Day 43: Chessed sheh b'Malchut. Chessed in this 7th week feels like being in a mikveh (Chessed) within Shechinah (Malchut). Reb Zalman taught mikveh as a cosmic womb in accord with Genesis 1:2: "Ruach Elohim m'rachefet al p'nei ha-mayyim—the Breath of G*d fluttered upon the surface of the waters." Years ago, in Caesarea, Israel while floating in body temperature seawater before a huge setting sun, I could hear parents on the beach joyfully delighting their infants by gently tossing them aloft and catching them while calling out what sounded to me like: "Yohffi ([How] Nice!) tinohki ([is] my baby!)" Years later during a C-section the nurse anesthesiologist asked if I tend to visualize for comfort and might want some guided imagery during the incision? Sharing this cosmic womb memory worked perfectly then, just as Reb Zalman later told how Chessed is where to go and just receive and trust when suffering. I hope this helps to bring Chessed sheh b'Malchut into immediate sensation.
Day 44: Gevurah sheh b'Malchut. Gevurah is symbolized by stone. What could that mean, to Malchut—manifest, Gevurah—stone, at this point in the Omer process. Perhaps there is a clue in the Babylonian Talmud, Tosefta Yoma 2:12:
"There is a stone that has existed from the days of the first ancestors. And it is called the Stone of Nurturance. And it is three fingers larger than the earth. Why is it called the Stone of Nurturance? Rabbi Yossi explained it thus: ‘For out of this stone did our universe nurture itself into existence.'" (Found the citation in notes from 1990's at Elat Chayyim class with Rabbi Gershon Winkler)
Day 45: Tiferet sheh b'Malchut. So happy to report that Reb Zalman's "Experiential Flashes on the Sephirot", created "in Conversation with Cindy Gabriel in 1993" reappeared today, after going missing for years, at the bottom of a box of photos. A brilliant pamphlet, in it Reb Zalman says: "When Tiferet is magnified, sanctified "Yitgadal v'yitkadash" and Tiferet spreads out so it suddenly is integral and includes from Keter to Malkhut, everything, That's called Yisrael….and "When all the sephirot are being filled with heart. That's Tiferet." Today, the last week of the Omer this must be most completely so. Yet I feel resistance here coupled with awe. Why must we, Yisrael, be the channel and target simultaneously for this awareness?! People often prefer to shoot the messenger. Today is like the end of a pregnancy when giving birth and being able to see who/what comes is more terrifying than staying pregnant.
