Kesher Talk

Shavuot count-down: Day 8 of counting the Omer. Using Kabbalistic symbology for counting the Omer - the days between the 2nd night of Pesach and the start of Shavuot - we have travelled through all of the combinations of the 7 lower sephirot with the sephira of Chesed. Tonight we begin 7 days of combining these sephirot with the sephira of Gevurah, starting with Chesed of Gevurah: Lovingkindness in Discipline. Rabbi Simon Jacobson's meditation for this day of the Omer:

The underlying intention and motive in discipline is love. Why do we measure our behavior, why do we establish standards and expect people to live up to them - only because of love. Chesed of gevurah is the love in discipline; it is the recognition that your personal discipline and the discipline you expect of others is only an expression of love. It is the understanding that we have no right to judge others; we have a right only to love them and that includes wanting them to be their best. Ask yourself: when I judge and criticize another is it in any way tinged with any of my own contempt and irritation? Is there any hidden satisfaction in his failure? Or is it only out of love for the other?

(More on counting the Omer here)

posted by Judith @ 4/24/2003 08:46:22 PM