COUNTING THE OMER – This prayer is traditionally recited between sundown and sunrise of each day.
Day 10: Tiferet she b’Gevurah
The Blessing (Day 10):
Baruch atah Adonai elohaynu melech ha’olam asher kidshanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu al sephirat ha’omer.
Blessed are you, G-D, Source of Strength, You make us holy through your mitzvot, commanding us to count the Omer.
Ha yom asara yomim, shehem shavuah echad v shlosha yamim l’Omer. Today is the tenth day of the Omer, which makes one week and three days of the Omer.
Week Two – Gevurah (Discernment, Restraint, Strength)
Day Ten – Tiferet she b’Gevurah (Harmony within Discernment) – HEART to LEFT SHOULDER
Tiferet she b’Gevurah is the way that we keep ourselves from engaging in overly harsh reactions. Without balance and Harmony, Discernment can become callous judgment, a source of prejudice and intolerance. Tiferet she b’Gevurah is the interaction and combination of Harmony and Power. Power without heart leads to cruelty; heart without power is fragile. The connection between harmony and discernment asks that we carefully weigh and measure our choices, recognize the heart’s desire, and seek the courage to pursue it in balance.
Parents often struggle with maintaining a balanced approach to discipline. Many times in our interactions together, our conversations will end with the parent claiming ultimate power due to his/her position and age. I can hear my own father’s voice saying to me as a teenager “because I said so.” This isn’t really a balanced approach, even if in the end he was right. It is sometimes hard to allow ourselves to use discernment in situations. Often times as the parent, we may seek to control and hold on to the power we believe we should have without question. This can lead to problems by setting up an adversarial situation that creates a win-lose scenario, rather than a win-win scenario, or more accurately a compromise-compromise scenario.
We move in a positive direction when we take the initiative to repair a damaged relationship, when we take responsibility for our part in a misunderstanding, or when we negotiate in either our work or our personal lives, seeking a harmonious solution. Many of us have an area of our lives that can be improved if there were more understanding, bringing our strength to a space of balance in a situation. Today, take one step toward bringing that harmony into reality. By bringing balance into our power struggles with others, we may find a path to take that we were unaware existed. And this may be the road BEST traveled for us all.
* For more information on this subject, I recommend “Counting the Omer: A Kabbalistic Meditation Guide” by Rabbi Min Kantrowitz.
Yedi'a 