Thursday, April 19, 2012

Day 12 of the Omer - Humble Restraint

Hi,

The Sephirah of the Omer's second week is Gevurah. Gevurah is power, expressed in restraint and boundaries.

In addition, the Sephirah of the fifth day of each Omer week is Hod. The kabbalists linked the word Hod (הוד), which means "glory", with Hodaah (הודאה), meaning "thanks" or "confession", to deduce that הוד is a glorious humility.

The combined Sephirah for Day 12 of the Omer is therefore Hod sheb'Gevurah, "humble restraint".

Successful restraint in areas like speech or self-indulgence can lead to arrogance. As Rav Kook wrote in "Maamar HaDor", "As great as the distance from the heavens to the earth, so is the distance between arrogance and the strength that results from the heavenly blessing of the wealth of the soul and the strength of its righteousness."

Further, arrogance could even convince a person that further restraint is unnecessary.

Today's Sephirah instructs us to use our humble Hod in order to maintain a productive and persistent restraint in our Gevurah.

Have a great day,
Mordechai

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