haYom sh’mona yomim, sh’heim shavua echad v’yom echad, laOmer: chesed she b’gevurah

” a Torah scholar must learn 3 things: writing, ritual slaughter, and circumcision”

so we learn in Talmud, Hullin 9a, that a wise scholar, a talmid hakham, must be not only a rabbi, but also a sofer, a shochet, and a mohel. the wise must master both pen and sword. as he wields the pen, the talmid may but incisive, cutting in distinctions with understandings. creating worlds of severity as easily as words of gentleness. we in the west hold that the pen is mightier than the sword, that the power of words is so great that it can bring about cessation of war. mere words, no matter how old, in something like the US Constitution, can control the actions of the most mighty military on the planet currently.

so it is in Torah. you must offer words of peace before you besiege or sack a city (Deuteronomy 20:10-12; Leviticus 7:11). the ways of Torah are pleasant and all its paths peace.

consider the parallel but somewhat different way of bushido, requiring the samurai to be proficient at both pen and sword, anchoring them most memorably in the death poem that would be written immediately before the ritual self-disemboweling of seppuku. a striking 14th century example from Shiaku Nyudo:

“holding forth this sword/ i cut vacuity in twain;/ in the midst of the great fire,/ a stream of refreshing breeze.”

but i cannot imagine the prophet Jeremiah, in whose bones burned the Word of G’d (20:9), taking up a sword to release the great fire within him. instead he opened his mouth and spoke forth in gevurah, pointing out that Israel had sinned its way into its sorry state, but giving also the balm of promised deliverance.

in the wielding of the sword of the shochet, the word comes first in blessing. the killing of animals for food and for sacrifices is a divine compromise with the bloodlust of humankind from the time of Noach. we are all gevurah in our desire for meat.

we are all chesed, however, in the rules of slaughter. the knife must kill with a single carefully placed and swiftly drawn stroke. the blade used must be minutely inspected for nicks and other irregularites before use and AGAIN immediately afterward. the slightest flaw is thought to be able to give pain to the animal being killed. if flaw is found after the cut, the carcass is rendered treif, ‘torn’ and not kosher for consumption by jews. such carcasses will instead be sold to nonjews, unless, of course, they are following the same stringent guidelines.

the injection of chesed into gevurah makes us careful molders of our moral world (with physical effects in the case of slaughter). we are locked into the interplay between the two. even if we elect not to eat meat, kosher or otherwise, we require kosher parchment for mezuzot and Torah scrolls, and kosher leather for t’fillin. the emergence of eco-kashrut adds yet another set of considerations into our moments of gevurah, of stern consumption and taking; a chesed, loving-kindness, for the environment on a larger scale than that of the intimacy of shochet and animal. every bit of consumption we do, all of which is the product of consuming selection, measurement, technological repurposing, and a taking, must come under strictures of caring for what is consumed.

chesed in gevurah is symbolized beautifully in the touch of circumcision, a cutting that is the seal-making of covenant. it is the sword made into a pen to mark the covenantal agreement in each generation. seppuku of foreskin.

mussar for chesed she b’gevurah

chesed -gevurah with another….bein adam l’chaveiro the Rabbis teach that the court that sentences any to death more than once in 70 years is cruel, yet the death penalty is not forbidden. it is the way it is used–more importantly–the merciful (chesed) seeking of ways not impose it that matters. we learn that ‘cruel and unusual punishment’ is forbidden through the standard of loving your neighbor as yourself. painless as you would want your own death should be the death of another….if die anyone must. when you feel wronged, you are exercising gevurah, but G’d decided at the time of Creations that the world could not survive in strong justice alone. extend forgiveness to one who has hurt or offended you today.

chesed-gevurah with yourself….bein adam l’atzmo our everyday actions have effects beyond what we anticipate, and the direction of those effects can be either good or bad. when you take a decision, any decision, you are exercising the power of your judgment, your spirit in gevurah. are you being careful to decide with both good and bad unexpected consequences in mind? consider carefully how people may view your actions, for nothing you do has effect only on you. seek to act in the world today in ways that will be kiddush haShem, that is, that will project the holiness of the Name of G’d into the minds of those around you.

kabbalah for chesed she b’gevurah

in assiyah….the world of doing/completion most of you are returning to eating chametz after the constraint of matzah for the last week. you are now free and you may enjoy the taste of freedom. but lessons learned through restraint during Passover should linger thereafter. meditate on the ways restraint should work to mold freedom….and savor both the blessing and the taste of that first piece!

in yetzirah….the world of feeling/formation in the aleinu prayer, we refer to G’d as ‘yotzer breishit‘, the former of Creation. this suggest not a momentary blast of power, but a contemplative manipulation of the stuff of creation. we create ourselves by way of manipulating our own feelings, modulating between decision making, and letting decisions be made for us. contemplate on when you have exercised your own power in forcing a decision. have you ever felt better after not taking a decision that you once thought unavoidable?

in b’riyah….the world of thought/creation the famous house of Shammai was said to be always very strict in assessing halachah. the house of Hillel was said to have been more liberal in its decisions on how we should behave. yet we are told that both opinions are correct, both left and right of the tree are correct. study some Torah and then imagine a strict way of interpretation and a liberal way. meditate on how you will bring both to bear in your own thoughts and actions.

in atzilut….the world of nearness to G’d/intuition “kol haneshamah tehallel y-h, halleluyah” how do you hallel, praise G’d now? do you quietly mouth the words in the siddur, relying on silence to carry you message? do you sing out loud to push your words heavenward? do you shout the primal holler? cry tears that flow to G’d? try a method today that is not your usual way. try one that your sense of decorum does not allow usually, and learn from it.

kinyan 8 of 48 ways to acquire Torah

Taharah….Purity. Rambam teaches (Moreh Nevuchim) that we are where our mind is. if we are thinking G’dly thoughts, we are closer to him than when we are dreaming of material pleasures….or planning our next consumer purchase. the mind is where we both glean words of Torah and develop teachings. it will only be as ritually fit for that purpose as we keep it so. we wear tzitzit to keep from following our eyes into paths of thought that are unworthy, let alone to keep from acting in ways that are hillul haShem (profanation of the Name of G’d).

“those who love a pure heart and are gracious in speech will have the King as a friend”

(Proverbs 22:11)

how important is it to keep loading our brain with the good? consider the story told by the followers of Kotzk:

once a person came up to the Kotzker Rebbe saying that his prayers are always interrupted by ‘foreign thoughts.’ the Kotzker Rebbe turned in surprise and said plainly, ‘foreign thoughts? they are not foreign. they are your own!

hayom shiv’a yomim, sh’heim shavua echad, laOmer: malchut she b’chesed

CHEVREI: quick note to point out that we count now by days and weeks. we have tallied the first week with tonight’s counting! baruch haShem. for cbs’ers, we will not meet this sunday….there’s no room at the inn! chag sameach and shabbat shalom….r’av yo

“for from You is all, and from Your hand we have given to You”

David haMelech, who exemplifies rectified malchut (‘sovereignty’) points this out in 1 Chronicles 29:14. we see immediately that even the great king has nought which to give save that which is given him by G’d. in malchut the left-side sefirot flow most keenly to create a ‘negative’ space (not a downer space!), a receiving space, which the giving flow of the right-hand sefirot promptly fills. and what of the middle road down the tree through tiferet and yesod? well, self-consciousness, a balanced and rectified awareness is the marker of the middle path in the decidedly female directed malchut.

so we see in malchut she b’chesed the work of the left-side in creating the cleared path that is needed to walk with G’d, and the work of the right-side in naturally flowing in that cleared path with a rush of goodness, and the balanced, steady harmony of the middle flow elevating the clearing and filling into wholeness.

malchut in chesed is full ripeness of chesed, channeled now as it must be, but flowing freely in a position of power, operative in the wholeness of harmony in sovereignity. wow. that was a sentence, eh?

what it means for us in the count today is that we have achieved a week of the count. why is that significant? because the mitzvah is to count the weeks complete, that is, whole. shalem, shalom. entire. and because we are blessed this year with a special calendar alignment of the shabbat with the counting of the weeks, we will all be welcoming malchut as the sabbath bride herself. it is a perfect, complete week. baruch haShem. shabbat oneg (joy) and shabbat menuchah (contentment) rule in chesed this week. make this a giving, ripe shabbat for all around you. rule your shabbat with wave-rolling, righteous-aware loving-kindness, and bring it out of shabbat with you when you re-enter the coming week, for the count continues on the other side in the sefirah of gevurah.

mussar for malchut she b’chesed

malchut-chesed with another….bein adam l’chaveiro what would a regal but giving malchut be? perhaps one who would not begin shabbat rest without designating a certain act of loving kindness to run out from shabbat into the week. perhaps a special set aside of tzedakah to be delivered after shabbat? the JUF is at cbs this sunday, i believe…an opportunity, perhaps. or maybe an organizing of time in the coming week…to spruce up the cbs section of the cemetary? wrangling the efforts of others to do chesed shel emet?

malchut-chesed with yourself….bein adam l’atzmo during the week of the song of the sea, we frequently the story of nachman ben aminadav, who took the first leap (the very meaning of ‘pesach’ after all is leap, not “pass”, but leapover) into the void created by the pulled-back waters. there is chesed shel emet, for only with a perfect faith could nachman have known that he would even survive the step! be a nachman! take a leap and risk drowning in your shabbat rest this week. just do it!

kabbalah for malchut she b’chesed

in assiyah….the world of doing/completion on shabbat, of course, the completion rules and the doing eases into deliberately limited classes. Deuteronomy teaches us something important about the ruler that the People will elevate: “when the ruler is seated on the royal throne, the ruler shall have a copy of this Torah written for the ruler alone on a scroll …let it remain with the ruler and let the ruler read in it throughout life, so that the ruler may learn to revere G’d…” study Torah this shabbat as though your understanding of it would set the standard for the kingdom, and know that your own lifestyle would be the model for all around you. are you a worthy ruler?

in yetzirah….the world of feeling/formation G’d is Melech haOlam. this shabbat you are in malchut of your locus in the universe. you are struck in the image of royalty, right? well, enjoy being a daughter or son of the royal family today. you have unique access to the melech haolam, delight in it….nap the nap of a queen, eat with the hearty lust of a king….and feel the possibility of whole (and wholesome) power of the divine within you.

in b’riyah….the world of thought/creation a royal can decree things. your domain this day is shabbat, so issue an edict that a new blessing is to be said. write a blessing, or a psalm as did David haMelech…he wrote well more than a hundred! but he started with just 1.

in atzilut….the world of nearness to G’d/intuition malchut is a receptacle to be filled and overfilled so as to share the bounty with all the People. “You prepare a table for me in the midst of my adversity and moisten my head with oil. surely my cup is overflowing and goodness and kindness will follow me all the days of my life. and in the long days beyond, i will always live within You house.” G’d’s house here on earth is shabbat, so meditate on letting the wholeness of shabbat overflow into your weekday life….to always live in G’d’s house.

kinyan 7 of 48 ways to acquire Torah

Simcha….just plain Joy. acquire the Torah in Psalm 5:12…and be embraced by joy:

“but as for me–bathed in Your encircling kindness i enter your house, bow myself down before Your Presence in awe and wonder…then all who put their trust in You will rejoice….will shout out their joy in your protection…will exult in You all who love Your unsayableness. for You bless the faithful, circling around them round like a shield.”

haYom shisha yomim laOmer: yesod she b’chesed

“who is like You? glorious in holiness, awesome in praises, doing wonders?”

it is on the 7th day of passover that the Israelites found themselves between the sea and the army of pharaoh. G’d acted profoundly on the part of the People, splitting the waters of the sea to allow passage for the Israelites, and then sending the waters crashing down again on the army of pharaoh, destroying them utterly. at this moment, the People Israel knew that a new relationship had most certainly been established…a new yesod, ‘foundation’ established for a holy relationship between the two.

among sefardim, this day is known is known as Yom Vayyosha, ‘the day of the song of the sea’. aside from the song that we know in Torah, there is a ladino tune, Ketuba del Seten Dia de Pesah, or ‘Ketubah for the 7th Day of Passover,’ for this day is said to be day on which a marriage between the People and G’d was made. something foundational was established that day when the People broke out into spontaneous song at the awesome wonder of G’d who had just saved them from certain annihilation.

yesod is the sefirah of foundation. it is also the seat of sexual energy in the tree. and there is something very, very sexy in the intoxication of that 7th-day consummation. the incident at the sea produced an intimacy between the People and G’d that had not sprung from the plagues, had not sprung from Moshe’s return and proclamation of the immanent end of slavery, and had not sprung even from the beginning of the exodus from the land of Goshen. it was only in the exclusivity of the chesed shown in the division of the waters that the People came to know the Love that G’d held for them….a love once again as intimate and immediate as that between G’d and Avraham Avinu at the beginning of the jewish journey.

crossing the seabed was the ‘passover’, the pesach, the ‘leap’ from mitzrayim to “outside mitzrayim,” a going forth from the existence the People had been born into to a new life in which they would have to rely on their bound partner. just as one steps away one’s parents and family upon marriage, so does yesod in chesed urge us to consider founding and securing something new and awesome in love with our mate and with G’d. in judaism, marriage is associated with holiness. and the creative energy of sexuality is foundational for each couple in their marriage.

intimacy in love, the cleaving of mate with mate, is the closest our embodied spirits will get to the cleaving to G’d that we are urged to do. yesod is the strong foundation upon which the necessary mutual trust in love is built. yesod in chesed is enduring certainty in love.

mussar for yesod she b’chesed

yesod-chesed with another….bein adam l’chaveiro what happens in a relationship when chemistry moves into intimate contact? when interest becomes closeness? when separate souls cleave in married love? in the deep love of friendship? find a way to show how deep is your love for another today. do something that gets at the foundation of that love you share.

yesod-chesed with yourself….bein adam l’atzmo we all feel cornered sometimes. are you sometimes surprised by the parting of the waters that you fear will drown you? do you trust enough in G’d to open yourself up to faith? pray for an opening to the Holy One today….feel embraced.

kabbalah for yesod she b’chesed

in assiyah….the world of doing/completion one can only lead a life of chesed from a strong foundation. you need to feel a little secure in order to share deeply with others. the nefesh, the indwelling soul, is created uniquely for you and is your companion for life (and beyond). try to sense the nefesh of another today; then settle in your own indwelling soul and do some small kindness for the soul you find in the other.

in yetzirah….the world of feeling/formation sexual energy is profoundly creative. but we all know that therein lies the potential for destruction as well. the life and death situation that faced the People deepened their faith profoundly. contemplate how you can use your sexual energy in ways that build holiness….what would it be to so secure in the foundation of your relationship that you could know or know again a holy lust?

in b’riyah….the world of thought/creation we say in the blessing before Torah study ‘la’asok b’Torah’, ie, to transact with Torah. but ayin-samekh-kuf has a slang meaning of have an ‘affair’. meditate on your marriage to Torah (Shavuot is coming!) but also contemplative the possible offspring of your affair with Torah….

in atzilut….the world of nearness to G’d/intuition we have spoken of the need for an abiding faith, a steadfast, enduring trust in G’d….a faith that withstands slings and arrows of what seems like fortune, but is, as we must ultimate recognize, all G’dsend. ahavah and echad have the same value in standard gematria, which means that the Shema is telling us that G’d is love is the same as G’d is one. “Know this day, and lay it to your heart, that G’d is G’d in heaven above and upon earth beneath; there is none else” (Deuteronomy 4:39). meditate on the steadfastness of G’d’s love in both the good and the bad, for it is all one.

kinyan 6 of 48 ways to acquire Torah

Eimah… Being Awestruck. r’ chaim volozhin points out that G’d only resides in the 4 amot of halacha, hence, when studying Torah one should be in a state of awe not unlike that felt by the high priest on Yom Kippur. in yeshiva, we were urged to consider, whenever we would stray into some small idle talk, or daydream late in the day of study, whether we felt that G’d, who is sitting and studying with us after all, appreciated our ease in breaking off from study. what can one possibly reply, save to immediately re-busy ourselves in the text? being awestruck can be everyday when your worldview truly acknowledges how close G’d is to us in all our activities….and how much more so when we study. r’ avraham yehoshua heschel reminds us that “the question, ‘where shall wisdom be found?‘ is answered by the psalmist: “the awe of G’d is the beginning of wisdom.” so, you see, being awestruck is a powerful kinyan not only to the study of Torah, but also to the application of Torah!

haYom chamisha yomim laOmer: hod she b’chesed

like a fragrant apricot tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved

this verse from Song of Songs is said to speak of the humble person, someone seeming small but splendid, amidst the ubiquitous climax forest trees. judaism has a special relationship with trees that is rather unique in the ancient world, for rather than worshipping tall and mighty trees, the jews favored the apricot, the almond, the olive…all of them small, all of them fruit bearing, all of them fragrant in bloom. and this may help us understand how the sefirah of hod can represent both humility and also splendor….and ultimately, gratitude (‘hodu’ is the hebrew word for ‘thanks’, after all).

no soul trait is more valued in jewish teaching than anavut, ‘humility.’ for the humble person is above all always grateful for what he/she has–and this is more important–the humble person knows from the core that there are others in the universe, and that the earth is not theirs, but rather belongs to the Holy One, blessed be.

we wonder at the beauty and the fragrance of the humble blossom, each destined to last but a short time, but whose ultimte effect in the world is, well, the continuance of the world! existence itself depends on those blossoms and the intoxicating affects they have on pollinators and the rest of us…feeding first the bees and later, through the fruits that grow out of them, the rest of us.

Torah tells us that Moshe was “very humble, more that any man who was on the face of the earth,” yet there was in fact one even more humble still. Moshe’s job prevented him from being the clear paragon of humility he could otherwise have been…leading the People required he be huge in presence, his face veiled to conceal the gleam that the face-to-face presence of G’d had left as a permanent residue on his face. and because hod in chesed points to the splendor of varied interrelationships, you will not be surprised whose humility surpassed the of Moshe…though unmentioned. hod is the sefirah of Aharon, Moshe’s brother, the one who G’d knew would “rejoice in his heart” (Exodus 4:14) that his younger brother would be the earthly leader of the redemption of the People. think about that. how many other cases of the younger brother not struggling with the elder do we see before this? hod in chesed is love without competition….speak for me, Aharon, and Aharon did…take my staff and initiate this plague…and he did….it was Aharon who pleaded with Moshe to pray for their sister’s healing. quiet chesed.

Moshe knew this as we see in the test of Korach and crew. Moshe specifically set the test to be the bringing of ketoret (incense) and to bring staffs to see which would blossom. well, the fragrant ketoret was the exclusive domain of Aharon….when there was plague in the People, Aharon was called upon to bring the curative fragrance. only he could bring incense after the inauguration of the Mishkan (not even his sons Nadav & Avihu could bring it without his bidding). and whose staff blossomed and then brought forth fruit? yep, the staff of Aharon. it was not Moshe’s victory over Korach, but rather Aharon’s! and the ultimate sign? the perpetual blossoming almond branch. the blossoms’ fragrance a perpetual bringer of joy, scent being the symbol of the soul inside the body…the great spiritual sense of humankind.

we are told to model ourselves after Aharon–the peacemaker, master of hod in chesed, Baal haAnavut–and not after Moshe Rabbeinu! oh, and what do the Rabbis teach will be the most prominent physical characteristic of Moshiach?– “a splendid fragrance.”

mussar for hod she b’chesed

hod-chesed with another….bein adam l’chaveiro buy a friend, a lover…anyone who is your better half in some way… some flowers (or pick some!) and make clear to them that you are simply not complete without them.

hod-chesed with yourself….bein adam l’atzmo ‘so just call on me, brother, when you need a hand, we all need somebody to lean on…i might just have a problem that you’d understand…we all need somebody to lean on.’ put aside your ego and ask someone for help.

kabbalah for hod she b’chesed

we have a special mitzvah that will take us from assiyah through atzilut….and even higher! a great rectification! it is Nisan, and in this month, we have a special mitzvah beyond the normal passover matzah (that you’ve had up to here by now, i know). it is a great hiddur to say the blessing on the first flowering of the fruit trees in Nisan….and this year we have blossoms at just the right time! baruch haShem

go out today and find 2 or more flowering fruit trees (or an orchard if you have one nearby) so that you can recite the Birkat haIlanot. it goes like this:

Blessed are You, haShem, Master of the universe, for G’d left nothing lacking in G’d’s universe, and created in it good creatures and good trees, giving pleasure through them to the children of Adam.

ok, you say, so i see how this is in the world of doing, assiyah, and in the realm of physical creation. but how do we get to atzilut and beyond? easy peasy! Arizal taught that certain souls reincarnate into vegetation, especially into trees. we can release these souls by saying the birkat haIlanot! it is, therefore, considered a great act of chesed to say this particular blessing, for such entrapped neshamot cannot be elevated without our help. doing this mitzvah is said to hasten the coming of the messianic times, for the new jerusalem will be built due to brotherly love without competition, facilitate by the simple kindness of recognizing the importance of the lowly blossom.

kinyan 5 of 48 ways to acquire Torah

Anavut….Humility well, that’s convenient, eh? Rav Kook teaches that true humility can only be had by one with righteous self-esteem. not ego and audacity, but the recognition of your true spirtual position in the world. you are created in the image of G’d, and you are expected “to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your G’d.” each soul must be of some real worth if that is the expectation. recognizing that you are born to walk with G’d should build everyone’s self-esteem, but knowing that all of your fellows are likewise should keep you from thinking yourself better. Rabbi Bunam nimbly teaches: “only the humble are able to comprehend the highness of G’d. we read (Psalms 138:6) ‘G’d is high, and the lowly see it.’

haYom arba’a yomim laOmer: netzach she b’chesed

“from the diligence of Haman learn to do with enthusiasm the will of Mordechai”

americans like their victories to be decisive and one-sided, it seems….so do Jews (american or otherwise) though our preferred mode seems to be snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. and that is because our enemies have a knack for being implacable and monomaniacal. what the Besht is urging here is that we actually learn a little netzach (endurance, diligence, ambition, or victory) lesson from our persistent foes. as intent on destruction as they are, so should we be intent on chesed.

netzach veers back to the right side of the etz chaim and aligns under chesed, so the distance between chesed and netzach is already short on the sefirotic tree. but we arrive at netzach (victory) by way of tiferet (balance, compassion), and that will be important to remember. think for a second about what all the martial arts teach about centeredness before redirecting action and you will see the parallel clearly. after all, aikido is sometimes translated as the “way of the harmonious spirit.”

as Matisyahu sings, we are all “warriors fighting for [our] souls,” and we do that battle by way of netzach. we’ve already said that the beauty of tiferet is in being ready–the victory in netzach is in being steady. we mentioned in the discussion of chesed already that there is a necessary aspect of ongoingness in doing chesed….that one-off acts of kindness are lesser than sustaining ones. well, bolstered by endurance in netzach our chesed practice can be what Morinis calls “generous sustaining benevolence.”

the ambition aspect of netzach also adds a note of forward motion to the mix. something like netzach ambition, steadiness and drive made Moshe Rabbeinu what he was. we know that he did not begin in confident striding toward his role as the on-the-ground (’embedded” if you will) spokesagent for G’d’s power of redemption. he drove himself into and through the role of leader of the People, relying on that same endurance, tolerance, and abiding faith to cajole G’d into continuing the freedom march of the Israelites even when their own powers of steadiness, ambition, endurance and abiding faith flagged again and again and again. the persistence of his chesed toward Israel truly faltered only once….and it cost Moshe his share in the simple reward of passing over into the Land of Promise. his was a great act of chesed shel emet, true kindness without personal reward….and all via netzach in chesed.

mussar for netzach she b’chesed

netzach-chesed with another….bein adam l’chaveiro do something memorable and sustaining for your people–your family, your friends, maybe your students or others who look to you for important guidance.

netzach-chesed with yourself….bein adam l’atzmo do you remember the core lessons that shaped you? that you needed more than one iteration to take to heart? do you remember the persistent, enduring, persevering work that teachers, friends, family and especially parents did (may still do) for you? now, what do you say? if you can, do.

kabbalah for netzach she b’chesed

in assiyah….the world of doing/completion we are taught “righteousness, righteousness, shall you pursue” (Deuteronomy 16:20). the word for pursue is the same as that used for hunting someone down. it is not enough to sit back and agree that righteousness is a good thing. get out there and volunteer, or protest, or counterprotest…but get out there and participater persistently in a movement intending chesed…get that couch potato, indwelling nefesh out there! random acts of kindness are not netzach in chesed!

in yetzirah….the world of feeling/formation we are all tested in life. Avraham Avinu, the master of chesed, was tested sorely 10 times….and in none of them was his mastery of chesed itself tested! it was his strength in chesed that bore him up as he worked through each test. that is the way: you will be tested in your weaknesses that you may rectify them…your job is to pull up those sparks. use netzach in chesed to do the good work you’ve intended to do by visualizing yourself leading a stiff-necked person…yourself!

in b’riyah….the world of thought/creation you are heir to the enduring physical and spiritual struggles of a small but mighty People. we are loved by G’d’s everlasting love–now, what are you going to do with that constant divine flow? energy wants to be used in the world. meditate on your warriorship, both for your own soul way and for the generation of souls in which you have grown up.

in atzilut….the world of nearness to G’d/intuition the word ‘olam‘ has both the sense of eternal and the sense of hidden. deep within each of us is a faith…that may be more or less hidden. meditate on how you can nuture that faith…almost an instinct…and abide in it, turning away the easy, comfortable blandishments of a secular culture. is matzah just in the eating? or does it mark something much greater?

kinyan 4 of 48 ways to acquire Torah

Sichlut haLev….Living with a Perceptive Heart Yaakov said “surely G’d is in this place, and i, i didn’t know it.” the way of Sichlut haLev is the way of Yaakov, the way of Avraham, the way of Yitzchak. they all 3 answered a call from G’d, as did Moshe…..but as also did Aharon. did Aharon get a call from an angel? did he dream a ladder? did he answer from the altar? no, his call came simply in seeing the return of his brother Moshe, who revealed what was to be done. Aharon persisted without a direct dream or vision for the longest time! he perceived the voice of G’d acting in Moshe, and that was all it took. the perceptive heart will intuit more and more meaning from Torah as it is used. aerobic conditioning is not the only cardio work you should be doing: train yourself a heart of wisdom by bringing it to Torah learning in every encounter. your endurance for study will grow, and your understandings will multiply.

haYom sh’losha yomim laOmer: tiferet she b’chesed

“Father of Compassion, favor Zion with your goodness”

think about it. at the beginning of the Torah reading service on shabbat morning we exultantly say “who is like You?” and then ” You are master, You were master, You will be master for eternity…G’d will give Israel strength…and bless his People with peace” and then suddenly the niggun gets darker, almost pleading “av harachamim…”

but wait. this sounds like a petitionary prayer….on shabbat? nu?

if ever known in your life, if even once, you know why compassion is so important that we crave it even during the otherwise peace and contentment of shabbat. for the sefirah of tiferet, ‘compassion, harmony, balance, beauty’ is on the mainline from haShem, the first full station stop in the central trunk of the tree. tiferet is the sure-footed balancing of chesed and gevurah, neither too free nor too tight, but just right.

the hebrew rachamim is powerfully associated with death in many prayers…the kel molei rachamim….the full av harachamim….compassion is what one needs in hard times when the tendency is too easily to go gevurah (why did this one have to die? it isn’t fair), or too easily toward the loving-kind (it is a terrible thing…i know exactly how you feel…i lost my uncle bernie when i was 6…). the prayer for compassion is a prayer for return to harmony in life.

if ever balanced, if ever truly living compassion toward others, you will ever strive to get back to it when you tilt to extremes…..we know center when we feel it. and we know the divine in ourselves when feel empathy for the situation of another AND also know just what to do…not too soft…not too hard…just right. not too much good inclination, and not too much bad inclination.

the kabbalists teach that the central sefirot tend ever so slightly toward the right-side of the tree, a gravitational sort of attraction, so tiferet naturally ranges toward chesed. but the tending has no fixed point, so maybe it is more like the probability function….a region closer to chesed in which compassion is likely to be found.

and that feeds into another important aspect of tiferet: the readiness is all. to be compassionate, one must be ready to do what is needed in the situation. sometimes, as when visiting the sick, it is to speak and give cheer; other times, as when visiting the mourner, it may be to sit in silence. the compassionate jew is one who is ready and nimble.

mussar for tiferet she b’chesed

tiferet-chesed with another….bein adam l’chaveiro visit the sick with a smile. smile upon the well. “greet every human with a cheerful and pleasant countenance” (Pirkei Avot 1:15), for it is the basic compassion.

tiferet-chesed with yourself…bein adam l’atzmo this week we are all foregoing chametz as a matter of mitzvah and religious practice. but as a special practice today, forego something else in empathy with others who simply don’t have.

kabbalah for tiferet she b’chesed

in assiyah….the world of doing/complation these days, we take something like pride in being multi-taskers. but research is beginning to show that multi-tasking is too often a matter of shortchanging everything…it is not necessarily more productive. we end up astounded that we finish everything….but what if i asked you to be compassionate in all the many things you are doing? would that interfering with the “getting things done”? consider which should matter more….and be sure you multi-task something just for you into your routine today….to keep yourself balanced, for from there you can extend harmony outward.

in yetzirah….the world of feeling/formation worry is anathema to compassion. worry is by definition out of balance, and usually a cramping in gevurah. we parents give youngins timeouts to get things back in manageable range. why do we think it won’t work for us as well? go ahead, give yourself a timeout–you deserve it! meditate on the centrality of compassion in G’d, and see yourself as a potential piece of the expression of G’d’s compassion here in Creation. are you in harmony with creation?

in b’riyah….the world of thought/creation r’ kantrowitz teaches us that we sometimes know compassion best in our friendships. friends can observe flaws in each other and help correct them with compassion–and meet a compassionate response! this is the full beauty of tiferet in a way. so remember a time when you were a really good friend and knew exactly what to do and say because you were deeply empathetic in your feelings and hopes for your friend. now what would it take to extend that to others?

in atzilut….the world of nearness to G’d/intuition tiferet can be in the bond of mates in love making. it can be in the cooldown following exercise. chazal took time to prepare before prayer so as to be in tiferet before uttering a word….and they remained silent after prayer for a time to hold onto the compassion that had been given them through prayer. find your time for ‘afterglow’ and use it to instill balance from which you can live the rest of the day.

kinyan 3 of 48 ways to acquire Torah

Arichat S’fatayim….Speak-Teaching the Vilna Gaon would stress the learning of Mishlei (Proverbs) in his first year students at yeshiva specifically so that they would be able to go out and teach others. and he would require that they teach orally both in reading the text and in explaining it. speaking what you learn is the balance between learning on your own and being able to hear, truly hear what is being taught. hence, taught the Gaon, the learning of Mishlei brings forth 2 gifts: a gift of adam l’chaveiro when each student goes out to share and reteach what is learned, and a gift of G’d l’adam for the Holy One is inspired by the character improvements that the learning brings to the students and responds immediately from his rachamim to assist all who teach and all who study. the character improvements are a surefire way to awaken G’d’s compassion! So speak up and teach!

haYom shnei yomim laOmer: gevurah she b’chesed

“first a person should put his house together, then his town, then the world”

r’ salanter, father of modern mussar offers this advice, and it suggests the introduction of gevurah (‘judgment’) into the chesed (loving-kindness) in which we dwell every night of the count this week. we should see that there is no suggestion of cutting off chesed herein, but rather an ordering of it, an admission of judgment in it (of this, more next week when we practice interinclusions in gevurah all week).

instead of all love to all at all times, most of us are better adept as recognizing where and when and what is a better way for us to do tzedakah, to love chesed…in a way that is actually more efficient for us. now we aren’t looking at cost-effectiveness per se, though all of us have limits to our monetary ability to give, but rather at a spirit-effectiveness. some of us are gifted ourselves with bringing cheer to those in need, others are better at organizing charitable giving, still others are best giving time to teach, etc.

judgment in love is something adele probably should sing more of….else her songs are destined to be always sad.

but the real kernel that emerges out of gevurah she b’chesed is the character trait of achrayut, or ‘responsibility,’ which operates even in love…none of us, save the Holy One, has unlimited capacity for everlasting love. but we build spriritual responsibility only by practicing very careful judgment on how much limitation, how much restriction, how much reigning in we do. might have to come off cruise control, but there is no need to hit the brakes! gevurah brings shape to our chesed, so that we are like better behaved puppies…we are still always happy and full of love, but have learned that maybe jumping up on folks all the time isn’t best.

mussar for gevurah she b’chesed

gevurah-chesed with another….bein adam l’chavero remember that we are still in the sefirah of chesed…so how would you apply chesed to one for whom you just don’t care much for? someone who aggravates you, someone you just don’t get along with? too much gevurah and you just don’t deal with them…and that is not ok. parents: consider how you can better love your children with caring discipline. and all of us can follow the practice of reaching out to help one who troubles us…better yet, reach out to do something that an enemy needs.

gevurah-chesed with yourself….bein adam l’atzmo assess what you are good at. what are your best traits of action? what sorts of doing do you naturally vibrate with? find a way to accept the responsibility that you should be exercising your strengths in a responsible fashion for yourself…..but then ask yourself what am i if i only use my strengths for myself?

kabbalah for gevurah she b’chesed

in assiyah….the world of doing/completion many of us know people who are engaged in caring for elderly parents. it can be profoundly exhausting, and can easily drain energy away from caring for spouses, children, friends…and others outside the family circle entirely. particularly in the case of an elderly person suffering from dementia, doing chesed can sometimes simply be a chore. some time today meditating on how one carves time, sets up reasonable but necessary boundaries, shares caregiving responsibility. chart a better course of governing your love (either up or down). oh, and if you were gardening on day 1, feel free to weed a little on day 2.

in yetzirah….the world of feeling/formation parents especially need to consider how to bring structure to their childrens’ activities. how often do we encounter children who become whole and independent completely without some boundaries being set? but lovers can be the same way, so carried off with joy that responsibility is lost….how much more so in a marriage, wherein we may feel that the revery of love is washed away by the responsibility. practice governing today, racheting up love that is lean or lost, and stepping down the urge to throw restraint to the wind. what is the test token (remember the film inception?) that lets you know when you are dreaming in love and when you must ‘come back to earth?’

in b’riyah….the world of thought/creation gevurah can express itself not only in restraint, but also in simple discernment. sometimes i think that there is no more important spirit world and sefirah than a little gevurah in our beloved chesed in the places where we think and create. perhaps the sort of work that was so very right for us at 25 is less so–or not so–at 57. certainly your practice of judaism should have taken different paths over time. the spirit way of age 13 was not intended to last a lifetime (though the skills are!). ….meditate on your way in G’d now. what jewish ways, which practices, which emphases continue to stoke the love of G’d but recognize how far you have come in your creative thought about the holy?

in atzilut….the world of nearness to G’d/intuition among G’d’s great attributes is erech apayim, ‘being slow to anger.’ it is not that anger is absent for those created in the image of G’d, but that it is very well tempered. i often teach the way of the Koretzer rebbe who taught that he had mastered his anger, placing it in his pocket. when he had need of it, he could simply take it out. how many of us have the presence of mind to live with anger but to control it so very well? meditate on ‘being slow to anger’ until you see the chesed in it.

kinyan 2 of 48 ways to acquire Torah

Shmiat haOzen…Listening we wear tzitzit in order not to be distracted and led astray by our eyes. we are yet tempted by the bright, the fancy, the bigger…the badder….as hannibal lector famously points out “we begin by coveting that which we see everyday.” but the sparkly and brilliant often skips across the intellect without leaving much of a mark. interestingly, we have no such restraint on our hearing (at least not before the advent of the iPod) . indeed, crucial mitzvot like shofar, and hearing the reading of Torah rely on an unimpeded ear….one is called upon to remove the foreskin of the ear in order that we may listen clearly. the ‘central faith statement of the Jewish People’, the shema itself urges that we hear…..all the way into our hearts. G’d set the exodus in motion when he heard the cries of the People…not when he saw their work. so it is in the acquisition of Torah. reading it silently in the fashion of modern scholarship will never penetrate to the heart, but hearing it, listening to the words as well as engaging the mind to come to understand the meaning thereof is the way of grabbing the ‘good taking’ that G’d has revealed to us.

sefirat haOmer T-2: words, words, words

because T-1 is Pesach and Shabbat this year, baruch haShem, this is the last post before the onset of the count itself. we will all begin on saturday night, 7 april 2012 of the secular calendar, to count the Omer!

look for a now hidden post on the sefirah of the week, ie, chesed, and the interinclusion of the day, ie, chesed that is in chesed, to appear at 3 stars saturday night…..

you should notice that 3 menus have been added to the left under the header. in each of them, and in order, you will find a kavanah to be heartily said, the blessing for the mitzvah of sefirat haOmer, and the formulae for the phrasing of the counting itself. you can turn to them at any time that you wish to count. but rest assured that each day’s correct phrase for counting will be posted in the main area at around dusk each day….

why dusk? well, the jewish day begins with darkness as it was in the first days of Creation itself. so counting at night is a show of zerizut…a diligent, energetic eagerness to do a mitzvah at the first opportunity. “seek peace and pursue it” (Psalms 34:15) and “righteousness, righteousness, shall you pursue“(Devarim 16:20) show us that we should go after (stronger: ‘hunt down’) all mitzvot with energy; David haMelekh sums it up in Psalm 119:60:

“i hastened and did not delay to perform Your Mitzvot”

zerizut is zeal in time…alacrity…..why waste time when you could/should be doing a mitzvah? and what exactly is the excuse for not counting the Omer? we’ve all been counting since our toddlerhood. seriously, can you think of an easier mitzvah to do in its mechanical essence? we aren’t talkin differential equations, after all….so go bananas about sefirat haOmer…nightime come and me wan’ go count!

the mussar exercises and kabbalistic meditations, the foci in prayer and additional prayers for each day or week that will be offered in the walkinTorah posts can wait for any hour in the day. a more contemplative and unhurried pace is the proper walk for them…just as one runs to mitzvah, one can profitably saunter in meditation!

so next time we meet in the ether, b’ezrat haShem, we begin the jewish long count toward Sinai.

to be clear: don’t go lookin for a T-1 text here…after all, the text for T-1 is quite well established….and remember that the mitzvah on Passover itself is in the sipur, the telling. why with all that sipurring, we ought to be well warmed up for saturday night sefirring, don’t you think?

chag kasher v’sameach, v’shabbat shalom

sefirat haOmer T-3: one way or another, you’re gonna find you

2 ways of counting: days and then weeks and days. and 2 ways of making it count more: mussar and kabbalah. it’s not at all that they are divorced from each other, and we will be doing a bit of both over the course of the 49 days. but i thought we should know a tad more about why we are doing a bit of each.

the way of mussar

the mussar way is based on contemplative practices, actions mapped to each day. simply put, you do each spirit exercise in order to focus on and then clear away the accretions of habits, leanings, and just plain imbalances that prevent the inner light of your soul from shining forth. just as in mainstream kabbalah, the crucial understanding is that each of us is a soul yearning for the G’dly. hence it should be no surprise to any of us that major kabbalistic thinkers often are associated with the most powerful mussar texts….

and we are reminded of that today as it just happens to be the yahrtzeit of r’ yosef karo, master halachist and kabbalist who worked no small amount of mussar (derech eretz) into the weft of the warp he is best known for, the Shulchan Aruch.

there are a couple of touchstones for mussar in sefirat haOmer.

one springs from the Pirke Avot 6:6 where we learn that there are 48 kinyanei Torah, ie, 48 ways to acquire Torah. 48 is mighty close to 49, and the plan is to study 1 of the 48 each day of the counting, leaving the 49th day for review of the lot. we will touch on one of the kinyanim (or middot) each day.

the other approach stems from r’ elazar’s teaching, also in Avot, that the most important middah is a lev tov (a good heart), which has a gematria of 32. so on each of the first 32 days of sefirat haOmer we will dwell on actions that improve relations ben adam l’chavero (between person and person), using the last 17 days to do mitzvot ben adam l’makom (between man and G’d). those of you who remember lag b’omer, ie, the 33rd day of omer, will immediately see that it would correspond to the day on which the work changes from the human-human sphere to the human-divine sphere. a lot of you may also notice that this 2-part approach parallels the work of the Days of Awe, during which we set things right with people before we can finish the setting aright with G’d. we’ll try to honor this approach as well during the sefirah.

the way of kabbalah

the kabbalistic way is polymorphic, but focuses on a more purely mystical meditation or hitbonenut. we will try to relate each interincluded day (interinclusion is the all in one idea that each sefira comprises all the other sefirot within it) of the count to meditations rooted in the spiritual levels of the 4 worlds:

assiyah…the world of completion/doing associated with nefesh (the indwelling/resting soul)

yetzirah…the world of formation associated with ruach (the free will/turbulent soul)

b’riyah…the world of creation associated with neshamah (the renewable/breathing soul)

atzilut…the world of nearness to G’d associated with chayah (the life-force/living essence soul)

we will examine/contemplate on aspects of our existence that allow for the soul to shine forth and rise up through the levels of the worlds to get closer to our root in G’d. ideally, these contemplative exercises will dovetail into the mussar practices more days than not!

so that is the sheaf of mindblowing, soulglowing methods we will ripen into for each of our days, shredding the husks that confine us as we swell in soul…nurturing our individual hearts of wisdom….readying better selves for the receipt of Torah again in Shavuot.

sefirat haOmer T-4: reap, sow, reap…repeat

perhaps we should remember the agricultural roots of sefirat haOmer in Torah:

“and from the day on which you bring the sheaf [of measure ‘omer’] of elevation offering–the day after the sabbath [Pesach]–you shall count off 7 weeks. they must be complete: you must count until the day after the 7th week–50 days; then you shall bring an offering of new grain to G’d.” (Leviticus 23:15-16)

so we bring an elevation (or wave) offering of barley immediately after the holy day (day 1) of passover. barley is the first fruit of the grains of the Land of Israel, and the wave offering of it makes all the other produce of the new crop permitted for use by the People outside of the Temple.

we then count the omer till we arrive at a full 7 weeks. then we bring an offering of wheat (the 2 loaves) on the holy day of Shavuot, after which the rest of the new meal crop is permitted for use as offerings in the Temple.

1 sheaf of barley measuring 1 Omer of grain offered immediately after Passover day 1. hmmm. now when is that barley reaped so that it is ready in Jerusalem immediately after the Holy Day ? it was reaped on the day of the festival…and even on shabbat! (see Menachot 6 in the Mishnah)

how’s that as a proof for the importance of Omer?

so important that the 49 days following are named and counted by the measure of that single sheaf of barley. so important that the time of ripening of the life-or-death important wheat crop is counted off in the measure of that sheaf of barley. so important that the only specification as to when Shavuot occurs is by the count of the measure of that sheaf of barley. so important the to this day we still engrave headstones with a sheaf for the phrase in the kel mole rachamim “may he/she be bound up in the sheaf of eternal life.” and you thought that barley was just for making soup a little more hearty!

it is the Omer that makes the new year for the grain crop real for the People…before then they can use only the previous year’s grain….and that was probably getting a bit long in the tooth by then (so last year)…..and full of chametz. aha! how do you avoid chametz during passover? not just by careful watching of some of the grain from the previous year, but by using absolutely fresh, locally sourced barley from day 2 on.

now we know that chametz represents the wrongheadedness of pride and puffery. it is the symbol of our self-separation from G’d by seeing the entirety of Creation as only our view…as an extension of ourselves instead of as an extension out of G’d. we must flatten our exalted self-importance in Passover.

but the counting of the Omer comes to give us more, to take us from the bread of affliction to the joy of fresh soul in the harvest loaves of a renewed Creation. here is a kabbalistic ‘correspondence’ for all you kabbalistas: yetzirah is integral to both Passover and Shavuot. Passover is the festival of the exodus from mitzrayim. Shavuot is not only the festival of weeks and the festival of the giving of Torah (though baruch haShem it is those!), but also Chag haKatzir, the festival of reaping. think of the letters–add kuf to the scarcity of tzadee resh (tzr) and you have plenty; add yud to the narrowness of slavery in tzadee resh and you have freedom.

bring the yud of G’d’s Name to narrowness/scarcity and freedom follows;

bring the kuf of G’d’s Holiness to narrowness/scarcity and bounty follows.

it is in the counting of the Omer that we will free ourselves, with G’d’s help, from our spiritual constraints. it is in the counting of the Omer that we will go, with G’d’s help, from scarcity to bountiful harvest of the spirit.

and it is in the counting of the Omer that we will go from broken matzah to the plenty of 2 complete loaves.