WEEK 3: Being Anti-Racist: Learning from the Sephira Hod – Humility/Glory
by Debra Seltzer
For those of you who read my post in week one, about Israel-Palestine, I left some threads that connect to this week of introspection. I wrote that “the United States is my own country, with its own challenges which I am committed to addressing,” and about my growing acknowledgement of the harm done to the Palestinian people in the founding of the new county. Here in Ohio, a foundation of slavery and anti-Indigenous genocide continues to do deep and lasting harm to all of us who live here— landing most heavily on descendants of those originally harmed, but deeply impacting all of us, every day.
In our “opposite from usual” journey through the sephirot, this week corresponds with the Sephira of Hod. Hod is most often translated as Glory/Splendor/Majesty, but also aligns with Humility/Admitting/Gratitude/Simplicity, which at first seems contradictory.
In studying Hod this past spring, one teaching that was shared had to do with being humble in our individuality, but also aware of ourselves as channels for the awesome glory of divinity. This lands for me as a very powerful framework from which to think of our role and responsibilities in being anti-racists today. Nomy Lamm and Taya Ma Sere, in their Omer Oracle, have re-framed Hod as “Gathering Power.” We need to gather the right kind of power, not the authoritarian seized power that has caused the racism that so deeply undermines and infects our society, culture and workplaces, but instead power that places those most deeply impacted at the center of our care, to build a world in which no one is left behind— that in fact meets the needs of the person most in need to ensure that the needs of all are fully met. By doing this, we care for others and also care for ourselves and all who we love.
Last year at this time, we focused as a community during the entire season of introspection on the harm of racism and genocide here in the USA, and reflected on the need for reparations for those still most directly impacted. For this post, I want to continue that conversation, and to guide us on toward finding our role and responsibility as we see the continuing rise of authoritarianism and fascism in this country, which puts us as well as our neighbors who are different from us at terrible risk of harm. I have been organizing for many years with the local chapter of a national organization, Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ). SURJ writes on the national website: “For too long, the Right has hoarded wealth and power by using strategic racism to convince white people that we have more in common with billionaires and corporate elites than with the people of color in our communities. At SURJ, we bring our folks in by offering a better alternative, a just, vibrant future where people of all races work together to win what we need.”
SURJ has just started a three-year plan to organize, working as part of a multi-racial coalition of national organizations, against the rising threats we are facing. In Ohio, we’re seeing far-right state leadership legislating against queer and trans people, legislating against honest teaching about race, and threatening efforts to make our communities better through work on diversity, equity and inclusion in our schools and workplaces. In Columbus, police violence against the Black community continues unabated, and food and housing insecurity and gaps in our health and mental health systems place many lives at severe risk and contribute to ongoing interpersonal violence. While recent events, such as the indictment of police officer Ricky Anderson, who murdered Donovan Lewis as he was waking up in his own bed and the electoral win against heavy handed conservative legislators are encouraging, there is much work needed to ensure the safe world we all deserve. The time to get involved is now.
To learn more about this work – Follow Showing Up for Racial Justice Central Ohio (SURJCO):
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