TIFERET
integracija
Omer
COMPASSIONBeauty
On the Tree of Life we see how Tiphereth is connected to all the other Sephiroth except Malkuth. It is the central Sephirah and represents the spiritual ideal that we must attain from Malkuth. Tiphereth unites the expansive force (Hesed) and the restrictive force (Gevura). Now creation can pass into physical form as we know it. Tiphereth is not a mixture of Hesed and Gevura, but a product of them. Tiphereth is integration.
Hesed represents the indiscriminate force of giving, and Gevura wants everything to be justly earned. Tiferet is not a compromise that dictates that things must be earned in half. Tiferet is a picturesque combination of both principles into integrated harmony!
THIRD DAY
9וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֗ים יִקָּו֨וּ הַמַּ֜יִם מִתַּ֤חַת הַשָּׁמַ֙יִם֙ אֶל־מָקֹ֣ום אֶחָ֔ד וְתֵרָאֶ֖ה הַיַּבָּשָׁ֑ה וַֽיְהִי־כֵֽן׃10וַיִּקְרָ֨א אֱלֹהִ֤ים ׀ אֶ֔רֶץ וּלְמִקְוֵ֥ה הַמַּ֖יִם קָרָ֣א יַמִּ֑ים וַיַּ֥רְא אֱלֹהִ֖ים כִּי־טֹֽוב׃11וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֗ים תַּֽדְשֵׁ֤א הָאַ֙רֶץ֙ דֶּשֶׁא עֵ֚שֶׂב מַזְרִ֣יעַ ג֔רַע עֵ֣ץ פְּרִ֞י עֹ֤שֶׂה פְּרִי֙ לְמִינֹ֔ו אֲשֶׁ֥ר זַרְעֹו־בֹ֖ו עַל־הָא֑רֶץ וַֽיְהִי־כֵֽן׃ 12וַתֹּוצֶא הָאַרֶץ דֶּ֠שֶׁא עֵ֣שֶׂב מַזְרִ֤יעַ גְ֙רַע֙ עֹֽשֶׂה־פְּרִ֛י אֲשֶׁ֥ר זַרְעו־בֹ֖ו לְמִינֵ֑הוּ וַיַ֥רְא אֱלֹהִ֖ים כִּי־טֹֽוב׃ 13וַֽיְהִי־עֶ֥רֶב וַֽיְהִי־בֹ֖קֶר יֹ֥ום שְׁלִישִׁי׃
9And Elohim said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. 10And Elohim called the dry land “earth,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And Elohim saw that it was good. 11And Elohim said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth.” And it was so. 12And the earth brought forth grass, the herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed is in itself, after his kind. And Elohim saw that it was good. 13And there was evening, and there was morning, the third day.
On the third day of creation, we have “and Elohim saw that it was good” written twice, and the second day – Gevura – is the only one where it is not written that it is good. In this way, the author of the Torah tells us that Gevura is good when combined with Hesed. Twice good!
Tiphereth means beauty. In terms of content, it is also described in Kabbalah as: harmony, balance, compassion. In practice, it is about assembling ourselves from the parts that we choose for our better image. That Tiphereth is integration is also clearly seen from the biblical description of this sephirah, where we have the sea separated from the land, and then these two elements integrate and vegetation sprouts.
Tiphereth is about man's harmony, balance with the Creator's plan. In an abstract sense, this harmony is when we combine giving (chesed) with receiving (gevura) so that we begin to receive because the Creator wants it that way. Let us remember that tiphereth is the letter vav, connecting, in the tetragrammaton יהוה.
In the process of counting the Omer, Tipheret is the Sephirah, when we are still preparing our plan – a better picture of ourselves, which we will then realize in the coming weeks. Now is a great opportunity to put the experiences of the past two weeks into practice and align our personal plan with the plan of the people around us, with those we love. In this way, we will also align ourselves with the Creator. Connection with the Creator is alignment, balance, harmony. We must know that each individual is also part of the bigger picture, part of the collective – also throughout history, when many of our ancestors have already done a lot for our better lives. We must continue this path responsibly, including by learning Kabbalah!
SEEDS
In the description of the third day of creation, the word seed stands out. Seed is here understood as the product of hesed and gevurah – compassion, which represents a spiritual ideal. Product – not just a mixture of one and the other! When we interpret the sefirot in chronological order, we can easily be misled into thinking that one is possible without the other. ZA – tiferet is the third level of differentiation between giving and receiving. Everything exists simultaneously, only we, who live in the illusion of time, see events in chronological order. With hesed, we said that its origin ceases to be the cause of its emergence, the cause of hesed is the final developmental stage of creation – malkut. Therefore, it is also right to understand tiferet in another way, not as the product of hesed and gevurah, but as the cause of them.
Now the seed takes on its true meaning, as a tree grows from it that connects everything. This is of course the tree of life, unlike the tree of knowledge, where we have the classic process of cause and effect, so we cannot penetrate the upper triad with knowledge, trust is needed.
COMPASSION
Imagine a judge who has to judge a child who stole something. If he were only hesed, he would not be able to judge at all. But if he were only gevura, he would give him the harshest punishment, without mercy. Tiphereth is in between; compassion!
However, we should not understand Tiphereth as a compromise, a middle ground that would satisfy both parties involved! The harmony we seek is our harmony with the Creator's plan!
Some people have problems with tipheret; they are either extremely gracious or extremely strict. They have a hard time finding a healthy middle ground. Because they do something too strict, they then compensate with uncontrolled generosity, or vice versa: they cannot restrain themselves, they give without control, and then they repent and completely close themselves off and alienate themselves from people. But when such people are able to find their tipheret, they reach high spiritual levels. The process of spiritual transformation, at every level, will feel like a struggle between hesed and gevurah and the birth of tipheret.
Let us pay attention to the difference in the syntactic structure of verses 11 and 12! I have translated them in such a way that they reflect the grammatical analysis in the Hebrew original as well as possible. Verse 11 says that the herb of the plant is a seed-sower, which is the same as the fruitful tree that produces fruit. Namely; there is no conjunction between one and the other part of the sentence and, therefore, it is a matter of order, equality. From the point of view of the perception of the world, everything is the same here, the observer does not distinguish between the herb and the tree. This is a non-discriminatory hesed, which has the potential for fruitfulness in itself, which is why it is written: the fruitful tree that produces fruit after its kind. In verse 12, however, we recognize a hidden judgment, a restriction, a gevurah; the herb of the plant produced seed after its kind, and then the conjunction and appears (which otherwise connects what the gevurah previously separated), and on the other side of the grammatical arrangement is the tree. So; Verse 12 describes integration, and verse 11 dictates what that integration should be – much more against hesed than against gevurah. Hesed is equality, gevurah is judgment - discernment, and tiphereth is equivalence.
Here we get the answer to why gevura is needed at all: so that we can separate phenomena and then integrate them. If we understand the description of the third day well, we will know what compassion is!
Now we can understand the third day even more completely. Verse 9 is still pure gevurah, when things separate, so it is not written here that it is good. Then the creator continues with gevurah, when he is even more specific in creating: the earth and the seas. However, here in verse 10 he "calls, names", which means that he connects the creation, integrates it into a whole, of course with hesed, so he sees "that it is good". Verse 11 is then non-discriminatory hesed, completely expansive. Verse 12 is again gevurah, but with the purpose of differentiation, which allows for integration.
JACOB
Hesed was attributed to Abraham, and gevurah to Isaac. Jacob is tipheret, the most adaptable and versatile, as is also evident in his 12 sons, all of whom reach their potential. Jacob thus represents the ideal of integration.
