During the fourth week of the Omer, we explore Netzach, which encapsulates endurance and perseverance, ambition, success, and confidence. 

It’s fitting that the middle week of the Omer is about persevering and persisting with fortitude. The middle part of any journey is the toughest because you are past the initial challenges, but may not yet see the end. 

This week’s playlist has the largest collection of hip hop because that genre contains themes of perseverance, confidence, and success. Please note, my playlists include explicit content; any explicit content is labeled with a capital E on Spotify.

Endurance and Perseverance

The most challenging aspect of this mid-Omer hurdle is fostering the willingness and ability to keep going. One way to bolster ourselves is to make space to process what has already happened, and the obstacles we’ve already climbed over.  

The song “16 CARRIAGES” by Beyoncé encapsulates this, as she sings about the stages of her career and the literal journeys she’s taken along the entire decades-long challenge of a successful career. Another song touching on this is “Butterside Down” by The Snuts, which is about persevering when life makes us drop our proverbial toast “butter side down.”   

When we move past processing, we need continuous reminders to inspire us on our journeys, wherever we’re hoping they lead. 

Listening to songs like “Just Hold On” by Louis Tomlinson and Steve Aoki provide that inspiration to keep going. Additionally, “omw” by Ashe (which stands for “on my way”) speaks about enjoying the path and feeling confident that it will lead to success.  

One surprising choice for Netzach is “Sway” by Kacey Musgraves. It’s about hoping to reach a place in life where she can go with the flow. Kacey Musgraves aspires for inner peace; what do you aspire to?

Ambition and Success

Before we reach success, we use ambition to drive us onward. Imagine we are the Israelites who have left Egypt and are traveling toward Mount Sinai to receive God’s word, as we count the days toward Shavuot when we recall receiving the TorahRefers to the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, the Tanakh, also called the Five Books of Moses, Pentateuch or the Hebrew equivalent, Humash. This is also called the Written Torah. The term may also refer to teachings that expound on Jewish tradition.. The Israelites have all of the ambitions of a recently freed people, and the promise of a Divine guide toward success. 

This element of Netzach has multiple mini-collections of songs, as they hone in on a point. This music helps us understand the many varieties of finding our ambition, various types of success, and ways to celebrate achievement. 

There are songs about self-sustaining ambition and endurance, such as “Good Luck, Kid” by JOSEPH, “You’re On Your Own, Kid” by Taylor Swift, and “You’re Gonna Go Far” by Noah Kahan. These songs speak to utilizing endurance and confidence to define our personal ambitions and travel toward achieving them. 

There is a trend of songs about going after what you want: “THATS WHAT I WANT” by Lil Nas X, “What I Want” by MUNA, “Want Want” by Maggie Rogers, and “All” by GROUPLOVE, which contains the lyric “I want it all right now.”  

Songs about success as well as songs from the TV show Succession make up a collection. This also includes the title track from the movie The Greatest Showman, “The Greatest Show” (covered by Panic! At The Disco), which is about living out your dreams. 

Lastly, there is music about winning and being champions: “All I Do Is Win” by DJ Khaled (and co), “Champion” by Ru Paul, “CHAMPION” by Bishop Briggs, “We Are The Champions” by Queen, and “The Winner Takes It All” by ABBA.

We use these songs as inspiration for what to aspire to, and the soundtrack to our own celebrations when we achieve our personal victories, whatever they may be.

Confidence

Confidence stands on its own as an element of Netzach because the endurance we need and the success we aim for both require confidence. It’s cyclical; we boost our confidence, energizing and infusing ourselves with the endurance needed to persist. Then we are able to articulate our ambitions, confidently succeed, and celebrate that success with confidence.

There are songs with confidence in the title, and then there are confidence-boosting anthems. “Her” by Megan Thee Stallion and “I’M THAT GIRL” by Beyoncé are both, as you may have guessed from their titles, about being that girl, being noticed. You may not want that attention in reality, but vibing along to music expressing intense self-confidence is sure to rub off on anyone. 

“Float” by Janelle Monae is the song to play whenever you need confidence to enter a room, to take up space, to freely be yourself. It ends with a toast, “to the lives we lead, the dreams we chase, the moments we make …” 

May we all be inspired by the Netzach Playlist and our introspection this week to endure, persist, aspire, and achieve.