The Sefirot (Part 4)

In our last post we discussed the Sefirot of Netzach and Hod. We noted that while God’s ultimate goal is to perform Chesed and Gevurah, Kindness and Judgment, humanity does always properly perceive His actions as such. Netzach and Hod are, as it were, the channels for Chesed and Gevurah. Similarly, the Sefirah of Yesod (Foundation) is the channel for Tiferet. Just as Tiferet is the synthesis of Chesed and Gevrah, so too Yesod is the synthesis between Netzach and Hod. It is thus not surprising that Yesod, as the synthesis between the channel of Kindness and the channel of Judgment, is the foundation upon which God constructed the world. The world cannot be purely of one or the other!

Yesod is also referred to as Tzedek, Righteousness, as in the verse, (Proverbs 19:25), “And the righteous is the foundation of the world. Thus, the biblical character identified with Yesod/ Tzedek is Yosef (the Righteous), who sustained Egypt, and the known world, during the great famine. 

Several other concepts, such as the covenant, the commandments, peace, and Mount Zion, are identified with Yesod. These are all acclaimed by our Sages to be foundations of Creation. The Torah, the commandments, and circumcision are foundational as expressed by the verse in Jeremiah (33:25), “Thus said God: As surely as I have established My covenant with day and night, the laws of heaven and earth (nature), so I will never reject the children of Jacob and My servant David…” The rabbinic reinterpretation of the verse reads: If not for my covenant day and night, I would not have put in place the laws of Heaven and Earth. Thus the Talmud (Avoda Zara 3a) relates that, “The Holy One, Blessed be He, made Creation conditional saying: If the Jewish People accept My Torah at the revelation at Sinai, good, but if they do not accept it, I will return you to nothingness.” The mishna in Nedarim (3:11), however, reads the term ‘covenant’ as referring to circumcision. 

The midrash (Yalkut Shimoni 670) views the same verse in Jeremiah from a slightly different perspective. The commandments were the inscription (or blueprint) that God used to create the ‘carve’ the world (building off of the same root [ch,k,k] for inscription and carve). Nonetheless, we see the commandments as foundational to Creation. 

The centrality of the Temple worship is also highlighted as foundational to creation in the Talmud (Ta’anit 27b), “If not for the watch (the weekly rotating posts or stands of Jews involved in the Temple service) the heaven and earth would not continue to exist. 

Finally, peace is identified in Ethics of our Fathers (1:18) as one of the pillars of the world. 

All of the above are inherent to Creation. All are active, fidelity to the Torah, its commandments, and the covenant between God and the Jewish people, ensuring peace between individuals and nations, and the continued service and devotion to God in His Temple. All require synthesis between Kindness and Strength, between Netzach and Hod: the Torah provides paths of pleasantness but in its actualization strength is needed to remain steadfast at difficult times. Peace is an act of kindness but its realization requires Strength to act when boundaries have been crossed. The Temple is dedicated by Solomon as a place for communion and repentance, but is also the seat of the High Court. All are thus properly identified with the Sefirah of Yesod. 

At this point, of course, we are getting towards the end of our series of books. There is only one volume left after this (the Sefirah of Malchut, Kingship). If we are to end our series with some sort of redemption or messianic-type era, we should have by now identified our main protagonist(s). That person or group is set up to be the seat for a new world order. However, doing so is not straightforward. Understanding, flexibility, and compromise may be required. Most importantly our protagonists must realize what is truly foundational and what is overreach. Learning that lesson would be a good theme for the book of Yesod.