Love, loving kindness, extension, ingathering within beauty, compassion, harmony, truth, reconciliation.
This week we walk in Tiferet, the attribute where Chesed and Gevurah meet to reconcile and form compassion. Aish.com notes that the blending of love and discipline allows for the formation of the element of truth, which is neither love nor discipline, and which, therefore, can result in compassion.
Beauty, compassion, truth on their own are lovely. This day asks us to extend and give of ourselves in our experiences of these phenomena. If I experience beauty in you, but don't tell you about it, how will your beauty continue to grow and develop? If I am overcome by the fragrance of the blooming lilac we've walked by, but whose scent didn't quite reach you, what kind of friend would I be to keep this experience of natural wonder to myself?
In Chesed, there is also an element of invitation, of using our capacity to reach out for the purpose of drawing in. If I am experiencing a way to find harmony in a difficult circumstance, today it is my obligation to invite you into that sense of harmony.
There is much beauty in the world, in ourselves, in the people around us. We have much potential for compassion. Today is the day to reach out and spread the beauty, to invite others into our inner places of harmony and reconciliation, to help others feel cared for and appreciated.
For the abbreviated version, visit me on Twitter.
For a couple of different Omer counting guides try mishkan.org or chabad.org.