חסד

The Sefirah on the Tree of Life

Chesed is the sefirah on the Tree of Life where the energies expand without limit. Chesed is also known as Gedulah, which means “largesse” or “greatness”. It is the place in which the energies express only mercy through unconditional giving. It is love that always gives, just like the Sun that always shines upon everything on earth, the tall and the short, the good and the evil.

Chesed represents the unlimited flow of energy as it flows down from the Divine Realms, undifferentiated, neither positive nor negative, preceding any polarity. This is the Impulse behind both the light and shadow at Gevurah, the basic principle reflected through each of the three pairs of sefirot, Hod and Netzach, Gevurah and Chesed, Binah and Chochmah. The sefirot of force, on the right side of the Tree express energy before it separates into the polarities brought about through particular forms or specific expressions.
This first week of the journey we focus on opening ourselves to receive from the Fountain of Life, and to be nourished. Chesed presents an abundant flow of that which is not yet differentiated into specific feelings.

Traditionally, El, which basically means G-d, reflects the Universal attributes of Compassion and Mercy. At Chesed, Mercy represents the ever-flowing, ever-providing, ever-sustaining Energy of unlimited abundance and possibility. El offers Itself without reservation, and in that sense is truly Merciful and Loving.

Each feeling we experience is itself a shell containing the unlimited flow of Divine Energy. Open yourself to the abundance of that offering, beginning the journey to experience more fully the Fountain of Life that is always available to us.

Meditation for the First Week at CHESED.

וְאַתָּ֣ה אֲ֭דֹנָי אֵל־רַח֣וּם וְחַנּ֑וּן אֶ֥רֶךְ אַ֝פַּ֗יִם וְרַב־חֶ֥סֶד וֶאֱמֶֽת

And You, Eternal One, are El, full of Compassion, Gracious, Long-suffering and Bountiful in Lovingkindness and Truth.
-- (Psalm 86:15)

We begin without a clear image of where we wish to be. From a place of bondage, it is not possible to know the Promised Land. Mitzrayim, as the ancient kingdom of Egypt, represents our enslavements, both internal and external. The true slave is the one who believes in his enslavement, and thus his enslavement becomes self-enslavement. In order to find freedom to express what we are, we need to believe in the message of freedom. As long as we are caught in the in negative statements, whether self-to-self or self-to-other, and negative messages about the world, we remain slaves in Mitzrayim, which manifests as a place of stuckness.

From this place of limitation, this place of contraction, it is not possible to know the goal which appears only through self-expansion. Every time we think we know from the level of our difficulties the answer to our problems, we discover the resolution to be preciously short-lived.

Our journey thus begins with Chesed, the sefirah of ever-flowing, over-flowing, energies of life. This week in Chesed, we honour the energies with which we are nourished.