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 18th day of the Omer.
Netzach in Tiferet: Endurance in beauty
The glory of youths is their strength
the majesty of the aged is their gray hair— Proverbs 20:29
I am pretty sure that the poem When I Am Old hung on the wall of my grandmother’s “powder room.” I seem to remember looking at it when I would come in from a day at the pool, slightly sunburnt, and the words of the poem are tied up in the smell of sunscreen and my grandmother’s perfume. Perhaps you have seen the poem, which has spawned books and art, among other things:
When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat that doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me,
And I shall spend my pension
on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals,
and say we’ve no money for butter.
There is, by design, a frivolity to the words—a certain insouciance that I am sure my grandmother loved. The sense within the words that after doing everything that one is “supposed to do,” one gets to have a little bit of fun. Jenny Joseph writes, specifically:
But now we must have clothes that keep us dry,
And pay our rent and not swear in the street,
And set a good example for the children.
Our tradition values sagacity, the wisdom borne out of life experience. In Pirkei Avot, the rabbis quote this verse from Proverbs to teach that “Rabbi Shimon ben Menasya said in the name of Rabbi Shimon ben Yohai: Beauty, strength, riches, honor, wisdom, [old age], gray hair, and children are becoming to the righteous, and becoming to the world.” Our American culture venerates youth, but our tradition understands that true tiferet, true glory and beauty, lies in enduring. The opportunity to welcome each new phase of life only makes us more majestic—and perhaps, even, a little more fun!
— Rabbi Sari Laufer