. Since, on the Jewish calendar, the day begins at nightfall of the previous evening, we count the omer for tomorrow's date tonight, after nightfall: "Today is twenty-six days, which are three weeks and five days, to the Omer." (If you miss the count tonight, you can count the omer all day tomorrow, but without the preceding blessing).
The 49-day "Counting of the Omer" retraces our ancestors' seven-week spiritual journey from the Exodus to Sinai. Each evening we recite a special blessing and count the days and weeks that have passed since the Omer; the 50th day is Shavuot, the festival celebrating the Giving of the Torah at Sinai.
Tonight's Sefirah: Hod sheb'Netzach -- "Humility in Ambition"
The teachings of Kabbalah explain that there are seven "Divine Attributes" -- Sefirot -- that G-d assumes through which to relate to our existence: Chessed, Gevurah, Tifferet, Netzach, Hod, Yesod and Malchut ("Love", "Strength", "Beauty", "Victory", "Splendor", "Foundation" and "Sovereignty"). In the human being, created in the "image of G-d," the seven sefirot are mirrored in the seven "emotional attributes" of the human soul: Kindness, Restraint, Harmony, Ambition, Humility, Connection and Receptiveness. Each of the seven attributes contain elements of all seven--i.e., "Kindness in Kindness", "Restraint in Kindness", "Harmony in Kindness", etc.--making for a total of forty-nine traits. The 49-day Omer Count is thus a 49-step process of self-refinement, with each day devoted to the "rectification" and perfection of one the forty-nine "sefirot."
Links:
How to count the Omer
The deeper significance of the Omer Count
Of the 54 parshiot of the Five Books of Moses, only one is named after a woman. It is called “The Life of Sarah.”
It opens by informing us that Sarah has died.
Yes, this is the life of Sarah. Her true life. Because only in her passing was Sarah’s life fulfilled.
During her lifetime, she and her husband Abraham surveyed the land promised to their children. Only once Sarah died did Abraham make his first actual purchase, publicly and with full payment. Sarah’s burial plot and its accompanying field in Hebron mark the seminal point of the Land of Israel.
During her lifetime, Sarah had only one child, who remained single. From where would come the “offspring more numerous than the stars” that G‑d had promised? With Sarah’s passing, the match between Isaac and Rebecca was made, a woman much like Sarah, through whom the Jewish people would become a reality.
During Sarah’s lifetime, Abraham was not able to guide Ishmael. By divine command, he was compelled to harken to Sarah, who witnessed Ishmael’s corruptive influence and demanded he be sent away. By the end of the parashah, Abraham is following in the ways of Sarah with the rest of his children. Even Ishmael has repented and accepted Isaac as the true heir of Abraham.
It was after Sarah’s passing that Abraham’s vision began to emerge into reality in this world—through the work of Sarah.
This is true life—a life not confined to the years of a physical body, but a life that becomes yet more real after it is released from those confines, and continues to be felt more and more with every year that passes.
Such is the life of a mother. While the rest of us live within a moment that has already disappeared, a mother gives life, nurtures life, and guides that life into eternity.