The Shechinah in Your Period

  There are seasons of life that feel like niddah even when you're not in niddah.

Seasons of darkness. Of separation. Of an aching, gaping emptiness you don't have language for and can't seem to fill no matter what you do.

Maybe it's a marriage that's struggling. A friendship that ended. A version of your life you thought you'd have by now that hasn't come.

A grief you're carrying so alone that nobody around you even knows the weight of it.

You're showing up. You're functioning. But underneath it all, you're in survival mode, just trying to get through until something shifts.

And in those moments, the loneliness isn't just hard. It feels bottomless.

There’s this part of feminine work I find hard to explain.

Where we embody the Shechinah through our cyclical rhythm.

Through our biology.

We are Her – embodied. 

We have a unique experience of the “other” side.

The woman in niddah.

The Shechinah in exile.

We don’t just long for the return that may eventually come. We feel the intrinsic pain of separation and longing for redemption right inside our bodies. More than can ever be conceptualized with mere words or thoughts.

That aching, gaping emptiness you feel in your darkest seasons?

It's a mirror.

The Shechinah feels it, too — the pain of separation, the hunger for return, the longing for a reunion that is coming.

You are not alone in your longing.

You are feeling the heartbeat of something much bigger. Something that moves in both directions — us toward Hashem, Hashem toward us — with equal force, equal ache, equal love.

And that changes everything about what your pain means.

You don’t have to be a “spiritual girl” seeking meaning everywhere. But perhaps you can acknowledge, as I’ve come to believe, that the physical and spiritual are one.

It’s not a mistake that the 3 mitzvos – especially niddah – meant to connect us as women, seem so physical on the surface.

And not surprisingly, either, each of these 3 mitzvos require a separation.

You separate a piece of dough for challah.

You separate physically in relationship through niddah.

And lighting Shabbos candles separates between the weekdays and the Shabbos Queen (where we can meet the Shechinah more tangibly as well.)

The separation is not punishment. It's not abandonment. It's not evidence that something is wrong with you or that you've been forgotten.

It's an invitation to sit with that longing. To feel what the Shechinah feels. To be so present in your own pain that you begin to understand the pain of our entire nation — and the depth of Hashem's desire to bring us home.

And in that sitting — in that willingness to be in the darkness without rushing out of it… something shifts.

Pain becomes a portal. Emptiness becomes presence. 

Longing becomes the most profound form of connection you even thought possible.

This is what I believe with my whole heart:

The most painful seasons of our lives – where G-d is hidden and you don’t see Him – are not as separate or disconnected as we think. Tonight the moon renews again, even though she just had her darkest time of the month! 

The longing is the connection.

The ache is the proof that reunion matters to you, and to Him.

You were not built to be numb to this. You were built to feel it – fully, deeply, with your whole self – and to be transformed by it.

That's not suffering.

That's the deepest expression of what it means to be a Jewish woman.

To carry the longing. To hold the exile. And to know with equal certainty that the light will be renewed. That the reunion is near. And this time not only has purpose, but is the actual channel to deeper connection.

If you're in the darkness right now – I see you. 

You don't have to have it figured out. You don't have to feel better instantly. You don't have to rush toward the light before you've been held in the dark.

Sit with the longing. Let it mean something. Because it does more than you know.

And with the new moon, as Rosh Chodesh Av dawns, we’re also starting Secrets of Niddah.

If you're ready to go deeper into what all of this means – for your cycle, your womanhood, your relationship with yourself and with the Shechinah – Secrets of Niddah is where that journey begins.

This isn’t where we try to remove what's hard. This is where I show you what the challenge has been trying to build in you all along.

We start tomorrow.

This only comes around once a year.

Let this be the year you reclaim the true depth of your womanhood.

Join Secrets of Niddah.