HUMILITY IN LOVING-KINDNESS

Dear Family,

I hope you are all well and enjoying Pesach.

Mazal Tov to Batsheva whose birthday is next week. Wishing you a great and interesting year Batsheva in both material and spiritual. It is nice that you are with us in London for the moment. BH

I cant let Pesach go past without mentioning our unsung hero, MOMMY!

In Lubavitch we are very strict on Pesach with the Laws of chametz. We don't buy any products and use only foods which can be peeled and home cooked, so that we are sure that not even a speck of chametz enters our home. We also don't allow the matzah to come into contact with any liquid for the same reason. This means tons of extra work to prepare the meals. And every year Mommy is there at her post, working extremely hard, and to all late hours, on guard, and preparing all different types of delicious meals. THANK YOU FROM ALL OF US.

We already learnt from the maamer of the Alte Rebbe (Sheshes yamim) how the humility in chochmah (represented by the matzah eaten on the first night of Pesach), has such a powerful effect over the next 6 days of Pesach in neutralising and refining the negative emotional qualities arising out of binah with its expansive nature.

This same refinement continues throughout the 49 days of Sefiras Haomer as follows:

There are 3 Intellectual faculties in Man (obviously including women)

1. Chochmah - the highly compacted point of say an initial idea
2. Binah - the vast expansion of details thereafter
3. Daas - the link of the details to action

And 7 emotional faculties (midot )

1. Chesed - LOVING-KINDNESS, benevolence
2. Gevurah -discipline, restraint, awe, justice
3. Tiferes - beauty, harmony compassion (it is often explained as a combination of chesed and gevurah)
4. Netzach - endurance, fortitude, victory, ambition
5. Hod - HUMILITY, splendour
6. Yesod - foundation, bonding (often explained as a combination of netzach and hod)
7. Malchut -nobility, sovereignty, leadership.

So, it is all very well saying that refinement of our negative midot takes place over the 49 days of sefira (including Pesach), but what does this mean practically?

First of all there are 49 combinations of midot (7x7) and each day of the omer addresses one of these combinations. (each midah contains itself, or it could be in combination with each of the other midot)

Todays combination for refining is HOD of CHESED - HUMILITY IN LOVING-KINDNESS. (the first week during Pesach is the refining of all the 7 aspects of chesed)

There is a very nice book by Rabbi Simon Jacobson called The Counting of the Omer, in which he explains each day.

And the explanation of todays refinement is as follows:

'One can often get imprisoned in love, being unable to forgive your loved one, or bend, or compromise your position.

Hod introduces the aspect of humility in love - the ability to rise above yourself and forgive, or give in to the one you love, just for the sake of love, even if you are convinced that you are right.

Arrogant love is not real love.'

And the exercise he gives for today is - Swallow your pride and reconcile with a loved one with whom you have quarrelled.

Gut Shabbos and Gut Yom Tov to all.