Tiferet of Tiferet - Harmony in Harmony. Expression compassion beyond your previous limits, towards someone to whom you have been callous.
From the Omer Calendar of Biblical Women (Rabbi Jill Hammer):
Hannah (I Sam. 1-2) - Hannah is barren. Although her husband loves her, her husband's second wife torments her because of her infertility. Hannah goes to the shrine of the Tabernacle and prays for a son, promising that if she becomes pregnant with a son she will dedicate him to the Tabernacle. The priest Eli observes her lips move and thinks she is a drunkard. She protests that she is not drunk; she is a troubled woman who is speaking to God in her heart. Eli blesses her, and soon afterward she gives birth to a son, Samuel, whom she dedicates to the Tabernacle as soon as he is weaned. Every year from then on, Hannah makes a pilgrimage and brings Samuel a new coat that she has made.
Tiferet is the sefirah of the heart, and Hannah speaks to God in her heart, telling God of her desire to have a child. When confronted by someone who does not value her prayer because it is not public, she defends herself, knowing that God hears even the most private of prayers. It is appropriate that Hannah represent tiferet shebetiferet, the essence of compassion, the depths of the heart. We embody Hannah when we express the true desires of our heart, asking for the compassion of the Divine and of human beings.
Below - woodcut of Hannah praying for a child, Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld (1794-1872).
From the Omer Calendar of Biblical Women (Rabbi Jill Hammer):
Hannah (I Sam. 1-2) - Hannah is barren. Although her husband loves her, her husband's second wife torments her because of her infertility. Hannah goes to the shrine of the Tabernacle and prays for a son, promising that if she becomes pregnant with a son she will dedicate him to the Tabernacle. The priest Eli observes her lips move and thinks she is a drunkard. She protests that she is not drunk; she is a troubled woman who is speaking to God in her heart. Eli blesses her, and soon afterward she gives birth to a son, Samuel, whom she dedicates to the Tabernacle as soon as he is weaned. Every year from then on, Hannah makes a pilgrimage and brings Samuel a new coat that she has made.
Tiferet is the sefirah of the heart, and Hannah speaks to God in her heart, telling God of her desire to have a child. When confronted by someone who does not value her prayer because it is not public, she defends herself, knowing that God hears even the most private of prayers. It is appropriate that Hannah represent tiferet shebetiferet, the essence of compassion, the depths of the heart. We embody Hannah when we express the true desires of our heart, asking for the compassion of the Divine and of human beings.
Below - woodcut of Hannah praying for a child, Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld (1794-1872).
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