HESED
expansiveness
Ratio counting
DOBROHOTNOSTחסד
The article is about the kabbalistic view of love - hesed. The essence of boundless love is non-discriminating expansiveness, which is achieved by developing our potentials.
כִּֽי־אָמַ֗רְתִּי עֹ֭ולָם חֶ֣סֶד יִבָּנֶ֑ה שָׁמַ֓יִם ׀ תָּכִ֖ן אֱמוּנָתְךָ֣ בָהֶֽם׃
For I said, “World! With benevolence it will be built! Heaven! You will strengthen your trust in them!"
(Psalm 89:3)
CHARITY
We most often imagine Hesed as the creator's unlimited benevolence and loving-kindness, although this description does not tell us much concrete or. can lead us astray! If hesed were to be translated into one word, it would be love. Love is the strongest and most necessary component in our life. With love, we can transcend ourselves, connect with another person, and allow others to connect with us. Even this definition is not very useful!
When we talk about hesed - love, we must not limit ourselves to just partner, romantic love. We must keep in mind our relatives, friends, colleagues, loved ones and complete strangers we meet or hear about. Hesed is love for one's fellow man and for humanity and for creation as a whole. Just as the creator shows this love, so must we show it. Hesed is also grace – the Creator's quality that is most pervasive throughout all of creation. Grace could be defined as the instrument by which the realization that the creator is benevolent is achieved! We have now somewhat expanded the definition, but we are still not precise enough.
Hesed is also respect. Fulfilling the agreement and norms between people, honesty, correctness! Loyalty, devotion - all this is hesed/love! Hesed means unconditional giving of oneself, unconditional sharing of the material, emotional, intellectual and spiritual. It's about both giving and receiving love!
Hesed - benevolence will be understood correctly if we put ourselves in our role, in the role of a creature who wants to be well. In Kabbalah, this turns out to be essential: the world is good because we want it to be good. There is unlimited goodness available, it all depends on us. Love - hesed is our perception of creation as unlimited possibilities for good and, of course, our active involvement in creation!
WHAT IS HESED IN TRUTH
Only Kabbalah understands the foundation of boundless, expansive love that allows for lasting pleasure. If we want to fill our lives with hesed, we must know exactly what the spiritual structure of reality is, what the spiritual laws are. Hesed is, of course, an emotional component of creation, but we must understand it intellectually so as not to confuse it with other emotions that may be outwardly noble, but in reality are too broad to be equated with the Creator's hesed. The Kabbalist's task is to become a creator; it does this by taking on the creator's traits. The Creator's fundamental attribute is hesed - unlimited, unconditional benevolence. Let's see how hesed is defined in the Torah:
בְּרֵאשִׁ֖ת בָּרָ֣א אֱלֹהִ֑ים אֵ֥ת הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ת הָאֽרֶץ׃ הָיְתָ֥ה תֹ֙הוּ֙ וָבֹ֔הוּ וְח֖שֶׁךְ עַל־פְּנֵ֣י תְה֑ום וְרַוּחַ אֱלֹהִ֔ים מְרַח֖פֶת עַל־פְנֵ֥י הַמָּֽיִם׃
1 In the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth. 2 And the earth was chaos and emptiness. And darkness is over the face of the ocean, and the breath of Elohim hovers over the face of the waters.
The opening verses of the Torah are a kind of introduction to the metaphorical seven-day story of the creation of the world and man, but in reality it is about the creation and development of the desire to receive pleasure. In Kabbalah, these two verses represent our intellect or an idea that is a precursor to the perfect creation that occurs on the seventh day of this story. The two verses do not belong to the "first day" of creation, but in essence correspond to every day of creation - to every smallest part of creation, for they represent a supra-dimensional archetype reflected in every particle of creation.
In the sefirotic sense, here we meet the sefirot of the upper triad: keter (elohim), hochma (heaven), bina (earth). The sky represents the rebellion by which the creator polarizes the creation so that the desire to receive can arise - the earth. At this stage we only encounter the idea of the emergence of the desire to accept. This desire has yet to develop. It is important, however, that the model of resistance (heaven) and desire (earth) watches over all the stages that lead to the full development of the desire to receive pleasure. First of all, it is necessary to understand the basics of the tree of life, where I talk about the stages of differentiation.
וַיֹּ֥אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֖ים יְהִ֣י אֹ֑ור וַֽיְהִי־אֹֽור׃ וַֽיְהִי־אֹֽור׃ וַיַ֧רְא אֱלֹהִ֛ים אֶת־הָאֹ֖וב וַיְַבדֵּ֣ל אֱלֹהִ֔ים בֵּ֥ין הַחֹֽשֶׁךְ׃ וַיַּ֧רְא אֱלֹהִ֤ים ׀ לָאֹור֙ י God
3 And Elohim said, "There will be light!" And there was light. 4 And the elohim saw the light, which is good. And he divided the elohim between light and darkness. 5 And Elohim called the light day, and the darkness he called night. And there was evening and there was morning. Day one.
The seven-day story actually begins with the appearance of light. The only thing that has really come into existence is the creature, the malkut - which is the fourth stage of development of reception with the polarization of giving and receiving. All previous stages of development are included in the malkut. Malkut corresponds to the seventh day of creation, when the creative model is completed. The six days before that correspond to the third level of differentiation, ZA-tiferet, which we understand from malkut as giving. Malkut, of course, is us, acceptance.
THERE WILL BE LIGHT
The seven-day story, like the entire Torah, is about spirituality and not about the creation of the physical world. Spirituality, on the other hand, knows only the qualities of giving and receiving. Although we have a counting of days and thus a sense of dimensionality, at the highest levels the message needs to be understood supra-dimensionally. Namely; everything happens at the same time, the first and the seventh day, and everything in between is created at the same time; as said, we are only dealing with the qualities of giving and receiving, which must go through a process of differentiation.
In the seven-day story, we recognize that the creator creates according to the pattern: "and elohim said." This pattern appears for the first time at the origin of light. Before that, he "created the heavens and the earth" without "saying" anything. The created earth, however, is placed in the context of chaos, emptiness and darkness. Light comes into creation as soon as the creator tells it to come. Speaking is, of course, that minimal physically tangible activity that initiates the development of an idea in a state of potential (he created heaven and earth) into a realized idea (he created man).
Light, of course, is hesed. We can now understand that hesed is active love, active abundance, as opposed to the passive potential (elohim) encountered in connection with the upper triad, which represents zero (keter), first (hokma), and second (bina) degrees of differentiation. So Elohim pre-exists, and light is Elohim's relationship with us, with the creature. The Creator's existence without His interaction with us would be meaningless.
YOU EAT MIN AIN
It is emphasized that "Elohim divided between light and darkness." The distinction between good and bad is not meant, but between the passive potential (elohim) and the active realization of love (light). Here is the essence of the message for us students of Kabbalah who want to become like a creator. It is not enough to be good at heart! We have to be fully active, give our best. This is hesed, not just loving wishes without concrete realization! Speaking of practical instructions: hesed was created unconditionally, which means that we will be able to take on the characteristics of hesed if we behave accordingly. We must get rid of the feeling of entitlement to anything in life, because by referring to some obligations of others and life to us, we distance ourselves from unconditional love - hesed. This in no way means that we shouldn't have expectations; on the contrary, we must have expectations, goals, ambitions - we just need to get rid of the sense of entitlement.
Darkness and light in a pair also means that light came from darkness. Light came from nothing; something (you eat) from (min) nothing (ain). It is, of course, a famous philosophical term: creatio ex-nihilo; creation from nothing. In both philosophy and Kabbalah, it means that there is no prior cause for the light, hesed, to arise.
In Kabbalah, the meaning of darkness, which appears in a pair with light, is the unmotivatedness of light, unconditionality. In understandable language, this means unconditionality, absolute selflessness, which is very difficult to achieve or it cannot be achieved without Kabbalah. So; it is not important only that the light is created, but that there is also darkness with it, which represents unconditionality. This must be well understood! The conclusion of creation is malkut, who chooses what and how much to take. All that is outside the malkut is light that has absolutely no motive. In addition to being unlimitedly available, it is also unconditionally available, it does not itself set any conditions. "Emergence from nothing" therefore means the absence of a cause, a condition for the existence of light.
EVENING AND MORNING
When we separate potential from realization, darkness from light, we get evening and morning, which we then encounter in all six days of creation. This, of course, means that we always have potential followed by realization. On the seventh day, we do not have evening and morning, because with the creation of malkut we have achieved a sovereign, independent creature that can receive or not receive light - hesed, which originates unlimitedly from the creator or. out of nowhere.
Of course, the presence of "evening" means the absence of motivation, unconditionality, which is the fundamental property of light or the creator. The seventh day, which is malkut, the receiver of light, is of course motivated by acceptance.
DAY ONE
The first day of creation is usually referred to as "the first day" in translations. This is a mistake, as it is very obvious that it is not the row counter "first", but the main counter "one". From the second day onwards, we have ordinal numerals: "day two", "day three"... One can be a numeral, but it can also be a noun in the sense of "unity, whole". One, unity in Kabbalah means the creator; all that is and all that is bound together as one and that acts as one. It is this initial investment of hesed that is uniform and unlimited.
In Kabbalah we say that everything was created from light, that light polarized into receiving and giving. This can also be seen nicely with the graphic notation for the word day /jom/ יום. Yod י represents the source of light, mem ם is a closed, closed creature that is connected to light through vav ו, which has a gematria of six and represents six days or. the six sefirot forming ZA-tiferet, the third degree of differentiation.
The day /jom/ יום also very nicely shows the expansiveness that is the fundamental characteristic of hesed. And here is the most important thing; the most expansive is the receiver-malkut. If we want to achieve the creator quality, we must first expand our acceptance, then the intention of acceptance will change. Mem ם is expansive, but it is also limited compared to vav ו and yod י. If transformed, the expansive meme can also become unbounded.
Hesed is therefore the first of the six sefirot that form ZA-tiferet, the third level of differentiation. Everything develops from hesed!
ABRAHAM
That hesed represents expansiveness is also shown by the biblical character of Abraham, who personifies the qualities of hesed. Abraham is ambitious, his desire for knowledge is extremely potent, which is why he travels so much. Only when we understand Abraham will we be able to understand what the foundations of the attributes of hesed are. Only then will we be able to synchronize ourselves with the laws of spiritual light.
When we develop our potential, when we are expansive, we are in harmony with natural-spiritual laws. Each of us has within us the desire-potential to receive, but we must also develop the potential to give. The expansiveness of both potentials is a necessary stage of development of the individual and the collective.
Special feature:
וְאִ֣ישׁ אֲשֶׁר־יִקַּ֣ח אֶת־אֲחֹתֹ֡ו בַּת־אִ֠מֹּו וְרָא֨ה אֶת־עֶרְוָתָ֜הּ וְהִיא־תִרְאֶ֤ה אֶת־עֶרְוָתֹו֙ חֶ֣סֶד ה֔וּא וְנִכְרְת֔וּ לְֵינֵ֖י בְּנֵ֣ י
עַמָּ֑ם עֶרְוַ֧ת אֲחֹתֹ֛ו גִּלָּ֖ה עֲוֹנֹ֥ו יִשָּֽׂא׃
Lev 20:17 If a man takes his sister, his father's daughter, or his mother's daughter, and sees her naked and she his, it is a shame; they shall be cut off before the eyes of the sons of their people; he pushed his sister's naked body away, guilt hit him.
In this case, hesed translates as shame or abomination, reproach...
Let's remember that counting the ratio begins on the second day of Pesach. On the first day of Pesach we are rescued from Egypt, our keli is filled with light, but then that light disappears and we have to earn it back. The first six days of the omer, until the end of Pesach, which lasts seven days, can be quite easy to survive if we really give love without limit. So we practically do not feel that the light has withdrawn. We usually feel the withdrawal only on the sixth day of the omer, when we then drastically switch from hesed to gevurah.
HESED V HESEDUToday is one day for OmarDANES JE DAN ENA OMERJA
16. Nisan
Love in love is the topic we will deal with on the first day of the relationship. Each of us has a great potential for love within us. The question is whether we know how to realize and express it and whether we even understand what hesed is. If we read the text of the first day of creation, we will see that it is talking about light - this is another name for love. It is right to be aware of this and to expand our concept of love every time. Love must be realized through what a fellow human being needs, it must not stay with words and a philosophical ideal!
Is my love for others intense enough, could I give more? Can I give? Am I stingy, calculating? Do I understand that giving is not only material, but also emotional, intellectual? Am I perhaps being too generous in some areas, thereby masking my inability to give in other areas? Dare I risk giving?
Do I understand that giving love spiritually is simply being who I am and developing my potentials and thus allowing the light-love to spread in the collective?
Do I know where the danger is in "being who I am"? I understand that "being who I am" means being the best that I can be?
Am I aware that spiritual giving alone is not enough, that spirituality does not exist by itself? Do I know that spiritual giving is manifested through intellectual, emotional and material giving? Do I do anything more than a principled willingness to give of myself? Do I realize that love requires action, my engagement?
I understand that hesed is expansive and proactive? Can I be proactive in expansiveness, constantly proactive in spreading love?
Do I know that unconditional love means that I do not condition my giving on receiving anything in return, can I present this within the framework of kabbalistic theory? Do I realize that selflessness is very difficult to achieve?
Do I give the other only as much as he deserves, or do I conceive of expansiveness as unlimited, just as hesed is?
How much do I give to the community, local, national, international? Do I understand that hesed does not only mean a loving relationship with my nearest and dearest, but that it must be extended to all humanity and the whole of creation?
Do I let people into my life? Do I dare the lives of others? How much does my fear of rejection and the memory of the pain of previous experiences limit me from letting people get close? How much fear do my past failures cause me, how do they limit my initiative and expansiveness?
What is the thing that I do the hardest? Emotions, intellect-ideas, money and other material goods? Am I able to communicate my feelings? Am I afraid to confess my love for fear of being misunderstood?
Can I offer what I have: time, money, experience, understanding, advice, conversation to a complete stranger? Is my giving of love limited to people I know or are close to? Am I aware of the importance of hesed (love) when I interact with people? Can I give love from myself in everyday situations?
Task of the day: Connect with the content of the first day of creation and realize that there is light-love in all creation. Your task is to share it further! Try to express love to the people you love, to those around you, or to random people in a way you have never done before.
The most difficult thing about hesed in hesed is our action towards our fellow man, who must not be "on the first ball", and on the other hand, our neighbor must recognize for himself in a relatively short time that our action was full of hesed, selfless love.
GEVURA V HESEDU
Today is two days for OmarDANES STA DVA DNEVA OMERJA17. nisan
Power in love is the theme of the second day of the report. Gevura does mean power, but in the sefirotic sense it is also understood as discernment, judgment, discipline, limitation. Gevura is the opposite of Hesed, but today we are dealing with only one part, one aspect of Hesed, which is intertwined with the rest of the Sefirot, just as all the other Sefirot are intertwined with each other. Intertwining is a fact, because light is omnipresent, and it consists of ten sephiroth. If we have a problem with the use of gevura in hesed, we have a problem with the whole hesed. Concretely, this can mean that our hesed, our love, will not bear fruit, because we will not know how to apply the virtues of discipline that love itself requires. We are not looking for the opposite of love, but we are introducing discipline, structure, prudence into love!
Gevurah in hesed would be best described if we compare it to the discipline or strictness that parents demand from their children, whom they otherwise love unconditionally. And precisely because of this unconditional, responsible love, parents demand discipline from their children. Put professionally in the language of Kabbalah: love (hesed) must have some structure, some limitation (gevura) if it is to be effective. The discipline that parents demand from a child is for the child's good, it is in the child's interest.
However, if we transfer this example between a child and parents to a partnership between two adults, then the limitation, discipline, structure of our giving love is that or as much as the other person is ready to accept. With a child, we knew what was good for him, but with an adult, we have to figure out how much love and in what form we should give to a loved one. It's almost like watering a plant with too much water or too little water! Each plant needs a different amount of water!
In general, we must also ask ourselves whether our distribution is fair! Is the other person taking advantage of us or is he getting what he doesn't deserve? Are structures, rules, norms being met?
The essence of hesed, the essence of love, is to distribute it among all of us, everyone must receive it. But there are certain structures, rules, discipline, restrictions that serve as a channel through which love flows. Love is lost in chaos! We should not allow the other person everything, even if certain things do not bother us, because we are all part of a collective that has certain norms; they affect us consciously or unconsciously. Strictness and discipline in love are also necessary between adults, not only with children!
Don't overdo it with discipline! It is important to know that love needs a channel, a structure - and this is maintained by discipline, limitation. The point of it all is to recognize the general and special needs of a loved one in the structure.
Our hesed must be limited by the need of another, this is how it gains power! We must be careful not to be selfish in giving love - there is a danger that by seeming to give to another, we only expand our own needs, sometimes fears, lack of self-confidence, etc.! At all times we must use the power of judgment and be careful to act in the best interest of the other, without any claim for ourselves.
Task for today: Show love-chesed to your fellow man on his terms – just as parents are essentially disciplining themselves when they demand discipline from a child. Show your love to a perfect stranger! Before that, he decides what his terms actually are!
Healthy love must include a certain degree of distance and respect for the independence of the loved one! Intrusiveness is at odds with hesed! Gevura, limitation, does not mean that you calculate how much you can give, but that you calculate and monitor how much others can and may accept!
Hesed means expansiveness, and this requires the power of gevurah, which controls that our ego does not sneak into hesed! Gevurah prevents ego (self-interest) from expanding, so hesed can expand!
TIFERET V HESEDU
Today is three days for OmarDANES SO TRIJE DNEVI OMERJA18. nisan
This time we consider beauty in unlimited benevolence. Tiferet means beauty. This central sephirah from the tree of life is also called compassion and harmony. We are talking about expansiveness at the expense of harmony - namely; with harmony we can increase love! What can we harmonize with? With the truth! This, however, is always located behind the limitation of the world, which is imaged to us through perception through the five senses. Expansiveness sooner or later stops at our sense perception! In this limited world, we see ourselves as a limited being. How can we give without limit if we ourselves are limited? Our limitation is only illusory, unreal! We must break through to the truth by freeing ourselves from the enslavement of the limited illusory world of the five senses! Compassion is the same as harmony, because we co-feel what we do not otherwise feel when we are limited to the world of the five senses. This is beauty!
Tiferet in hesed shows how to increase love with beauty and how to make sure that it remains unconditional!
So far we have learned hesed in hesed and gevurah in hesed. Two opposing elements within expansiveness. If gevurah was a limitation of expansiveness due to some objective rules that consciously or unconsciously concern both people, then tiferet is a combination of gevurah and hesed; two opposites. This combining in practice takes place in such a way that we have already managed to limit the unlimited hesed with a gevurah, we are aware of this, but then we exceed this limit and give again, despite the limit that we had to set. This is how we come to compassion, empathy. We yield under the conviction of what is right, and again we give unmotivated, unconditionally. Also to those who disappointed us, or in other words: to those who live by different rules than ours. Of course, this does not mean that we have erased the line of correctness set by the gevurah in hesed. No, we know exactly where the line is - but we give beyond it. We must know that hesed is extreme giving, we must realize this extreme! Of course, later we will harmonize the entire sefira hesed with the sefira gevura as a whole, but now it is necessary to achieve the unlimited expansiveness of hesed! It is necessary to experience this extreme! Kabbalah is based on our ability to combine extremes into harmony - this is the only way we can progress spiritually to a higher level! The first task is to reach the extreme! We can do this by learning Kabbalah or by suffering from life's situations!
You may be a little confused when I interchange the words love and expansiveness when describing hesed. By no means should we stay only with love, expansiveness towards a close person, but it is necessary to understand that we show love to the entire collective; with his role in it, in a wide variety of ways. Work, friends, social activity! It is necessary to love what we do - this is how we can achieve expansiveness, for example in the business sense! Of course, it is necessary to do what we love!
Being sympathetic does not mean that you look for kinship in another, which you will understand because you will know them, but that you make an effort to understand what is unique to the other - this is compassion, empathy, which must be different from sympathy or antipathies; these two are generally projections of our situations onto another. Empathy is being in someone else's shoes! Now we can understand how compassion helps with expansiveness! Expansiveness – hesed is based on the absence of self-interest.
Compassion and thus beauty in love can be shown by neglecting our logic or even common sense or. general norms. Sometimes people will complain to us about their problems for which there are very simple solutions. So simple that we find it strange that they were not solved without our help. For example; someone has a lot of real estate and constantly complains about debts because he has to pay off loans. Selling a single property would solve all problems. Chronically lending money to such a person is, of course, pointless, even listening to his grumbling can be overwhelming, because the solution is so simple, but he doesn't see it. We can achieve beauty in love by sometimes going beyond logic and allowing the other person to be right, which we cannot immediately understand or we are able to transcend our perception of the situation!
Task for the day: Show hesed-loving kindness to someone who has already hurt you and therefore had to set limits. Be compassionate towards this person, give less weight to your hurt. You cannot achieve beauty if you are in the role of a victim!
There is nothing more beautiful than love, which unites opposites and thus achieves harmony. When it comes to compassion in love, we must be all the more determined that we do not want any return of love, we give completely freely, without expectations of reciprocity! Every time we start to feel like a victim, it's a sign that we have some claims of entitlement within us.
In Kabbalah, the law of equivalence of form applies. If we want to be overwhelmed by the creator's hesed, which gives indiscriminately to everyone, regardless of whether the individual deserves it or not, we must become indiscriminate ourselves. The first step is to give up our entitlement to certain things. First, of course, it is necessary to find out what we are entitled to in the limited material world, and then give up these entitlements! Of course, this sounds illogical, meaningless - just as meaningless is the ideal of the Creator's unlimited benevolence, until we experience it and are convinced of it!
NETZAH V HESEDU
Today is four days for OmarDANES SO ŠTIRJE DNEVI OMERJA19. nisan
The expansiveness with which we described hesed in the previous days can also be linked to kindness. It is a character trait that requires constancy, so we need persistence; netzah in hesed – which is today's topic! Kindness of character and also the belief that the world (can) be kind is a virtue that may seem the easiest to spread hesed in the world, but in reality there is significantly less of it in the world than it could be!
Because life is benevolent or if we want it that way, kindness to our fellow man is the key to the Creator's unlimited love that we all want and need! Let us remember that hesed is proactive – it is not enough to believe in the importance of kindness, we must actually show it. We must never, really never take it for granted that we are kind and that others perceive us as such. Our concept of kindness can be different from the expectations of the people we meet. Exaggerated, studied kindness can be taken offensively. We often want to use the mask of kindness to draw attention to ourselves, to our ego, but not to show kindness to our fellow man according to his criteria!
We are in the middle of the week where we correct our hesed, which in one word we call love. Hesed's expansiveness can be very well illustrated with the metaphor of business success, which is achieved when we know that we are at work for the customers and not that the customers come to us for us. It often happens that we trigger a certain need in the customer, for example by advertising a new product, but then this need becomes the customer's independent need and we have to serve this need, we have to forget that we initiated it. It is similar to spiritual light, from which a malkut is created, which then becomes independent. The light that is outside is entirely at the disposal of the malkut. Now we can better understand the "darkness" from which the "light" was separated on the first day of creation. "Darkness" means that the light, from which indeed everything originates, ceases to be the cause. Like a good businessman, at a certain moment he stops being the cause and devotes himself completely to the customers, even though he created them, accustomed to his product.
In the tipheret, which we discussed yesterday, the six sefirot are combined, so that they form one common sephirah ZA, or simply tipheret-ZA. I want to emphasize the importance of tipheret, beauty, harmony, compassion. We arrived at this when we managed to combine two opposite poles: hesed and gevura. We must "pull" the obtained, assembled tiferet, which is the spiritual ideal, forward into the next sefirah - netzah.
We take compassion with us when we go networking. The previous three Sephiroth: Hesed, Gevurah and Tiferet represented the basic qualities: love and limitation and the synthesis of both, and Netzah is the first of the next three Sephiroth, which is more quantitative than qualitative. Netzah means victory, but we also understand it as: persistence, courage, determination, constancy. Netzah is the result of our patience when in practice we encounter love that goes through ups and downs. Neztah - victory is the result of our constant striving for correction and our struggle over time. In netzach, both hesed, gevurah and tiferet change at time intervals, and so netzach becomes a quality in itself - persistence - from a quantitative quality. Victory comes with perseverance, with patience - by facing ups and downs.
Task for today: The power that the victorious netzah gives us can be used over time, but it can also be used to connect all situations in one day into a big, powerful hesed. Imagine that you have as much power and influence as a conductor has in an orchestra - everything that will happen to you today, you will lovingly compose into one story - a piece that you will conduct! You will win!
Don't forget to take the harmony you achieved in tiferet in hesed on the path in netzah in hesed. If you have not been able to achieve harmony, now netzah will help you with this task. Netzah, which is initially a quantitative trait, is a great help to achieve the correct expansiveness of hesed, because netzah requires us to develop love in all areas, so that love can become unconditional and unlimited. If you only love the one you want, that's not love, but that's wanting someone, which is receiving and not giving!
Everything you do, do it kindly and constantly check if others perceive you as truly friendly! First feel the other, then choose how you will show him hesed! Being kind to everyone means that you treat everyone in such a way that it will be kind to them and that there will be expansiveness between you!
HOD V HESEDUToday is five days for OmarDANES JE PET DNI OMERJA20. Nisan
Today's topic is shining in love. Hod means splendor, but in content it is about our knowledge and acknowledgment of the Creator's presence in the whole of creation. From this follows our humility and gratitude, just as the attribute of the Sephirah hod is also described. It is right to understand the effects of ratio counting as a collective effort of many people all over the world who want to become better receivers and transmitters of love and light in general. It is not only about the omer, the Kabbalah, but about any effort for a better world! This gratitude must come from the heart, from the actual realization of how the creator leads us to change and that our role in this process is very important. The Creator is the force that unifies all creation, we must be an active part of it!
Radiance is that true humility that works in hesed. Netzah gave us endurance, constancy, and walking at the expense of inertia gave us knowledge. And vice versa; because of the knowledge that the walk gives us, we were able to persevere as the netzah dictated. These two sefirot are opposite and at the same time complementary! Humility is by no means meant in a derogatory way, rather it is related to our heartfelt devotion to the creator's boundless love, due to the realization of its greatness and omnipresence. Even if there is doubt at this thought, it is a valuable realization!
Hesed is truly the force that moves mountains and binds together every smallest part of the entire creation. When we realize this, we become humble and grateful for this expansiveness. Then we are ready to swallow our pride, which often limits us from love. We include our own insights and the insights of those we trust in hesed! Realization is not only gratitude for what has already been achieved, but above all humility before the tasks that the walk shows us! Just as we realized yesterday that everyone needs kindness according to their own standards, so it is with us who need love in different shades.
Gratitude in expansion becomes a quality, a guiding force, when we realize how love has led us to become better, step by step.
Because of perseverance in love, because of netzach in hesed, I have come to the point where I can thank you for being who you are. The more I can thank you, the more I can love you. In my love for you, which was not always easy, I recognize the creator who put everything in the context of true, unconditional love. This gratitude comes from my heart. I realize that I am better; I am ready to forgive myself and you.
Walking is also a feature of confession, repentance, knowledge of our dark sides. Walking in hesed allows me to strengthen and continue my love for a loved one and for the whole world, even if something has hurt me in the past. Hod gives me a glow because I am able to confess my weak points in love. I confess them constantly and thus constantly become better!
In a way, the walk is a payback for our efforts so far in spiritual correction. Humility in hesed requires us to remove from love any arrogance, especially that which has grown on us at the expense of our virtues of perseverance in netzach.
Task for today: I am grateful and humbly surrendered to the expansiveness of the good that has allowed me to become better. I wish there were more opportunities in my life to give love. I want to give even more love from myself!
Whoever asks that he would like to give even more love, his wish will surely come true! You can't plant a better wish than this. We must stick to our goal of unconditional expansiveness; humility is an inevitable part of it.
JESOD V HESEDUToday is six days for OmarDANES JE ŠEST DNI OMERJA21. Nisan
Today is a feast day - the seventh day of Pesach, when we commemorate the great miracle at the Red Sea, which was opened by the creator; thus enabling the Hebrews to escape from the pursuing Egyptians. This happened on the morning of the seventh day of Pesach (or the morning of the sixth day of the omer). The seventh day of Pesach is also the last day to eat unleavened matzah and to avoid leavened hametz!
In Kabbalah, this event represents liberation from the ego through the intervention of the Creator. The Creator has intervened before this and will continue to do so, but the parting of the sea is a final act when there is no turning back. Of course, this sounds good, but in reality it is related to the intense correction that we have to go through now that we have reached the "desert", where there is no more egoistic acceptance, and we are not yet ready for altruistic acceptance. The parting of the sea represents a farewell to the ego, which manifests itself in doubt, fears, frustrations, complaints, accusations, anger, criticism, cynicism and stress. The ego is limited to logic, which is its most effective weapon. The event at the Red Sea is a breakthrough over the restrictions with which we enslaved ourselves in Egypt and which are so very difficult to give up.
What is the connection with the sixth day of the omer, when we mark yesod in hesed? Yesod means foundation. In the substantive sense, it is a bond, commitment, obligation, agreement, pact. If we look at the sefirotic system, all the sefirot flow into yesod before the light comes into our life, into malkut. Jesod is thus the last obstacle before love enters our lives. The parting of the Red Sea is the parting of Jesus. It is no coincidence that this event occurs in the very week when we correct the hesed. Love, expansiveness, is the foundation of our creation; we design everything from it! A miracle at sea means a decisive step for the expansion of our soul!
From the middle triangle of the sefirot (hesed-gevura-tiferet) we "pulled" compassion in the nets. Thus our hesed, our benevolence, our loving-kindness remained harmonious and compassionate. The netzah and hod we discussed yesterday work together and are practically impossible to separate. Our hesed thus became durable, constant and at the same time grateful to the creator for the knowledge that the world is permeated with love. I play an important role in this world. Understanding the creator's plan - knowing how all is one love, instills in me the humility to serve the creator.
Just as the creator opened a passage through the water at the Red Sea and saved the soul from the ego, so powerfully do I respond with my love for the people close to me and for humanity and creation in general. The yesod that I activate in hesed is a bond, an obligation - a channel through which love flows to my dear ones. It is a pact that I make with my loved ones, but also with myself and the whole world.
I want to conclude a permanent pact with my loved one, which will be an obligation for both of us and will help us overcome disagreements and allow the flow of love in times when we do not agree on everything and understand each other best.
Yesod in hesed - the last sefirah before the full manifestation of love - includes all the beautiful shades of selfless love waiting to break through the ego barrier that has been placed between me and others. Jesod is stability without which there is no expansiveness!
Task for today: I need to form a bond with the people I want to show love to. I must have joint projects that will enrich both me and them. This bond must be strong and responsible in order to withstand the ego that wants to break it. These connections are the foundation for me to pass on my selfless love. Because I don't want my love to be a fad, I'll tie the knot for love.
When we cannot establish a bond, a pact, an agreement with our loved one - this is a sign that my love requires even more correction!
Bonding with our loved ones, with our social and natural environment is a key act when we strive for expansiveness. Expansiveness in any field can only happen when it is completely non-discriminatory. Stubborn insistence on "entitlements" is the main obstacle to unconditionality.
MALKUT V HESEDUToday is seven dayswhich are one week per OmerDANES JE SEDEM DNI,KAR JE EN TEDEN OMERJA22. Nisan
Let's pay attention to the change in the count itself. We have completed one week, which we must be clearly aware of when we count the omer out loud. The seven days represent the seven-step process of the creation of creation in our world, just as it is written in the Torah. Every smallest part of our creation goes beyond the spiritual levels and manifests in perfection in the sephira malkut, which means kingdom. In the substantive sense, this is sovereignty, independence, respect.
Let us remember that the creator rested on the seventh day. For us, this means that with sovereignty in love, we must feel peace, royal prosperity. Malkut is the last stage of development - the most important, as it represents the completion of creation, which is now ready for acceptance!
Sovereignty in love is just as important a part of love as all the other sefirot that are intertwined in hesed. Love, benevolence, generosity cannot function properly if there is no sovereignty, respect on the part of the one who receives, as well as on the part of the one who gives. The whole world is intertwined with love; but each of us has a sovereign place in the malkut, where love is intended for him as well, with which he will develop his potentials and thus create a common malkut. Malkut in Hesed means deciding in love. It also means adult, mature love, which is a role model for others!
I have to gather so much sovereignty in malkut that I constantly control whether the love I give and receive enriches or depletes me. Me and the person I love! Can I reconcile my love with the love that the creator has for all creation? Hesed is the expansiveness of the soul and not the aggrandizement of the ego - we must be aware of this when we come to malkut.
Do I see my love in accordance with the universal law of love and attraction? Just as gravity rules the outer world, so must love rule my inner world - and I must sovereignly grant it that rule! I must not be a slave to love!
Today's task: I have to find out if and where my role in the team is such that I influence the entire team with the love I give and receive. I have to make sure that love guarantees me to find my place in the collective. Love must enrich me as a person - me and the one to whom I give my love! Does love serve me in my efforts to achieve my plans?
Malkut, kingdom means rule, influence - to be the cause, to be active, active! Remember what pure hesed is! Love, grace without limits! Hesed cries more for the perpetrator, the criminal, than for the victim. Hesed gives the lottery win to charity, even to the detriment of his own interest!