Gevurah she’b Malkuth
Day Two of Week 7:Restraint in Receiving
Although sovereignty is loving, it needs to be balanced with discipline. Effective leadership is built on authority and discipline.
There is another factor in the discipline of sovereignty: determining the area in which you have jurisdiction and authority. Do I recognize when I am not an authority? Do I exercise authority in unwarranted situations? Am I aware of my limitations as well as my strengths? Do I respect the authority of others? Dignity also needs discipline as a dignified person needs to have a degree of reserve.
The Mystery unfolds for us where we are, and the space in which we live is called Malchut, the Kingdom. This is the final week of our Omer journey, and we focus on the place in which we dwell. Here we find questions that spur our journey; here we find the answers hidden where we would least expect them.
On this level of reality, we discover traces of the energies that carry deeper meaning and purpose. Today we bring Gevurah into Malchut, to focus on the energies from that sefirah that infuse our world. The channel of Light connects the base of the spine to the left shoulder. We seek to construct forms which allow us to express the emotional energies of our world in creative and healing ways. We seek to shape our feelings in ways expressive of the Love we carry.
Gevurah provides the limits to the free and formless expression from Chesed. Our world is a world of limits, a world of boundaries and barriers. We are called upon them to appreciate at deeper levels the blessing which flows from these very limits. A boundary permits the definition which allows us to function in the world. Perhaps it is only through such limitation that we are can attain the awareness that expands beyond all limits. This is the promise of Gevurah in Malchut.
Our feelings are always shifting. We live in a dynamic universe of emotion. We cannot hold our positive feelings for any great length of time, yet we can maintain our negative ones. We can always find something wrong somewhere. Our task is to allow both the positive and the negative feelings that we might learn the lessons of creation and growth.
I honour all the feelings which flow through me now. I become aware of the constant shifting of energies within me, and no longer struggle to hide what I feel. I have a deep trust in the creative rhythm of my inner life. I become more aware of the shape of my feelings than ever before.
Reflections
Unconditional Life
וְהָי֞וּ הַדְּבָרִ֣ים הָאֵ֗לֶּה אֲשֶׁ֨ר אָנֹכִ֧י מְצַוְּךָ֛ הַיּ֖וֹם עַל־לְבָבֶֽךָ׃
“These words that I command you today should be upon your heart.”
-- (Deut. 6:6.)
“Every day, the words of the Torah must be new to you.”
-- (Sifri, Rashi.)
Tradition is not life. Tradition preserves life. But it does not give life.
Goals are not life. Goals inspire life. But they are not life.
Life is here in this moment now. To be alive, every moment must be a moment that never happened before.
Which means that Torah must not be about tradition. It cannot be grounded on a memory of the past. Those are important, truly vital. But a Torah life cannot be built upon them.
Real life, Torah life, is about who you are now, where the core of your soul lies at this very moment.
For if it is not about the moment now, then it is not your life. And if it is not your life, then what is?
-- Maamar Tziyon BeMishpat 5736