Healing Well of Miriam

Each of the sefirotic attributes is expressed, and thus primarily defined, in the world through an “inner soul experience.”  In some cases, this experience is so prominent that the sefirah may even be called by this term, such as Gevurah being called “judgement.”  There is more to it, yet this is the most common understanding of the function of the sefirah. 

The lower seven sefirot are further identified with Biblical characters who personified the attributes most archetypically.  Tiferet is embodied through Jacob, as he characterized the balance between Abraham and Isaac. 

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Tiferet is “beauty,” in that this is the balance (or harmony) of the sefirotic array.  Located in the center, it is the balance of right and left, but also of upper and lower.  Tiferet is called the trunk of the tree, from whence all the other sefirot branch.  In a triad with Chesed and Gevurah, Tiferet mediates judgement between the leniency of lovingkindness and the severity of judgement.   The inner soul experience of Tiferet is “rachamim”—compassion.  Compassion is commonly mistaken as love, but there is a difference, for the mercy of compassion is an admixture of judgement.  Sometimes leaning more to the side of stricter judgement is what a person really needs, more than just being “let off the hook.”  Compassion or empathy is beautifully expressed in Isaiah 43:2: 

When you pass through water, I am with you; through rivers, they will not wash you away; when you walk through fire, you will not be singed, and no flame will burn you.

Notice that the promise is not that the situation will not occur, or that it will necessarily be alleviated, but that the sufferer will not have to endure alone.  Coming alongside one suffering, helping to bear the burden, is true compassion.  Compassion is key to true healing, which means coming into a new relationship with Hashem…however that appears in the world.  The Name associated with Tiferet is YHVH, which is not pronounced, but usually read as Adonai or Hashem (the Name).

Hashem, Your mercy is good.

Netzach and Hod are called the Place of Counsel for the Heavenly Court.  They are the sefirot of Prophecy—frontside as foretelling (future events) and backside as forthtelling (understanding what’s to come based on what has already been).   Nothing happens in this world that is not first decided in Heaven’s Courts.  All the prophets of Israel operated from these sefirot.  The Name of Netzach is YHVH Tzvaot (Lord of Hosts), and Hod is Elohim Tzvaot (God of Hosts).  

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Netzach is “eternity” or “victory,” and we experience through “bitachon” (confidence).  We usually think of the need to have faith, but the real test of our faith is “bitachon”—do we truly have confidence in God?  Moses embodied this confidence when he went before Pharaoh, at the splitting of the Red Sea, and with every miracle he performed.  The first time Name YHVH Tzvaot  appears in the Tanakh (Bible) is in the prayer of Chanah when she prophetically prayed her son, Samuel, into the world.   Like Hod, Netzach is about transcendence. Chanah was connecting with the will of Heaven in a way that transcended her known world and was praying what came into her heart.   This was not merely hope—it was confidence.  A suggested meditation:

Beyond winning; beyond losing ~~ victory!