Tiferet she’b Chesed
Day Three of Week 1:Balance in Love
True love includes empathy and compassion which makes it a beautiful love. Love is often fostered in expectation of reciprocity. Real love is expressed even when one gets nothing in return; even when the other doesn't deserve love. Tiferet is giving also to those that have hurt you. It acknowledges the discipline of Gevurah and says that, nevertheless, compassionate love calls for helping all.
On this third day of our counting, we seek the balance of Tiferet in Chesed. Tiferet is the Heart Space, translated as “Beauty”. It is the sefirah symbolising the energies of the Greater Self, the Individuated “I”.
The Greater Self that lives within each one of us is drawn this day into the field of Lovingkindness. We receive from the outpouring of emotion that which supports the fuller awakening of our deeper Self. In turn, this Self contributes to the reality of Chesed itself.
The central pillar of the Tree provides the place of balance between force and form. Upon this central pillar the basic identities through which we awaken are symbolised – from the ego-self to the inclusive Self to the Unlimited Self. The Tree reflects the function of identity: it is through the individual that the tikkun olam, the great healing, must express in the world. The Tree of Identity, which is the central pillar of the Tree of Life, speaks to the essential nature of the spiritual journey in which we open from the inside-out to the wonders of the One we are.
Experience each of the two sefirot as glowing spheres of energy, one at your right shoulder, the other at your heart space. Feel the connection between the two, allowing your heart to open to receiving and transmitting the balance it contains, this deeper centring infusing the energy at Chesed.
Reflections
Being Paradox (Splitting the Sea)
“The water was a wall for them, to their right and to their left.”
—Exodus 14:29
Freedom is not to the right. Freedom is not to the left. Neither is it at the center.
Any direction you take is just another form of bondage. Only by walking opposite roads at once can you be free.
So if you catch yourself fitting into a definition, contradict it. Never say, “I am this.” Always be leaving the slavery of Egypt.
Yes, it demands the supernatural. You are a divine spark. You are supernatural.
Always be walking through the miraculous splitting of the sea.
—Likutei Sichot volume 3, page 969.