haYom chamisha v’arba’im yom, sh’heim shisha shavuot u’sh’losha yomim, laOmer: tiferet she b’malchut

“when you pray, direct

your eyes toward the earth & your heart toward the heavens”

we learn this from Yevamot 105b, which goes on to explain that G’d’s Presence dwells everywhere, no less in the earthly realm than in the heavenly one. and this also reflects the position of tiferet in the sefirotic tree, for it is the central sefirah, the most interconnected one, receiving directly from every sefirah except malchut.

so it is eyes earthward for seeking out, perhaps, as the heart is not a hunter. though the Presence of G’d is everywhere, the hiddenness of G’d keeps the sense of exile alive. and the longing of the heart for reunification is a very important driver of tikkun olam. we repair the world for our own sake as well…..

tiferet in malchut is making harmony sovereign, giving compassion dominion over your life.

this year, in preparation for rosh chodesh sivan (which always corresponds with tiferet in malchut), the month of the giving of Torah, we had a broadly observable ring eclipse, in which the moon takes momentary primacy over the sun, creating a spectacular alignment light show in the heavens. but we also had interinclusion of the symbol of Shechinah/feminine/malchut in the moon in the symbol of haKodesh Baruch Hu/masculine/tiferet in the sun. even the temporary celelstial symbolism of this yichud (‘oneness’ or ‘unification’) gives us the beauty of tiferet all round.

“the earth is full of G’d’s glory”

time and space in harmony this year for our counting of the Omer. baruch haShem. and it is no accident that this statemen of glory comes in the line that is the essence of the kedushah prayer in our liturgy….all angels encircling the Divine Presence, each angel calling out to each other, with a bow casting eyes earthward, before lifting up eyes and all with “kadosh, kadosh, kadosh”. again and again and again.

tiferet in malchut….the realm of harmonious beauty all round.

mussar for tiferet she b’malchut

with another….bein adam l’chaveiro when we say the kedushah in prayer, all are equal, none of the differences of philosophy, approach, custom, even appearance that otherwise enter into everyday life matter a jot. all are as one, lifting on toes, uttering simply: “holy, holy, holy, G’d of hosts, full is the earth of Your Glory”. there are times when we accept each other without a thought. find more such.

with yourself….bein adam l’atzmo the moon is always lovely, the sun always brilliant….yet neither ever does a thing to beautify itself….it is simply there. do you comport yourself in a way that reflects harmony, balance and beauty? in a way that reflects the Divine Presence i nthe world as you walk in it? consider how you might be a better representative of the Way. start not with your clothing or your hair or your tie…start with doing justice and loving kindness…..the markers of blended tiferet…give them dominion in your realm.

kabbalah for tiferet she b’malchut

in assiyah….the world of doing/completion yesterday on the streets of chicago, while the NATO summit was going full on, protesters pushed and police shoved. balance was begun to be struck. by late in the day, reports of protesters accepting and police accepting compromise positions reached the world press. we even heard stories about the protesters and police joking together and sort of hanging out. if these strongly opposing sides can strike up even fleeting moments of harmony, what holds the rest of us back in our relationships with family, with friends, with neighbors…..with strangers? contemplate how you can remain open to harmony even in oppositional situations.

in yetzirah….the world of feeling/formation our emotions are key in being open to balance and harmony. most of us are not yet masters of equanimity, not yet calm regardless of the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. meditate on how the love expressed in the Shechinah, the Divine Presence in malchut, can flow into the other emotions in your toolset. can you make compassion for all formative today?

in b’riyah….the world of thought/creation balance and harmony of spirit should extend not only to other humans, but to all of Creation. but working to retain/restore the environment, or to achieve world peace, or to stop needless war will take more than emotional change. it requires careful thought, examination and observation, planning and mobilization on a very large scale. this is an intellectual exercise as well. consider what specific steps you will next take to bring harmonious, compassionate, beautiful interactions to the larger world.

in atzilut….the world of nearness to G’d/intuition we recognise beauty in the celestial mechanics of the moon and sun. why? for the religious, such moments are of apprehension of the Divine Presence. meditate on how we can be of fully present of mind in such moments, not only to exist in them, but to remember the contextualizing blessings that are part of the response of our tradition. it is the blessing that brings the single moment into the following ordinary time.

kinyan 45 of 48 ways to acquire Torah

Lomed al M’nat Laasot….Learning in Order to Practice. the more we learn, the more we know. and to know, know, know G’d is to love, love, love G’d. among the most potent ways to know G’d is to study Torah tirelessly and to put into practice what we learn….that is, to live Torah is to love G’d….consider Psalm 50:

“You spoke….out of Zion, beauty’s perfection…You shone forth…arriving, breaking the silence. a fire before You with a cloud….calling

out of the heavens above and the earth below

for proving Your People….”

haYom sh’mona u’sh’loshim yom, sh’heim chamisha shavuot u’sh’lisha yomim, laOmer: tiferet she b’yesod

“let the honor of your friend be as dear to you as your own”

so teaches r’ Eliezer (Avot 2:10), and when we consider tiferet (compassion, empathy, balance) in yesod (foundation, connection, communication, bonding), this teaching is a touchstone for balanced bonding, for empathic communication and for compassionate connection. r’ Eliezer might just as well have been teaching this day of the counting of the Omer’s kabbalistic interinclusion!

we have interinclusion entirely within the middle way in this case, no sway to right or left. 2 sefirot that are in the straight connection from keter above in the supernal worlds to malchut, the most grounded sefirah.

and we have interinclusion of heart and genitalia…of the seat of spiritual truth and of the seat of creational truth. perhaps it is no longer any wonder why the mark of the brit is on the penis, signifying the level of yesod, and the symbolization of the yichud (‘rejoining as one’) of the Holy One, blessed be with the Shechinah when the rectification of the world comes to be.

in every marriage, there is by definition kiddushin (‘of holiness’) made by joining tiferet truth with yesod truth, binding that bonding ultimately with malchut (as we will see in the final week of Omer). every kiddushin is messianic in that way….or at least has the potential to be. there is redemption of each for the other in an earthy spiritual way, for each is the help meet created for the other….it simply is not good for a human to be alone, so any relationships that avert that no-good aloneness (different from solitude, mind you) is itself a redemption to a better state.

but only in a relationship where each holds the honor of the other as dearly as his/her own can real holy interinclusion of spouses occur. it is in the physical, sensual act of sex that each opens channels for powerful flows of divine energy from above. through heart and the organs of coupling the channels open, and we forget so much of the everdayness of ourselves, opening widely to the mystery of what is much more than the sum of the couplers. sex can lead lovers into the realm of the no-thing…can give humans a powerful approximation of the ein sof…..all through this harmony of foundation. the mutuality of give and take, active and passive, extension and reception.

and it is by way of this truth in truth that the new world that is a new life can come into being as well.

in another set of kabbalistic correspondences, the east wind is associated with yesod as “support”. yesod harmonizes the north wind (netzach) and the south wind (hod) to create the east wind, or kedem, which literally means “beginning”. interinclude the divine gifting of balance twixt justice and loving-kindness into the ruach level of the winds of Creation and you have a trait-touch of G’d in the whirlwind….and the potential energy of new life….beginning.

this movement in the mainline of the seferotic tree evokes the primeval expression of the Will of G’d toward existence…everythingness…from out of nothingness. so, you see, there is enormous power in tiferet in yesod, and enormous power in relationships of mutual dignity, respect, honor and love….both in and out of lust.

mussar for tiferet she b’yesod

with another….bein adam l’chaveiro welcoming guests is the mitzvah that comes to mind. when you treat a guest well, you are honoring the guest as yourself, literally giving of yourself through your holdings and your joie de vivre. this puts a new relationship on a strong foundation and lends support to the foundation already in place for an old relationship. welcome some guests and treat them with honor.

with yourself….bein adam l’atzmo you can, of course, treat yourself as a guest by being one….not by barging into another’s home, ch’v, but by having a little spa time…or a private day out….or perhaps a meditation retreat…or even a little shopping excursion. find the self-as-guest mode that best suits you and go get you some.

kabbalah for tiferet she b’yesod

in assiyah….the world of doing/completion it is easiest to remain balanced when you are standing/sitting on a broad, solid, supportive foundation….like, say, a floor. with your religious practice…whether in community or in your individual way…you also will have a broad, solid, supportive foundation on which your spirit can balance best. work on developing your most fundamental and beautiful practices (and, yes, sex counts as a religious practice for you marrieds as well).

“get up offa that thing, and try to release that pressure!

get up off! good G’d!”

in yetzirah….the world of feeling/formation being balanced and strong yourself allows you to help those off their center, those at less than full strength, to recover their own sense of harmony in Creation. your bitachon (‘confidence’) and steadfast faith can inspire those in need. do you know how to identify those who may benefit from your beautiful foundation?

“sometimes in our lives, we all have pain, we all have sorrow,

but, if we are wise, we know that there’s always tomorrow”

b’ezrat haShem….with the help of G’d is to lean on the Most Strong…whence we each draw a part of our strength….go ahead, lean on me when you’re not strong.

in b’riyah….the world of thought/creation regardless of how real is the rock that i kick, there is always the fact that some part of the rock and the kick are real only in my perception. what i see will not be what another sees exactly. but we are also able to envision things and share those visions with others. envision a rectified world, do one of the acts that will sustain that world, and share it with one you love.

“i’m a dreamer, but i’m not the only one…i hope some day you’ll join us

and the world will live as one”

(actually, it isn’t easy if you try, but, well, so what?)

in atzilut….the world of nearness to G’d/intuition we all pray for strength now and then…more now if you follow traditional jewish prayer and again then, daily….but do we hold G’d so near that we feel the Power that established the heavens in everything we do daily? meditate on how that would be….G’d so near that G’d touches before our very eyes everything we do….

“at work i just take time…and all through my coffee break-time

i say a little prayer for You…”

kinyan 38 of 48 ways to acquire Torah

Machrio l’Kaf Zechut….Judging Others Favorably. literally “l’kaf zechut” means ‘to/for/toward the hand of merit’, which is something that most of us are willing to do for ourselves (even though none but G’d can possibly know better than we how wide of that mark we really are). it is harder, somehow, to give another the same easy benefit of the doubt nonetheless, that is a positive spiritual trait that Torah would have us all master. it is easier to do than you think if you simply remember that you never know as much as you think you do….so why impugn motives? and when you do this with those in the community, you will find it will contribute also in a parallel way to your study of Torah. you can choice to scoff at Torah, or you can choose to hear the Voice.

haYom echad u’sh’loshim yom, sh’heim arba’a shavuot, u’sh’losha yomim, laOmer: tiferet she b’hod

“before you ask G’d for something, first thank G’d for what you already have”

simple, quiet wisdom from Talmud, Brachot 30b. when you pile on compassion on top of empathy, something may well be prone to go all mavericky, and well-intentioned unwisely. all empathy and compassion of tiferet (compassion) in hod (empathy) may turn out a bit like Aharon’s disastrous effort to keep the erev rav (‘mixed multitude’ that wanted the golden calf) from going ballistic and leading to a bloodbath.

and if you pile beauty (tiferet) into splendor (hod) you may well find again that you will be prone to error like Shimshon’s, turning his nazirite status into a matter of outlandish shows of the strength he derived from the restraints of the nazirite way. of course, it turned out that he had an achilles hair…..

but bring truth and compassion (tiferet) into gratitude (hod) and you have a harmonious winning combination…and a sense of how much gratitude is right in any given situation. a sense that simply reminds you of a duty (thanks for what you have) before you go off extending that compassion further still. a making sure that you see the trees and not just the forest. going in and then out.

“praise G’d in his sanctuary; praise G’d in the firmament of G’d’s power”

from the small detail to the greater, from the concealed interior to the exposed exterior, as here in Psalm 150 is instructive, moving from the private to the universal. when G’d was in the Holy of Holies, only Aharon could encounter his force directly, and then only to give thanks and praise in the light and the incense. but in the firmament….loose in Creation….G’d’s power is available to all to sense and respond to. quiet beauty; public splendor….hod and tiferet spinning around each other.

and the psalm continues with a review of many different instruments and musical forms that can be used and harmonized for praise (hod), yet in the end, the universal comes to rule:

“let the voice of every neshamah (‘breathing soul’) praise G’d”

when tiferet interincludes in hod we see that everything contributes to the sustenance of each individual Creation. the whole is diminished with the loss of any one. and no one can survive without the life of the whole. once you understand this harmonious truth, is it really so difficult to love all neighbors? or to respect habitat for the sake of a small minnow living within it?

we are all quiet, more harmonious ‘musketeers’ it seems:

all for one and one for all

who knew?

mussar for tiferet she b’hod

with another….bein adam l’chaveiro this would be a really good day to celebrate some other person’s simcha. reminding yourself of the gratitude you feel for all your own accumulated simchas should put you in a good frame of mind to celebrate another’s.

with oneself….bein adam l’atzmo is your home–inside and out–a suitable place for G’d’s Presence? spruce it up with THAT special guest in mind. and resolve to have the parchments in your mezuzot checked THIS spring…they mediate between the inside and the outside, after all, brining Torah to comings and goings.

kabbalah for tiferet she b’hod

in assiyah….the world of doing/completion sing out Psalm 150 today, then do a harmony to the melody line. consider how your mood changes. can you pull some nefesh and ruach into the hallelujah to join your neshamah?

in yetzirah….the world of feeling/formation “all for one and one for all” can operate in time as well. contemplate your personal history. which details have contributed most to making you as you see yourself to be. how many are way old? how many are recent? can you find a way to add more recents?

in b’riyah….the world of thought/creation catalog your most beautiful, creative thoughts. now, do you feel humble? do you feel beautiful?

in atzilut….the world of nearness to G’d/intuition Heschel speaks clearly of tiferet in hod often. where do you hear it herein:

“only grant me strong bright senses to bring happiness, to help, to hear the needs of even a pulse-beat. the call of any person!”

kinyan 31 of 48 ways to acquire Torah

Ohev et haTzedakot o haMeisharim…..Loving the Righteous Way. a teacher of mine once urged that every rabbi should learn brevity. divrei Torah should be only a few minutes….maybe 7 minutes for natural teachings and an additional minute for a more difficult supernatural idea. any longer is a meandering path, some will follow you into the woods, over streams, up and down hills, but most would prefer that the path be simple, more-or-less straight, and on a level plain. truth and righteousness are their own beauty….the simple explication is the splendor of Torah.

haYom arba’a v’esrim yom, sh’heim sh’losha shavuot u’sh’losha yomim, laOmer: tiferet she b’netzach

“if we swallow the bitter herbs without chewing,

we have not met our obligation”

the Rabbis teach this in Pesachim 115. we must chew the herbs, for part of the point is to know the bitterness. we have to know their bitterness thoroughly before we swallow and make them a part of us. when we are in a world of pain, we must dissolve the sense of bitterness within us by virtue of faith and fortitude, else we haven’t yet walked humbly. tiferet in netzach is compassion in endurance, and also balance in persistence, and an understanding that victory is not always sweet. indeed, victory touched with eternity is seldom directly sweet at all.

consider those who tend elderly parents who are slipping or have slipped into dementia. caring for a child who is terminally ill, or whose injuries after an accident will severely crimp the opportunities that were once nearly unlimited. marriages don’t always fail neatly and quickly. yaakov avinu labored for 7 years only to get a wife he had not sought or served for, having to serve another 7 years to ultimately gain Rachel…..and Leah, the wife not worked for, knew bitterness, overcoming it only in the very, very long view of history, for her son Yehudah, whose name is gratitude to G’d would ultimately become the namesake of the entire People of the Promise.

these are bitter herbs that can’t be swallowed. servitude in egypt was a mess of bitter herbs chewed for centuries. you can’t just swallow them with a positive attitude, you will know the bitterness even as you bring compassionate strength to bear over what can seem an eternity in itself.

rare is the one who can, like Heschel, keep prevent even the chewing bitterness of depression from being a complaint before G’d:

“G’d, i promise you with all my strength to block my worries in myself alone……

and never let my bloody misery soil spotty stains upon Your mood.”

as though G’d wouldn’t know the misery anyway….but the “temimut haratzon” (‘sincerity of will’) to have compassion for G’d’s mood while in such a black spot should make Jeremiah (and the rest of us) marvel. tiferet in netzach indeed.

tiferet in netzach is also the balance necessary in any persistent, drawn out endeavor. like a decathloner, we must be prepared in bad situations to negotiate in and out, applying now more strength, now less. the terrain of any difficult situation requires subtleties in the application of strength and persistence…victory is straightforward in a 100 meter sprint, it is not at all so in the decathlon.

tiferet in netzach is what brought the longing for the return to the Land into a reality in spite of malaria, and drought and repeated war. it takes faith and fortitude to make those bitter herbs into nutrition for our souls.

mussar for tiferet she b’netzach

with another….bein adam l’chaveiro teachers have to decide how much discipline to apply in each situation. a simple zero tolerance will not suit every situation, and it will only rarely help reveal that reason behind a behavior problem. we jews like to argue….at least theoretically to reach better understandings of the matter at hand, but any yeshiva student will tell you that the true “talmid hacham” (‘wise student’) knows when to back off from an argument out of respect for the opponent’s sensibilities. then again, sometimes it is better to press ahead. choose your fights more carefully….and be more sensitive to the opportunities to take it down a notch.

with yourself….bein adam l’atzmo it shouldn’t take any of us very long to see what effect our decisions have had on us over time….both good ones and bad. it should take even less time to recognize the impact our decisions have had on others over time. what may take longer is to carry this memory in the front of your mind always so that it is ready to help in making the next decision. cultivate some wisdom from some of your previous decisions, then hold those thoughts at ready….

kabbalah for tiferet she b’netzach

in assiyah…the world of doing/completion “thou art all fair, my love, there is no spot in thee” (Shir haShirim 4:7). this is said to describe the love of the People for G’d, the unblemished One. this is the reference that Heschel to which Heschel points in his line about “spotty stains upon Your mood”. consider your beloved, how much netzeach would you have to apply to see your spouse as spotless? if it isn’t easy to answer “none”, contemplate how to add more tiferet to the netzach of relationship. if it is easy, then contemplate how much tiferet has already contributed to the level of netzach in your relationship.

in yetzirah….the world of feeling/formation loving children is sometimes more strenuous work than loving a peer! how much adjustment does the average day with teenagers in the house take? meditate on the tiferet/beauty of your child(ren) in your eyes even after having to apply persistent/netzach in a difficult disagreement. hold that thought throughout your day.

in b’riyah….the world of thought/creation contemplate Heschel’s desire to keep his depression from besmirching G’d’s mood. is their another approach that is a better expression of balance/compassion in strength/endurance? an equal alternative?

in atzilut….the world of nearness to G’d/intuition we all have times when we feel closer to G’d than others. consider such a time and try to identify what gifts of the spirit you were given during them. does G’d intuit what we can use better in times of nearness than in times of distress?

kinyan 24 of 48 ways of acquiring Torah

haMakir et Mekomo…..Knowing One’s Place. one must know one’s real accomplishments and failings, to recognize one’s true acquisition of Torah daily. only then can one know their true place, their true standing in the world and the true reckoning of their affect on the world. what you do has effects in this world as well as in the world to come. and the more Torah you acquire, the larger the potential for making good change in the world. but if you don’t know where you are already, well, how do you know where next to plant your foot in your walk?

“know whence you came, where you are going, and to whom you are destined to give an account”

(Pirkei Avot 3:1)

haYom echad v’esrim yom,sh’heim sh’losha shavuot, laOmer: malchut she b’tiferet

“man should put his traits before him and direct them to the middle road…”

in order that “he will be complete in his person”. so advises the Rambam in his Hilchot De’ot (‘the Laws of Behaviour), perhaps mindful of the line between tiferet and malchut that is interrupted by yesod. it is the middle wqy, to be sure, but it is an interrupted flow…tiferet has a direct path to each of the sefirot except malchut.

hence, the kabbalists teach that malchut is in exile from tiferet, and that drawing tiferet and malchut together by way of yesod is a holy thing, not unlike the marriage of a woman and a man. just “come together, right now…. over me” says yesod.

in the interinclusion that makes 3 weeks this shabbat, we are considering malchut in tiferet, sovereignty in harmony. shechina in beauty is not hard to see, yes? but how do we make this bit of one in the other into a greater coming together of one to the other? how do we build upon an interinclusion to make for an intercoursing of shefa (‘divine flow’)? this is always the question when malchut/shechina are discussed….how to “return the princess to her king,” as Matisyahu puts it. we must do it by way of our middot, by improving our middot, we redeem sparks and are ready to do the mitzvot that will uncover the hidden fallen light that is trapped in the klippot (‘husks’).

we know that the shortest distance between 2 points, in this case between keter in the upper world (shamayim, ‘heavens’) and malchut in the lower world (olam, ‘the Creation’) is the middle road with tiferet being the center node and yesod being just below it, closer to malchut. look at the tree of life, ie, the sefirotic tree and you will immediately see this…no mystery therein.

we get a very, very straightforward directive from G’d about how to rectify our middot, don’t we? are we not told to be holy because G’d is holy?

“…you shall sanctify yourselves and be holy,

because i am holy…”

well not exactly. the verse (Leviticus 11:44) instructs us to get holy before we learn why…the cart seems to be before the horse. and it is important that we realize that we have to work down here in olam and not look to the heavens as our starting point. malchut is utterly grounded, the lowest of the sefirot. tiferet is middling, but unimpeded between middle and the heavens. we are forced to work around the yesod pivot point, as we learned yesterday.

Rashi explains that we are to make ourselves holy on earth, and G’d will make us holy above. the Baal haTurim goes further, telling us that: “one should sanctify oneself at the time of marital relations.” well, that is pretty earthy. so this holiness stuff…when we do IT, we, uh, DO it. woot.

but malchut in tiferet is but a hint of how. but it is a very important hint: no manipulation, no controlling, no domineering, harmony in beauty calls for equals in love, just as it calls for us to be balanced in our approach to everything else. be passionately harmonious, chevrei, not merely so. we are taught to “acquire” a friend for ourselves, which is taken to mean a study partner, but the great “kinyan” (‘acquisition’) is the ketubah, in which a spouse legally acquires a spouse by binding contract….so the verse might just as well be telling us to acquire a friend in marriage. malchut in tiferet is a marriage of friends sefirotically…a balancing of desires seferotically. we are to be ourselves harmoniously of 2 minds….not divisively, but harmoniously…and the flow of shefa by way of yesod reminds us of the bonding of 2. but you always knew that 2 heads are better than 1, right?

it is shabbat, all you marrieds…..remember, it is a greater mitzvah on shabbat. presence in beauty…malchut in tiferet.

mussar for malchut she b’tiferet

malchut-tiferet with another….bein adam l’chaveiro be aware of your affect with all those you meet…as aware as you are with a lover. THEN you want to put your best face forward, of course, but to do it always is bring sovereignty of a smile and an engaged mien to bear in the wider world. you prefer to see a bright face, yes? well, love your neighbor as yourself.

malchut-teferet with yourself….bein adam l’atzmo it is commonly said that it requires more muscular exertion to make a frown than to make a smile….but that isn’t true. smiles are harder work. so give yourself a better workout. smile. it is a most infectious form of exercise.

kabbalah for malchut she b’tiferet

in assiyah….the world of doing/completion to make balance in the world, is to give harmony greater sovereignty in the world. this is sanctifying yourself on earth. but it can be a team sport. as this completeness of 3 weeks falls on shabbat, bring balance to the world by visiting the elderly and sick, particularly by bringing children to seniors. when you see the smiles that will arise, note them well, and hold that image in mind thereafter.

in yetzirah….the world of feeling/formation another way to bring harmony and balance into the world is to receive it! we all need somebody to lean on, so seek guidance from a friend you have acquired this shabbat. listen well, for advice from those who’ve walked some of our paths is essential to any spiritual journey.

in b’riyah….the world of thought/creation we’ve been going out into the beauty (tiferet) of the world in spring this week, but there are ‘mindscapes’ that also must be walked. shabbat is such a mindscape year round. walk less in the world today and more in your mind. are the features of your shabbat mindscape as rich as those in the world outside? if not, do a little shabbat-worthy work and make your shabbat mindscape more rich…shabbat is for remembering Creation after all!

in atzilut….the world of nearness to G’d/intuition r’ Heschel teaches that “prayer is an invitation to G’d to intervene in our lives.” as you pray this shabbat, invite the Holy One in….a sure path to the holiness that is malchut in tiferet.

kinyan 21 of 48 ways to acquire Torah

Lev Tov….Good Heartedness. your attitude in the world and the face you bring to others will directly influence both the quantity and quality of Torah you gain. good cheer, open engagement, careful listening, and eagerness are all ways to not only change the climate of the world around you, but to come to superior understandings of the meaning of Torah. lishma should be in joy, so we end the week of tiferet with a very easy to understand quote from the sefer Tiferet Yisrael:

“a good heart includes a soft nature and the ability to act joyfullyfor the benefit of others”

haYom esrim yom, sh’heim sh’nei shavuot v’shisha yomim, laOmer: yesod she b’tiferet

“all trees rejoice in G’d’s resonance….and all plants dance in G’d’s rejoicing”

this from the Midrash Heichalot Rabatti (24:3) is but a single indicator of how the resonance of G’d is shot through the core on Creation. but i think it also surprises us a little. dancing plants is a little outside the mainstream judaism you grew up with, yes? but r’ nachman wouldn’t be surprised:

“how wonderful it is when one is worthy of hearing the song of the grass. each blade of grass sings out to G’d without any ulterior motive and without expecting any reward. it is most wonderful to hear its song and worship G’d in its midst. the best place to meditate is in a field where things grow. there one can truly express his thoughts before G’d, for grass will awaken the heart.” (Sichot Haran 163)

and the stream is not of recent vintage, no matter how modern it will sometimes sound:

“since you are composed of all of creation, the animals in your environment mirror important qualities back at you. they are part of what can keep you in balance. live in balance with the creatures of the world and they will be good for you.” (Midrash Tana D’bei Eliyahu Rabbah 1)

these are lessons not only in the deep implications of evolutional thinking, but also simple statements about the nature of yesod (foundation/development/procreation) in tiferet (balance/harmony/beauty/compassion). yesod is associated in soul with the power to contact, connect and communicate with outer reality…it is in league with the utter grounding that the trees and the grasses literally and spiritually rely on. tiferet is the reflection of malchut, which is the deep grounding below yesod, and yesod is the pivot point (mapped literally to the genitalia) that brings the upper worlds of soul (in tiferet directly from keter) into conjunction with the lower worlds of soul (in malchut, separated from the upper worlds only by yesod).

let’s make it simple: we have learned that the genitalia are the nexus between soul realm and physical realm. procreation is foundational, and it relies on bonding of the Created to make one flesh of twophysically and spiritually….conception is the point of bonding between the two. there is the dna of the Created World and the still older life-force of the Inserted Primordial Light. gestation is the melding of spiritual-biological in a unique yet characteristically enspeciated Creature. and the inner world of soul melded into the outer reality of biology recognizes all the other melded forms in the world, whether in grasses and trees, or the birds and the bees.

the bonding of the all is especially available to us in the vegetation that has been our purpose (stewardship of the garden) and our temptation (choosing the wrong tree from which to eat). centered in the generative; anchored in the soil. are we surprised that the genitalia are the nexus of both the miracle of giving forth life (birth) that is nonetheless the most natural thing on the planet (birth), hence not miraculous at all?

we see the bonding of spirit and form best in this. we all see it and feel it. whether we then later deny and belittle it depends on the strength of our yesod in tiferet.

if you are more attuned to the melding in all of Creation around you, you know the trees have presence beyond their wood. and we are making huge fuss about grasses, ain’t we? after all, what is barley? what is wheat? what is Omer? during pesach we reground the grass fruits that sustain us….then re-enruach them in the sefirat haOmer, rebalancing ourselves by Shavuot.

there is no spiritual parallel in the world of animalia…except through the korban. do you see how our practice is veggie focused?

we call bread the staff of life. yesod it is the symbol of life in the midline of the tree of life. even in death:

“may our soul be bound/sheafed up in the binding/sheaf of eternal life.”

mussar for yesod she b’tiferet

yesod-tiferet with another….bein adam l’chaveiro we have an expression, “my word is my bond.” mean it, and be sure to speak truth always. make sure your soul is bound up in the binding of current life.

yesod-tiferet with yourself….bein adam l’atzmo the emotion that breaks bonds most quickly and assuredly is anger. it makes trees of grasses, mountains out of molehills. but the blood in the head lessens your hearing…your bond with the song in the grasses is sure to be broken. “keep it together” and avoid anger entirely today.

kabbalah for yesod she b’tiferet

in assiyah….the world of doing/completion harmony/balance is the opposite of chaos/imbalance, right? yesod is foundation/strength and you have the opportunity today to add “backbone”…or maybe ‘trunk’…to harmony or alternatively to chaos. which do you choose? contemplate how to make the better choice firm.

in yetzirah….the world of feeling/formation when we are boun to the entirety of the world around us, we sense the celebration of all in G’d. we acknowledge this in prayers, but how often do we go outside and listen to it? find time to get back to the island of world and mind.

in b’riyah….the world of thought/creation every whisper/of every waking hour/i’m choosing my confessions/trying to keep an eye on You….G’d. say it. mean it in your prayers. the world is there to cheer you on if you listen. if you will it, it is no dream.

in atzilut….the world of nearness to G’d/intuition we pray in the morning: “the organs that You set within us, and the spirit and soul that You breathed into our nostrils, and the tongue that You placed in our mouth….all of them shall thank and bless and praise and glorify and exalt and revere and sanctify and declare the sovereignty of Your Name….all my bones shall say: ‘G’d, who is like You?” the grasses sing and, come Messiah, the trees will clap hands and sing as well. prayer is ‘groundwork’….it is yesod heavy. dwell in your gut, can you sense your innards rejoicing in G’d today?

kinyan 20 of 48 ways to acquire Torah

Erech Apayim….Slowness to Anger. this is actually one of the 13 essential attributes of G’d that were revealed in the wake of G’d’s passing before Moshe as he was held in the cleft of stone. we recite it on holy days throughout the year, and most memorably often during the Days of Awe. when you work to put your anger in your pocket, instead of in readiness between your eyes, you are following after the way of G’d G’dself. as we learn in Ecclesiastes (7:9…nothing to do with the borg in this case, you trekkies):

“Don’t be quick to anger, for anger lodges in the heart of fools”

and we have said that your innards should spend their time in thanks/praise/glorification/exaltation/reverence/sanctification of haShem

make like the grasses and the trees if you want to acquire Torah and a heart not of anger, but of wisdom.

haYom tish’a asar yom, sh’heim sh’nei shavuot vachamisha yomim, laOmer: hod she b’tiferet

“her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace”

many of you will recognize this as the next to last line in the “etz chaim hi”, said as the Torah is returned to the ark. i read it as a proof text for permission to relax now and then in my errors of interpretation and understanding….or just the many errors of explication that i’ve made already (and will no doubt make more of) in this effort to share the sefirat haOmer. for even when the explanation doesn’t work, the study nonetheless happens…and that is Torah lishmah (‘study for its own sake’, understood to mean ‘for the sake of Heaven’) even without our intention when we err!

if yesterday was devoted to the force of netzach in breaking down barriers to compassion/balance/beauty, today, in hod, associated with humility/gratitude/splendor, we grow quiet in the face of compassion, balance, beauty and harmony that already surrounds us. it is always there; there is no place without it because all of Creation is a manifestation of G’d’s glory, and there is no where where that glory is not. G’d’s glory fills the earth.

but to understand hod in tiferet, splendor in beauty, we have to put away so much of our self. we are called “m’daber” in the rabbinic literature, ‘the talker’ for our proclivity to name and classify and analyze with exquisite subtlety in words all that catches our attention. we erect barriers in our efforts to understand more deeply. we are all-in-one machines that erect new barriers even in our process of stripping down to get closer to seeing another glimpse of G’d in nature….nature being the only aspect of G’d’s wonder that we can always grasp (if we are only awake). nature is the G’dstuff in which we live, the stuff of which we are….that we bluster through… over… around and beyond daily, every waking hour.

all the paths of Torah are pleasantness; all of them….even the broken, breaking, dissecting errant ways we sometimes derive are ultimately paths of peace. why? well, can you think of any self-understanding that comes without making mistakes? even pharaoh’s path was Torah, right? he quite literally descends to G’d, and with that descent comes freedom and peace, precisely as G’d intended all along.

but Chazal (rabbis of the talmuds) point out an even easier way. they teach that G’d created all with Torah….so everywhere you look is another path of Torah. and r’ nachman made the fields his place for Torah and prayer and meditation on G’d. everywhere. just look and see. and he also made clear that his every step was itself a step toward the Land of Israel, that is, the place of rectification and cleaving to G’d. every step is on a derech noam, on a ‘pleasant path’ toward the great good. just look and see.

it is hard to think of anything more beautiful than beauty…until you traverse the tree of life a little further and come to the splendor of beauty in quiet hod, beauty in thanks, in a smile without a word and without even the sound of a laugh. “hinei,” people….’behold’ all around you. it is all in hod. silent, eloquent, all a testament to the splendor and wonder of a G’d that gives us simple splendor in the grass…

why am i not a flower, a person-flower?

bless me, my spirit with tenderness instead of might.

to own smiles instead of words, and always bring light to the world.

to be able to give love, good fortune with my hair, like orchids.

and may my way through rooms be like finger-touches on piano keys.

tenderness, you ineffable name of G’d, be my image of G’d!

mussar for hod she b’tiferet

hod-tiferet with another….bein adam l’chaveiro i’ll bet that a lot of you welcome folks home from school and work with a pleasant “how was your day?” there is a little everyday compassion in that. but it might well be answered with the grumbles of daily disappointments and disaffections….or the disconnected minimalist “fine.” so get a little rad and reset the routine gently…..ask “what were the beauties, the wonders of your day?” if they can’t tell you, send them outside immediately to lay in the grass and look up, or down, or all aroun. at’ll fixem.

hod-tiferet with yourself….bein adam l’atzmo smile when you make a blessing today….no quick-get-it-out-of-the-way utterances, please.

kabbalah for hod she b’tiferet

in assiyah….the world of doing/completion baruch haShem, we are not only given to using words to make or find beauty. we decorate our living spaces. we spend lots of time getting just the right paint for a room’s walls, yes? and then what? we let our own creative work, our own engagement, recede into, well, wallpaper as we direct our attention to the television, the radio, the internet (well, yes, even this blog), hanging on the distracting and novel and noisy and sparkly. we consume without a lick of appreciation. go back to your own spark of creation in your place and remember why you so loved a particular paint for a wall, or a painting or a vase, or even the order that you impose in your cabinets in how you put your dishes away, or how you insist the dishwasher should be stacked…..it is all your sense of beauty and order at work. pleasant ways are found therein. don’t be unmindful of it!

in yetzirah….the world of feeling/formation every year the garden brings forth changes. changes in what you planted…changes in the volunteers that have taken root….changes in expression of abundance. remember the blooms of a previous year. compare them to this year’s early arrival of almost everything. be grateful for the variety that continues to enrich the order of your garden. and let your ruach flit with joy.

in b’riyah….the world of thought/creation pray from a siddur today (if you can read this, you can find one online if need be) and try to be mindful of the ‘order’ (“seder”) of the prayers. compose a brief transitional explanation or 2 for yourself. or read this week’s parshah for shabbat, mindful of the fact that the selection that is the week’s ‘portion’ is itself an ordering of words. be grateful for the words and for those who took great care in ordering their use for the betterment of your spirit.

in atzilut….the world of nearness to G’d/intuituition get out in the fields and forests like r’ nachman and the Besht. listen. pray. try to return the birds’ calls. see if you can see the Presence of G’d in the hiddenness of his nonCreation nature….G’d is not made of Creation stuff….but all of Creation is of made of G’dstuff. as you are looking, remember that every move you make, every breath you take, G’d will be watching you….

kinyan 19 of 48 ways to acquire Torah

Miyut S’chok….Moderation in Levity. Ben Sira 21:20–“a fool raises his voice in laughter; the wise smiles in silence”

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 shiv’a asar yom, sh’heim sh’nei shavuot ush’losha yomim, laOmer: tiferet she b’tiferet

” the Rushing-Spirit of G’d flitted over the face of the waters”

this is the description in Genesis 1:2 of the Presence within the tohu v’bohu (’emptiness’ or ‘chaos’) of the as yet unmade creation. i have always viewed this description as being the ‘physicalesque’ manifestation of G’d presence in the unprecedented state of tzimtzum (‘withdrawal within’)….it answers in a way the question of what was the Presence of G’d in the Absence of G’d that G’d created in order to Create.

the whole of Creation being the utter release of Chesed within the utter confines of Gevurah in the emptiness made within the withdrawal of the without end….making a border where none could have been….ein sof is literally ‘without end’, without border, without phase change, without delimit of time or anything else, without escape horizon….suddenly self-limited within.

ruach is the rushing-spirit, the wind spirit, the spirit of turbulence, of flitting. the waters are the primeval Torah in which all, absolutely all that is knowable is to be known ultimately. i imagine that when G’d is not everywhere in absolute ein sof, then G’d’s touch is without stop, flitting/hovering over and around every part of the emptiness, forming and unforming like clouds, else it would again immediately become ein sof, for there is utterly nothing sustainable–nothing itself is not sustainable–without the Touch of G’d constantly.

the gematria of this phrase from Genesis is 1369. 1369 is also the gematria of the first triad of the lower 7 sefirot: chesed (72), gevurah (216), and tiferet (1081). the first and greatest center of all the interinclusions, for tiferet is center of centers in the middle way of the tree. tiferet is itself Torah in that it is the only sefirah that is directly connected to all the others…save malchut. and it is Shechina that is the Divine Presence in malchut, the Presence of G’d in Creation that is not Torah, that is independent of Torah, that was not created out of or by way of Torah. but to end the exile, malchut will have to be gathered into tiferet, and Torah into Shechina, to end the exiles of Creation. we should all know that sovereignty will have to be all compassionate to achieve the great rectification. no more war, no more dictatorial rule, no more market forces…….just compassion in its expression in power–rule by way of nothing but empathy/integration/harmony….the great Beauty, tiferet in tiferet…..entering into malchut in the end times.

1369 is also the square of 37, and the earliest gematria of 37 is in the name of Hevel (Abel), the son of Adam and Chava whose offering of First Fruits was the perfect and accepted korban (‘bringing near sacrifice’). but Hevel was slain by Kayin (Cain), whose offering of the carcass of one of the flock was not accepted. and power outside of compassion was born, in severity of the left side.

the Omer is all about the first fruits of barley, leading to the first fruits of wheat at Shavuot…the new year for the sustaining grains that are the bread that feeds the world. the bread brought forth from the earth directly by G’d, in his compassionate will, as we say in the motzi blessing. Hevel brought the Omer, the barley to begin the count. and in a real sense, we still await the ripening of the wheat in the times of the Moshiach, when swords will be beaten into ploughshares to tend the fields….and none will know war no more.

the word “hevel” also means ‘vapor,’ which is what rises from our heated study of the sea-waters of Torah, engaging ourselves vigorously in plumbing its depths…..as Chazal teach:

“the Torah of this world is hevel compared to the Torah of the world to come”

but therein the beauty of the integration in integration that is tiferet in tiferet, for we all know the rain cycle, yes? evaporation from the great waters condenses in the clouds till water precipitates as rain and returns to earth and to the waters, over which the clouds hovered. do you see now how G’d’s great mark of compassion, his rachamim for us all, works?

“if you walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them; then i will bring your rains in their season, and the land shall yield her produce, and the trees shall yield their fruit”

when we choose the waters of Torah, we choose life. all in harmony, all in balance, all integrated; the life-giving rains raining the rachamim upon our heads and hearts and hands. tiferet in tiferet is the water in the vapor in the rain….the Rushing-Spirit of the Chai haOlamim (‘life of the worlds’) still flits above…wandering lonely as a cloud.

mussar for tiferet she b’tiferet

tiferet-tiferet with another….bein adam l’chaveiro my teacher, r’ mordechai eliyahu, zt”l, taught that raising both your right and left hands together while saying the line in the ashrei prayer “You open Your Hand and satisfy the needs of all creatures” was a great yichud in hiddur, signaling the harmonizing of chesed and gevurah in tiferet. when you shake someone’s hand today, use both your hands. it is an embrace in tiferet.

tiferet-tiferet with yourself….bein adam l’atzmo consider your most deeply held opinions about the nature of people. is your current view balanced? if expressed, would it tend to bring people together and create harmony? if not, work hard today to rid yourself of this error in your thinking. make your mind ready for compassion, not division.

kabbalah for tiferet she b’tiferet

in assiyah….the world of doing/completion this time of year, the wording of our prayers changes focus from rain to dew. consider how dew is another life-giving precipitation of hevel in compassion. contemplate what is the sign in dew that is parallel to the rainbow in rain?

in yetzirah….the world of feeling/formation most of us who are not afflicted with a psychological pathology, ch’v, are able to harmonize our good qualities with out faults. we do it without thinking most of the time. meditate on this harmony today. what else can you fold into it to make it more beautiful?

in b’riyah….the world of thought/creation Proverbs 10:6 teaches us that ‘blessings are upon the head of the righteous’. can you make the blessings that are upon your head rain upon that of another?

in atzilut….the world of nearness to G’d/intuition r’ kantrowitz brings this teaching: the 17th word of Psalm 67, the psalm we say each day as part of the counting of the Omer (see the spirit guide in this blog, is “yoducha” (‘they will thank you’). today is the 17th day of the Omer. meditate on the deep gratitude you owe to G’d for the blessing of spirit, the blessing of existence in Creation, the blessing of rain in its season.

kinyan 17 of 48 ways to acquire Torah

Miyut Sheinah….Moderation in Sleep. my personal favorite (see Proverbs 6:9, 10). there is a popular story told to yeshiva students about an encounter between the Netziv, legendary rosh yeshiva of volozhin, and his younger co-rosh yeshiva, r’ chaim soloveitchik (founder of the Brisk method of talmud study). r’ chaim told it as follows (with “me” swapped out for r’chaim, as i am not he):

one night at 3am the Netziv, who was very old at the time, called for his granddaughter’s husband, r’ chaim soloveitchik. r’ soloveitchik. r’chaim rushed to the Netziv, worried that the older rav was not well to be calling him at such an hour. when he got to the Netziv’s room, he found him studying from several volumes of talmud. the Netziv said that he wanted to show him (r’chaim) a proof of something they had argued out the previous day. r’ chaim asked the Netziv to give him a minute to make the blessing for Torah study, seeing as he, r’ chaim, had just woken up. the Netziv heard this and started weeping. “what will become of this younger generation? it is already 3am and you, reb chaim, haven’t yet said birkat haTorah!”

the proverb (6:9. 10) asks, “how long will you sleep? lazybones. when will you rise from your sleep?”, but i prefer in this case Milton’s Comus:

“what hath night to do with sleep? night hath better sweets to prove”

haYom shisha asar yom, sh’heim sh’nei shavuot ushnei yomim, laOmer: gevurah she b’tiferet

“uprightness and justice are the shape of Your love, the earth is full of Your kindness”

tonight we consider the interinclusion of discernment in compassion. but it is also Rosh Chodesh Iyyar, the first of the 2 new moons that fall withing the period of sefirat haOmer. and it is not incidental that this Rosh Chodesh actually presents us with a nice way to illustrate the notion of discerning compassion….that the strong 5th line (5 represents the power of division, of breaking things down to facilitate understanding, or a powerful discernment, if you will) of Psalm 33 points it up so well is, perhaps, not coincidental.

the central thrust of gevurah in tiferet is the question of whether the compassion you feel and act upon is commensurate with the need of the one receiving it, or the situation that elicits it. there is also the issue of discernment of interest in compassion–there are those who focus all their compassion close to home in family and friends (it is not compassionate to say that the poor of vietnam are the concern of vietnam, for instance), and others who do the opposite, focusing on those in distant lands, directing little compassion to those in need close to home (why would anyone overlook needs in their own community to only give to help the poor in vietnam, for instance?). and discernment is also brought to bear in the tzedakah that is dispensed–how much must we examine the likely use of any help we give?

the doing of compassion can be more or less efficient….the unbound chesed is not the middle way. we can pick and choose amongst charitable opportunities….within limits, being careful to start close and work out in ever widening circles of righteousness. but there is a simple baseline: if we are asked to help provide food by a needy person, we must give something if we have anything at all to give…even if we don’t know for certain that the funds will be used for food. we needn’t contribute to bus fare, or housing, or “just help” if we have reason to suspect fraud, though we are also taught not to be suspicious. but food help cannot be turned away so long as you have so much as a penny that you can afford to give.

the words used in Psalm 33 are “tzedakah” ‘uprightness’ and mishpat ‘justice with a strong notion of law’….and chesed ‘loving-kindness’. so we have obligatory responsibility giving, law compliant giving, and loving-kindness, which includes actual involvement in volunteering time and person as well as giving.

it is this complex that will bring 33, rosh chodesh, and minhag/halachah to bear as an illustration of gevurah in tiferet of a different sort. many of you probably know that we are in a limited state of aveilut (mourning) during a large part of the time of counting. this is due to the deaths of r’ Akiva’s 12,000 pairs of students (chevruta…the arguing friends of talmudic study) within 33 days during the sefirat haOmer period in the time of the rebellion against Rome. perhaps fewer of you know that the students were said to have died of the plague due to failure to “respect” each other….they failed to achieve the harmony of tiferet, hence, there Torah was not a suitable carrying on after the great r’ Akiva. (the standard is very high for yeshiva students, yes?!)

so to this day, we mourn the deaths (which nearly wiped out Torah in the Land) by refraining from enjoying music, dancing, frivolity, and grooming beyond what is necessary for hygiene and tsniut. (a mazel tov shout out to r’ mendy and alta goldstein, whose son will have “upsherin”, his first haircut at age 3, this coming Lag b’Omer!). but there are 2 customs regarding the period of mourning. the sefardim and most chassidim begin mourning with the onset of sefirah and break off at the 33rd day of the Omer count, ie, Lag (it means 33rd day) b’Omer.. the central/western mitnaged tradition is to begin mourning at Rosh Chodesh Iyar and continue until the day after Rosh Chodesh Sivan, which is 3 days before Shavuot. the third way is that of the Maharil, who held that 33 days during sefirat haOmer was crucial, but that no students died on the holiest of the days between Pesach and Shavuot, ie, 17 days comprising the 7 sabbaths, 6 days of Pesach, the day after Pesach, and the days of Rosh Chodesh Iyar and Sivan. so 33 days of mourning out of 50, but not in an unbroken succession.

this could lead to problems in many communities with mixed populations of sefardim, chassidim, mitnagdim, and those who follow the ruling of the Maharil. what if a mitnaged held a wedding and invited his sefardic friends to attend the blissful holiness during the mourning period for the sefardim? or vice versa? r’ Moshe Feinstein, the only just about universally recognized Torah decisor of the last century, ruled that any jew could, and should, attend a wedding for one of a different tradition regardless of their own mourning tradition. indeed, he also ruled that jews could switch their mourning period from year to year if need be….so long as they observed 33 days within the time of the sefirat haOmer (with some caveats for maintaining peace within a community).

r’ Moshe Feinstein’s compassion in this decision allowed for mutual respect between the different minhagim. by taking this approach, without missing the central halachah of 33 days, r’ Feinstein did a rectification of the error of the 12,000 pairs of r’ Akiva’s students by multiplying the harmony in the People. THAT is using discernment/gevurah in compassion/tiferet….oh, and if you need to spruce up with a trim for Rosh Chodesh or a wedding? well, that’s ok too!

mussar for gevurah she b’tiferet

gevurah-tiferet with another….bein adam l’chaveiro we should all be aware that our personal need for space will affect our relationships with others. sometimes we need a little more space than at other times. assess your needs and set appropriate boundaries for the good of your relationships with others.

gevurah-tiferet with yourself….bein adam l’atzmo you are responsible not only to your relationships, but also to yourself. if you don’t already, set up a calendar and get rigorous about recording appointments and other necessary times so you can navigate your world in better balance.

kabbalah for gevurah she b’tiferet

in assiyah….the world of doing/completion editing (which i need to do more carefully in these posts) is the process of rectifying error and bringing about better form through discernment. we can do the same with out spirit traits. consider your traits and practices. which are the necessary? prune out the deadwood of habits to bring clarity to your way.

in yetzirah….the world of feeling/formation it takes a village to raise a child, they say. and they mean that we all have something to offer to those in need as they grow in their character. examine your spirit skills. which are the ones that you could most usefully teach to another? just do it.

in b’riyah….the world of thought/creation harmony doesn’t just happen in music or color or amongst people. each of us has to think through the available notes, or pigments, or spirit traits to find which will balance or harmonize best in each situation. focus on your harmonies in family and community. contemplate what prompted you to bring those notes, colors, attitudes to bear. respect the balance you have achieved.

in atzilut….the world of nearness to G’d/intuition each of us has a prayer or a reading from Torah that seems most beautiful to us. or maybe you find beauty in other places and need to do hallel for those findings. contemplate the beauty you find and pray it…raise it up as an offering to G’d.

kinyan 16 of 48 ways to acquire Torah

Miyut Ta’anug….Moderation in Pleasure. jewish mourning is a stripping down of the joy we ordinarily seek to build as part of our avodah, our work for G’d in the world. like fasting, it is a practice that puts away things that tend to carry us away….the result being that we have the stillness internally to be more present to other things. usually to things that we don’t ordinarily take as much to heart. r’ Akiva’s students, in spite of having the greatest Torah master of their generation (of perhaps any generation) failed to get simple mutual respect, balance and harmony between them correct. due to this sever error a great plague (read disharmony and unbalance) was unleashed amongst them. disharmony is death to the highest aspects of spirit, and the fundamental underpinning of compassion is respect for the person and circumstance of your neighbors, family, friends, and community. empathy is a fellow feeling, and when it is lacking, rachamim (the embrace of the womb) is elsewhere.

“moderate your pleasures of olam hazeh (this world), but maximize the pleasures of olam haba (the world to come)–the pleasure that comes from serving the other. “