Today Tiferet is brought into the weekly sefirah of Yesod. The connection of Light flows between the loins and the heart. The blessing of the Heart illuminates the space in which we experience our ego identity. We welcome those blessings into the aspects of ourselves most in need of such Light.

We are manifestations of the One Source of all Life. Yet it is through the separate self that we carry this Source into the world. The separate ego servers as a messenger for that which it cannot contain within itself.

According to a kabbalistic metaphor, we are given the task of redeeming the sparks of the One Light which have become encased in kelipot, the husks of material reality. In order to do so, we must choose to enter that world of shells in which that Light is hidden. But those husks are very convincing! How easily we forget that which lives within them.

Our separate self is itself one such husk. It is a klipah that hides the Indwelling Presence called Shechinah. We enclose that inner Knowing with shadows of fear, worry, judgement and comparison. We dress ourselves in the “not-yet” and the “almost” and the “not-good-enough” that well up endlessly in our minds.

We are the beings on this level of reality who are given the responsibility of remembering Who we truly are. When we sink into despair, we draw our protective shells more firmly about us. When we open our eyes to the joys of existence, our shells thin, and we are able to see through them and realise our Identity.
Tiferet, the sefirah of our Greater Self, is given us this day for additional focus. When we allow ourselves to open to the gentle touch of that deep Compassion, we are led from places of despair back into the Light of our Being.