7 Spiritual Energies

Between 2 of the 3 major Jewish festivals of the year - Passover & Shavuot - there are 49 days. This is not by coincidence, as the Jewish people left Egypt (on the 1st day of Passover) & traveled in the Egyptian desert for 7 weeks until they received the Torah on Mt. Sinai (on the day of Shavuot). There is a mitzvah to count each of these days, as we re-live the anticipation and character improvement our ancestors went through before receiving the divine Torah. But the number 49 is not by accident. Jewish mysticism teaches us that every soul is made up of 3 intellectual faculties & 7 emotional faculties, called "sefirot". The 7 emotional aspects of the soul are Kindness, strength, harmony, endurance, humility, bonding, and sovereignty. Furthermore, each emotion is made up of the other 6. So it's not simply that you have the ability to be kind or strong/severe, but rather that you have the ability to sometimes express true kindness to someone by being stern with them, a simple example being to scold a child who runs in the middle of the street, so as to teach them safe behavior. So that's how we get to 49: Each day during these 49 days, we count one of the emotional aspects we need to work on improving, each one made up of 7, totaling 49.

The fact that our souls are even made up of intellectual & emotional faculties in the 1st place, is because "G-d Created man in His image.." (Genesis 1:27). We have this spiritual DNA because G-d, on some level, includes these abilities within His Being. Towards the end of the earth's creation, the Torah says a verse that we recite over wine every Friday night: "Sheses yamim asah ado-nai et hashamayim v'et ha'aretz" - "6 days G-d made the heavens and the earth." Now the proper wording, seemingly, would have been to have said: "B'sheses - IN 6 days G-d Created..." That in that amount of time G-d Created the world. However, Kabbalah teaches that this wording is exact: "6 days G-d Created" means that the spiritual energy behind each day itself created the day. The 6 emotional attributes of G-d created & infused each day with its particular energy. It's not by chance that Tuesday - when the dry earth was separated from the waters - was the 3rd day of creation (represented by the 3rd attribute of Tiferet - harmony between 2 forces). Each of the 7 days, since the beginning of time, is infused with that particular, unique spiritual energy.

But what about the 7th day, the day of Shabbat where G-d Ceased creating? That day would correspond to the 7th emotional attribute known as Malchut - sovereignty. On a spiritual level, the 7th day of creation, Shabbat, seems completely untenable; impossible. As we have seen, G-d was actually emotionally invested in creation, infusing energy into each day to give it life in a particular way. But unlike a carpenter or weaver who takes materials and forms them into finished products and then can walk away from the objects intact, G-d was Creating the very material itself! The universe needs G-d's continual investment. So how can we survive on a day when (Kabbalah teaches us that) G-d Pulls Himself & His emotional faculties inward, to a higher level? The answer is a powerful one that we can meditate on every Shabbat to appreciate the day that much more. G-d doesn't remove His spiritual energy & emotional faculties from the universe, but rather elevates the universe together with Him inwardly. We, and all of the world around us, from the food we eat to the sky we see, is all uplifted to the level of G-d's intellect - above the emotions - a higher level than the weekday energies.

May we appreciate the power of these 24 hours from Friday night to Sat. night, when every song we sing and thing we touch and sense, can be appreciated on a completely higher dimension.

Shabbat Shalom!

*To learn more about the 10 Sefirot, see here

Harmonizing Colors

The days between Passover & the holiday of Shavuot (where we celebrate the giving of the Torah), are known as the days of "the counting of the Omer." After leaving Egypt, the Jewish people traveled through land and water (or splitting of waters) for 49 days, until finally camping at Mount Sinai, where they heard the 10 commandments and received the Divine Torah. In order to prepare for such a lofty occasion, we are told that the Jewish People worked on refining themselves during these 49 days. In commemoration of this, there is a mitzvah to count every day of these 49 days (see here). But beyond just commemoratively counting, we are enjoined to also try and work on refining ourselves during these days, just as our forefathers & mothers did when they left Egypt.

The Chassidic Masters & Kabbalists explain a very deep component of this "refinement" done during these 49 days. We are taught that each of us are made up of 10 sefirot (character traits/drives): 3 intellectual and 7 emotional. Wisdom, Understanding, Knowledge. Kindness, discipline, beauty/harmony, endurance, humility, bonding, leadership. During the Omer, we focus solely on the emotional traits.
To complicate things, each of the traits we have contains all of the other traits within them. That's why we need 49 days - 7 emotive traits, that contain the other 7: 7X7=49. What does this mean?

Let's take an example with the 1st 2 emotive sefirot - Loving kindness & discipline. If a parent's child were to run into the middle of the street, that parent might feel the need to severely scold that child, so that he doesn't do it again and lives a safer life. That parent is acting outwardly with discpline, but is expressing his loving kindness through his discipline. His intention is a good one! But sometimes the only way to help someone is through severity.

In the bigger picture, let's look at these 2 emotive traits.
All of us know of (or have) parents who pretty much let their kids do anything they want. They like to be friends with their kids, and let them have a free, good time in life, with little discipline or severity. That is pure Loving Kindess. Then we see the parents who are overly tough disciplinarians. The child must be careful with his every step.
What's needed here is the 3rd sefirah, known as "Tiferet" - harmony, or beauty. Tiferet is the ability to blend the above 2 drives, kindness & discipline, in a healthy way. To give a bit, and to hold back a bit. To balance; to harmonize.
Oftentimes we think that true perfection and greatness lies in extremes. Extreme giving and kindness; extreme severity or discipline. Ultimately though, in our lives, we must work to exercise tiferet - harmony, in every aspect of our lives. Fascinatingly, this 3rd drive is described in Kabbalah as "Beauty." The Sages explain that just as one color alone is not as beautiful as numerous colors intertwined in a harmonious fashion, so too Severity and Loving Kindness must be channeled together to achieve a truly beautiful life.

You can count on it ;)

Shabbat Shalom!

-Daniel
{For some great short insights into these Sefirot & days, check here}