Tag Archives for netzach

haYom sh’monah asar yom, sh’heim sh’nei shavuot v’arba’ah yomim, laOmer: netzach she b’tiferet

“there is no light as brilliant as that light that emerges from out of the darkness”

the Holy Zohar (vol 3, folio 47b) brings this teaching to illustrate the importance of challenging the obstacles that face all of us in rectifying our spiritual traits and in learning to walk more humbly with G’d. essentially, the more difficult the obstacle overcome, the more powerful the rectification…..it is the effort that matters and not simply the achievement (see Avot 5:26). the example given is none other that the power of G’d, who brought light to the tohu v’bohu, bringing it out of utter darkness and absence of light.

r’ Tarfon offers a variation on the theme of struggle, also in Pirkei Avot (2:20): “yours is not to finish the task, yet neither are you free to desist from it.”  it is the effort that matters most…..always walking humbly, never ceasing from the great task of doing the Way to repair the world.

netzach in tiferet is the courage to fight the good fight for compassion and the beauty it brings in truth. it is NOT easy to be compassionate to all always. anyone can find a situation or person or circumstance that is so personally revolting that we must struggle mightily to overcome loathing in order to do the compassionate good. i will never forget the scene in the film ‘Ben Hur’ in which Judah finally resolves to go deep into the dank, close cave in the valley of lepers to rescue his sister, going from disease-ridden, curtained shelter to shelter, viewing countless suffering in eaten away flesh and despair, and ultimately putting himself in direct contact with his nearly dead sister by lifting her and carrying her out of the cave. netzach came to me right then and there.

in netzach we channel our desire to risk-taking to rip off the husks that conceal the still burning embers of Divine Light. the compassion is all the greater for the force that must be brought to bear to make it happen in the world.

but few of us will face the valley of the lepers. most of us will have to battle a far more insidious enemy to strive to bring tiferet to all our waking moments: the world of distraction, convenience, conventional thinking, indolence, listlessness, ennui, inertia and habit. habit is the great enemy, for it is mindlessness reminding itself only of itself in an endless feedback loop of unthinking regularity and familiarity.

compassion withers in the face of this sort of wasting away to what is less than your soul-self. doing compassion takes effort and time. it is inconvenient almost always. it has to get in your way, get in your face. netzach is the courage of your compassion. the resolve to stay balanced, to persist,  and to make harmony where none is yet found. it is steel in the magnolia.

mussar for netzach she b’tiferet

netzach-tiferet with another….bein adam l’chaveiro    we love to argue, don’t we? try to find the truth (the tiferet) in opposing opinions within your familiy or with a friend or acquaintance.  s0metimes the compromise reached is its own new truth.

netzach-tiferet with yourself….bein adam l’atzmo    bring to mind 2 mitzvot: 1 that you already do, and 1 that you know you should do but dont. analyze the 1 you already do and understand why you do it. can you bring that understanding and make it bear upon the mitzvah you don’t yet do?  (yes, i said ‘yet’.)

kabbalah for netzach she b’tiferet

in assiyah….the world of doing/completion   humans are full of underused brainpower and undeveloped potentials…this is true in soul as well. netzach must be applied to get that indwelling couch potato nefesh up and moving in an unfamiliar direction. find something within you that you’ve expected/hoped you had, and plan a path to develop it.

in yetairah….the world of feeling/formation    remember a time when you had great clarity of purpose, and persistence of spirit to see some particular thing done. did it feel good? did you feel more powerful then? ambition is ok within spirit-driven ambition. remember that clear strong time, and enjoy the feeling again.

in b’riyah….the world of thought/creation    clarity and persistence sometimes happen by accident, but the spirit warrior will bring intention (‘kavanah’) to bear on potential and on power. apply cosmic intention to one of your best potentials or proven strengths and make it more. before you do the act next time, say that you are doing it to restore harmony of the Creation with the Creator…..and mean it.

in atzilut….the world of nearness to G’d/intuition    gravity continues to hold you to the surface of the earth. your electrons don’t just linger in some improbable positions. you wake up breathing, your heart still sending oxygen to the farthest corners of you being. there is netzach within and without you always…quietly persisting, driving. recreating. meditate on this.

kinyan 18 (am yisrael chai!) of 48 ways to acquire Torah

Miyut Sichah….Moderation in Speech.   sometimes it is just a matter of slowing it down. those of us who have overcome a stutter, or who still tend to stammer, have practiced for years to slow down our speech pattern to establish better breath control and to bring room for easing into sounds. how silly is it that we don’t ordinarily bring a similar discipline to the content of what we say and the frequency with which we say it?  if you wish to speak with soul deliberation, you will weigh your words on the scale of truth (tiferet) before you speak them at all.

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.