 | For five weeks of our Omer journey from Passover (liberation) to Shavuot (revelation), we aligned with our capacities of love (hesed), strength (gevurah), balance (tiferet), resilience (netzah) and splendor (hod). In important ways, these five weeks have been lead-ups to the culminating two weeks that start now as we round the corner and approach Shavuot. This sixth week focuses us on foundation (yesod) – the traits of physicality, creativity and truth. Our next and final week we reach presence (malkhut), bringing our full selves into the world so that we can receive Torah anew with our full selves. |
By Rabbi David Evan Markus
This seven-week series of posts about the Omer journey maps to our "Soul Stretch" mini-series on Tuesdays 8:00pm - 8:30pm through Shavuot. Each week's post summaries themes covered in the prior Tuesday's session.
The first five weeks of Omer focused on love (hesed), strength (gevurah), balance (tiferet), resilience (netzah) and splendor (hod). as character traits and spiritual goals. This fifth week of counting Omer (May 29 - June 5, 2024), we emphasize foundation (yesod).
Huh? Foundation of what? How is foundation a character trait at all? And if so, what traits does foundation evoke? A bit of background provides context:
This spiritual system, which traces back to medieval kabbalists, envisions this trait cluster as the foundation of earthly life, without which we cannot be. It's why this system's vertical rendition of the Tree of Life depicts foundation as a funnel, channeling everything else "down" toward the final cluster, presence (malkhut) – how we show up in the world. Fittingly forthis seven-week journey, this spiritual system depicts foundation and presence on a central column, aligning in balance.
Seen as a funnel or channel to full human beingness, hopefully it's intuitive that foundation invokes the most core, raw, organic and elemental attributes by which we exist as humans and spiritual beings. Foundation evokes physicality, including sexuality, without which humanity would cease. Relatedly, it evokes creativity both physically and not: Jewish life holds that we are creators b'tzelem Elohim (in the image of God), able and called in our own ways to create much as the Creator does.
Spiritually and emotionally, creativity is a response to and manifestation of our resilience (netzah) in life. We literally create our lives – we make our lives, and the quality of our lives – by our own agency in life, our own unique ways of innovating our way in life. Creativity also calls forth an identity of splendor (hod) that sees ourselves as generative – innovating, adapting, beautifying, expressing and remaking our lives and very selves. (Notice that in the Tree of Life's depiction, foundation "brings down" resilience and splendor in balance.)
Foundation (yesod) implies one more attribute at our core: the core truth of having a core at all. Spiritually, this "core" is "secret" (in Hebrew, סוד / sod) and our true foundation (in Hebrew, יסוד / yesod). Literally, one can't have yesod without sod. There can be no real foundation without truth – the often hidden reality of situations and relationships, and who we really are.
Each of these elements asks to be clarified and harmonized. With too little physicality, we become ungrounded: the foundation of human embodied life wobbles without wise focus on our physical selves. Do we take care of our bodies as best we can? Do we pay attention to what our bodies tell us? Conversely, too much focus on physicality can unbalance us in other ways: we can easily under-focus on mind, heart and spirit if we fetishize the body.
It's similar with creativity. With too little, life can stagnate: we give up our agency to make our lives, adapt, express and beautify our lives. And spiritually speaking, there also can be too much creativity: if we let our willfulness or imagination overtake us, if we focus entirely on what can be, we can lose touch with what is. That, too, can unground us.
Too little truth loses touch with reality. Whether about the core of relationships, situations or who we really are, without truth we become ungrounded (there's foundation again). And spiritually speaking, there can be such a thing as "too much" truth if bluntness alienates us from others or buckles the foundation of relationships unready for them.
Next up: presence (malkhut), showing up fully, seeing and being fully seen, ready to receive.
This seven-week series of posts about the Omer journey maps to our "Soul Stretch" mini-series on Tuesdays 8:00pm - 8:30pm through Shavuot. Each week's post summaries themes covered in the prior Tuesday's session.
The first five weeks of Omer focused on love (hesed), strength (gevurah), balance (tiferet), resilience (netzah) and splendor (hod). as character traits and spiritual goals. This fifth week of counting Omer (May 29 - June 5, 2024), we emphasize foundation (yesod).
Huh? Foundation of what? How is foundation a character trait at all? And if so, what traits does foundation evoke? A bit of background provides context:
This spiritual system, which traces back to medieval kabbalists, envisions this trait cluster as the foundation of earthly life, without which we cannot be. It's why this system's vertical rendition of the Tree of Life depicts foundation as a funnel, channeling everything else "down" toward the final cluster, presence (malkhut) – how we show up in the world. Fittingly forthis seven-week journey, this spiritual system depicts foundation and presence on a central column, aligning in balance.
Seen as a funnel or channel to full human beingness, hopefully it's intuitive that foundation invokes the most core, raw, organic and elemental attributes by which we exist as humans and spiritual beings. Foundation evokes physicality, including sexuality, without which humanity would cease. Relatedly, it evokes creativity both physically and not: Jewish life holds that we are creators b'tzelem Elohim (in the image of God), able and called in our own ways to create much as the Creator does.
Spiritually and emotionally, creativity is a response to and manifestation of our resilience (netzah) in life. We literally create our lives – we make our lives, and the quality of our lives – by our own agency in life, our own unique ways of innovating our way in life. Creativity also calls forth an identity of splendor (hod) that sees ourselves as generative – innovating, adapting, beautifying, expressing and remaking our lives and very selves. (Notice that in the Tree of Life's depiction, foundation "brings down" resilience and splendor in balance.)
Foundation (yesod) implies one more attribute at our core: the core truth of having a core at all. Spiritually, this "core" is "secret" (in Hebrew, סוד / sod) and our true foundation (in Hebrew, יסוד / yesod). Literally, one can't have yesod without sod. There can be no real foundation without truth – the often hidden reality of situations and relationships, and who we really are.
Each of these elements asks to be clarified and harmonized. With too little physicality, we become ungrounded: the foundation of human embodied life wobbles without wise focus on our physical selves. Do we take care of our bodies as best we can? Do we pay attention to what our bodies tell us? Conversely, too much focus on physicality can unbalance us in other ways: we can easily under-focus on mind, heart and spirit if we fetishize the body.
It's similar with creativity. With too little, life can stagnate: we give up our agency to make our lives, adapt, express and beautify our lives. And spiritually speaking, there also can be too much creativity: if we let our willfulness or imagination overtake us, if we focus entirely on what can be, we can lose touch with what is. That, too, can unground us.
Too little truth loses touch with reality. Whether about the core of relationships, situations or who we really are, without truth we become ungrounded (there's foundation again). And spiritually speaking, there can be such a thing as "too much" truth if bluntness alienates us from others or buckles the foundation of relationships unready for them.
Next up: presence (malkhut), showing up fully, seeing and being fully seen, ready to receive.
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