The mystics of our tradition saw great meaning in the counting of the Omer. In its cycle of 7 days, counted 7 times, they saw a parallel to the sefirot, Divine attributes of Kabbalistic understanding. Each week, then, was dedicated to a particular attribute, and each day of that week focusing on the intersection of 2 Divine attributes. This week, we focus on tiferet: beauty, balance, harmony, heart space.
Today is the 15th day of the Omer.
Chesed in tiferet: Grace, or lovingkindness, in balance, or splendor.
Know yourself, and your world; know the meditations of your heart, and of every thinker; find the source of your own life, and of the life beyond you, around you, the glorious splendor of life in which you have your being.
— Orot HaKodesh, HaRav Abraham Isaac Kook
The Omer, in its simplest form, counts us up towards Shavuot, towards Sinai, towards a moment of revelation. But, a deeper journey through these days might well lead us to an understanding of revelation as ongoing, as an internal process, as the work of growth and of change. One Hasidic thinker suggests that Instead of our being passive observers of the divine revealed, we were, and continue to be, active participants in the act of revelation. How did we know it was God’s voice at Sinai, he asks? The answer: since we comprise a part of the divine, we simply recognized our own, inner godly voice from within the clouds.
Chesed in tiferet, lovingkindness in balance, grace in splendor, is part of that work. Know yourself, Rav Kook says. Start with yourself. Give yourself grace, find your balance. But do not stop there. Find the life beyond you, around you, he continues. Look for chesed in the world; create it. And, find the glorious tiferet, splendor, of life. In that work, perhaps we begin to hear that inner voice.
— Rabbi Sari Laufer