DAY 31: SEVEN STOPS


The Zohar says
after death
each soul is judged
seven times.

Pallbearers make
seven stops
on the way
to the grave

which means
our progress
shambles, pauses
begins again

as though
we were reluctant
to reach
that destination.

Seven: the days
of the week,
the colors
of the rainbow

seven weeks
of the Omer
between Pesach planting
and Shavuot harvest.

For what
will you be judged
when your journey
has ended?

Today is the 31st day of the Omer, which makes four weeks and three days of the Omer. This is the 31st day of our 49-day journey between Pesach and Shavuot, liberation and revelation.

I learned the teaching that the Zohar says the soul is judged or tested seven times after death from Simcha Raphael's Jewish Views of the Afterlife.