“Welcome the Stranger” is the Torah’s call to action. This week we will begin our response as we welcome Maria and Carlos into our Havurah family. The Havurah Sanctuary Committee has been working for several months on an initiative to sponsor a Guatemalan mother and 16-year-old son seeking asylum in the US. ICE has finally granted them permission to relocate from New Mexico to Portland, where asylum case outcomes are much more favorable. In the verse above, the Hebrew for “steadfast” is nakhon, from the same root as ken, “yes.” So Rabbi Shefa Gold translates it as “a spirit of yes.” This willing spirit is nurtured in Tiferet.
Tiferet is Beauty. It is known as well as Emet, Truth. I think of Rumi’s “The Guest House”: “Every morning a new arrival. /A joy, a depression, a meanness…” Tiferet says: Open to them all. Know them as they are, make space for each at your table.
In the sefirot’s map of the human body, Tiferet is the heart. It is also called Raḥamim, Compassion. The place of the ever-opening heart, the courage to let our hearts break and be vulnerable. Knowing that, spiritually and emotionally, vulnerability is our gateway to strength and love.
There is so much to open to right now. Illness, suffering, great loss of life and livelihood for so many. For the most marginalized, protections diminishing. At our heart’s door we find grief, anger, and other darkness. Yet we can perceive as well a quality of depth and attention having been awakened. A sincere yearning for connection, acts of great courage and compassion.
It has felt odd having this crisis land here just as spring was emerging. All the foliage and blossoms popping feel surreal in relation to the pain and loss of life happening everywhere. Yet somehow it feels true: We open to suffering, and we open to the potential for life amidst it.
In reaching for hope in this moment, we can be tempted to hold to the notion that we are all in this together. And while our lives are in fact interdependent, we mustn’t assume that we will collectively emerge with this awareness. Tiferet as Truth demands that we apprehend clearly and fully what is happening. Viet Thanh Nguyen nailed it in his NY Times piece last Sunday: “What this crisis has revealed is that while almost all of us can become vulnerable — even corporations and the wealthy — our government prioritizes the protection of the least vulnerable.”
All of this is true: both the suffering and the care; both kindness and courage, as well as callousness and malevolence. As Rabbi Yael Levy writes: “Tiferet shows us the beauty and brokenness of the world and says, Open to all of it, this is where you live.”
Invitations for reflection and practice during the week of Tiferet:
✵ Where in my life am I resisting in ways that inhibit connection, presence, or wisdom? What needs to be allowed in? What would it look like for me to say yes?
✵ Compassion practice: Call to mind someone you know or have learned about who is suffering right now. Hold them in your heart and slowly repeat these blessings: May your suffering be eased, May you receive the care and protection you need.
✵ Ask yourself: What truth within and/or around me wants to emerge? Notice what arises, and discern what action or behavior that invites.
May we remain open to one another, may our hearts be clear and resilient.
Republished from Rabbi Benjamin's blog.
