Counting the Omer - Tiferet of Hod - Rabbi Alon Anava

Today we're going to be counting Tiferet she behold And we mentioned how hold is not necessarily the glory but also can be interpreted and translated as as thanking. Hodaya is to thank and also hodaa to admit to qualities that we have to work on. But the Tiferet she behold we mentioned a couple times in the last couple weeks that Tiferet is beauty. And hold is also another way of defining beauty. Like we say hold the hadar, hold the hadar is another way of defining something that is beautiful. Now when a when when a person admits, talked about it yesterday a person admits, doesn't matter right now for what, but in the is in the motion of admitting he the idea behind the admitting is something that is way above your natural comprehension. You know not a lot of people they have it in them to admit. with the camera. Not a lot of people have that in them to admit. When a person admits he elevates himself to a much much higher level. And when a person is in the level of admitting in the motion of admitting then what happens is that he gains a certain glory around him, this hold, like a shine that says surround him. Now like a halo, as I say halo, halo, halo. When a person is as in the moment when he's when he's admitting then there's like a halo around him. It's not halo, it's more like hold, hold is like a glory or or a splendor that surrounds the the person. And when a person is me An aura maybe? Yeah, like an aura. So this is a this is another way of explaining what means hold. Hold is like a it says when Moshe Rabbeinu went down from the mountain that his face was glowing. It says also it uses the word hold. So but nevertheless when a person is in the motion of admitting then usually it will be done in a level of humility and and humbleness. We talked about it today and modesty. When a person does that because to admit you have to be a little bit humble. You have to be in a level of humility. Then what happens is then he receives this glory, this hold, this level of hold the hadar that surrounds the person. Now we mentioned that the the meaning is not only admitting of me being wrong is the admitting of somebody else's existence around me. That's that's not only me. There's other people around me and I'm admitting in that that they also deserve a place. Now since we mentioned that Tiferet many times we translated the Tiferet to be beauty, something that is beautiful. But hold is another way of of translating beauty. But Tiferet is going to be more the actual beauty and hold is the like the the aura the glow that is around the person that is glowing like in a beautiful way. So when you have the combination of Tiferet of hold Tiferet is the actual beauty of the emotion and the and the action but the hold itself is this shine that surrounds the person. Sometimes you see an individual and you say wow, this person is like shining, radiating. You see this you see a certain individual specifically at Sadiq you see his face certain light on the face. Where is this light coming from? Specifically when a person is humble, when a person is behaving in a level of a humility and modesty like Moshe Rabbeinu then the face starts shining. And you see you don't see it in the physical way but holy person you see like kind of like a light around the person. Everybody wants to be close to the person because not because he's a celebrity, because something something radiating out of this person. You want to be next to him. Why? Because the person brings himself to a level of anavah and humility and modesty that this power of hold shines around him. Now where do we see the example of that was with Moshe Rabbeinu. When Moshe Rabbeinu went out down of the mountain then it says karan or panav, the the face his face was shining. Nobody was able to look at him. For 40 years Moshe Rabbeinu was wearing a mask because any person that would look at him right away would get blinded. So Moshe Rabbeinu was constantly covered and only when he went into the tent he would lift the veil up like a convertible and nobody was able to see his face for 40 years. Now when it says that his face was shining it doesn't mean that his face was beautiful. Rather the face was shining there was a certain light certain aura that was shining out of the face. Now how do you reach to that level that you're you have a shine coming out of you? Is when you're able to do a tikkun, a rectification to the midah of hold in your nefesh. I mentioned yesterday how there's different midot of the nefesh. And the midah of when a person does the rectification, the tikkun for the hold of the nefesh then he shines, he radiates out this beautiful godly light. Now how do you really rectify the midah of hold of the nefesh? Is by the admitting, bring yourself to the level of hodaa, but when it comes from a very deep place and if it comes from a deep place it will come from a place of humility, of anavah, of tzniut, of being modest. That's the the real deep deep hodaa. And again hodaa is to admit. How you really apply that is when you give everybody the right respect. Most people especially when they're somebody they disrespect everybody around them. And unfortunately many people that's their their their way they're behave. They just disrespect everybody. Very few people know how to respect not only the great ones is to respect also the ones who are less great. This is how you really reach to a level in Hebrew it's called hachna'ah. We spoke about it today in the morning we were trying to find the right word. But hachna'ah really is a is a level of humil humility that I'm holding myself in a very humble way so by default I will respect everybody around me because they're still a human being, they still have something good in them. They might be having a lot of bad things but I see the good thing and I'm able to respect them. Moshe Rabbeinu didn't have this respect to all few people. He had the utmost respect to everybody. He was able to talk to everybody. And you see where do you see that he had respect to everybody even the the worst of the worst? Look at soon we're going to read the argument that he had with Korach. You would think that Korach Moshe Rabbeinu right away would slap him across the face. Or if not slap him across the face right away give an order one of the goons get his head. Take his head off. How how dare does he talk to me? I'm the king. But you see that even as how he approached him in such a chutzpah Moshe Rabbeinu still had respect him and says okay listen okay maybe right, let's see what you have to say. But nevertheless Moshe Rabbeinu is is our is our example. Moshe Rabbeinu is is a manifestation of the sphere of hold. And Moshe Rabbeinu is a when he came back into this world to continue his path he came in Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. We know that Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai that we're going to be celebrating the hilula to the next day day after like day after tomorrow. Then he's Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai said says on himself that he's a reincarnation of Moshe Rabbeinu. And he's a hold she behold, the glory of the glory. So Moshe Rabbeinu is a is the the ultimate example of what it means to be humble, to have humility, to be tzanua, to be modest. And the way he applied it, how he was able to rectify the midah of hold she be nefesh is only by having respect to other people. Unfortunately you see that many people they especially if they have a little bit of something going on for themselves, they they don't give respect to anybody. And they actually disrespect most people. They look at people from above like as if the rest of the people are garbage because they're not in their level. And then on the other hand you see that people usually will give respect to somebody who's great but won't give so much respect to somebody who's not that great. Nevertheless the way to refine and to rectify the midah of my nefesh of hold has to be done in a way that I'm in I'm applying this level of anavah, of humility and admitting to the existence of everybody. Well it doesn't matter right now if they're better, good good or less. And this to say is that I'm giving respect to every person. Now when I do that, when I behave from this level of humility then what I do is I bring a light this hold. Hold is like this glory, something that is shining around me. But when I behave like that, that's when I bring it on me. Sometimes you see great they how they accept everybody, they respect everybody. You see like light around them. They're surrounding with light like a crown. This is this glory. Needless to say that the is the beauty is when you do it in a beautiful way. And you'll see sometimes you see examples there are great that I came in our generation you could see with with with their behavior. You know go an hour away from here to have a book at Sarah the grandson of the Baba Sali. Look how he accepts everybody with always with a smile always with respect always with a with a great with a with a great attitude and many others that we maybe you got to school to see them or not but even in I'm talking about in our generations. I'm not talking about now 150 years ago. And you see great that the way how they accept accept their their guests. I mean the live example you go an hour from here to have a book at Sarah but there are many other in our generation that you see how they accept. You know not too far away. 20 years ago 35 years ago look at the Rebbe in in in New York how he would accept accept everybody with always with a smile doesn't matter who you are how you look. This is this is this is a Moshe Rabbeinu with humility. I'm not greater than you. You're also somebody you also have feelings and emotions and a place in the world. And that's where you see that these great that I came they have this shine around them. Why? Because they know how to humble themselves. Very easy to point out the bad in in people but it's much easier very easy to point the bad much harder to point the good but needless to say when I do that that's how I'm refining my sphere of the nearness that is called hard. And when I want to do it in the most nicest way then I add the beauty of the hard. Now practically saying how do we practically apply that? Is that first of all I want to look at these great men these great that I came and learn from them. Look at them I go and look at the at the great leaders. I'm not talking about the fake leaders. You know the great leaders of our generation cuz it's easy I'm saying our generation cuz it's easy to see them. I'm not going to tell you go look at somebody who was a great leader 400 years ago. How am I going to see him? At least the leaders in my generations if I don't see them face to face I can see them on a video. But you see how they behave and that's a role model and you see the behavior is always with humbleness with humility. I I never saw that I came raising his voice and screaming at somebody coming to him. Always talk soft always with respect. So first of all you want to see that and apply that. The next thing is that you want to apply the fact that you want to start developing an approach that you have respect for everybody. Doesn't matter who the person is. You know him you don't know him a great person not a great person. First of all have respect to a person. Because that's Moshe Rabbeinu's attitude. Whether the person is a complete wicked person wrong in his actions and doesn't matter right now. First you treat every person with respect. The mission tells us always judge a person favorably. How do you judge a person favorably? You have respect to him. The mission also tells every person that you you greet always greet them with a nice face. Before you know later on you find out the person is a complete wicked person. Or the behavior that general the person is distorted and you deal with it appropriately. But you let the sham deal with it. You have the obligation of first of all respecting everything everything and everyone human beings animals creations everything even most people they they know how to develop respect to people. They don't have respect to animals. They don't have respect to property. They don't have respect to many other things. They you can see them they have great respect to an individual but when it comes to something else somebody else's property they don't care. Throw things on the floor whatever it is. You you see this is the level of disrespect. When you see a person even throwing some dirt on the floor or or not caring about somebody else's property sometimes how many times you see in a parking lot a person will open the door smash it into another car. This is disrespect somebody else's cars. How would you you wouldn't want somebody to smash your car? So the respect is not necessarily for me to seeing a great man. Is having constantly respect to everything around me. There's there's somebody else in the universe but me. It's because I totally disregard the existence of that person. If I now smash somebody's car damage their property whatever it is it's because I have total disrespect to the existence of that individual that that person has feelings and emotions and doesn't matter right now if the person is good or bad or is good for me or not bad to me. First of all I have the minimum of the minimum. This is how you really reach to the refinement of your of hard that I came. That's what I'm saying you doesn't matter right now how the person is behaving. You want to refine your meter. So doesn't matter right now if the person deserves respect or not. This is not our issue to decide right now if the person deserves respect or not. It's almost like you see the a doctor. It doesn't matter a doctor. This is kind of like a built-in in a doctor. Somebody is is in need they don't ask the person on the floor excuse me are you a nice person? You're not a nice person I'm not going to treat you right now. The doctor right away doesn't matter let's save the person's life. Doesn't matter right now what's his gender his his race is a good is not. Look at the Israeli the Israeli approach whether it's in the army or the security forces. It's I mean I'm not supporting that taking care of terrorists but that's what I'm not I'm talking about but you see that they right away first of all let's let's first let's help and then then we'll then we'll later on see what's going on. So we have to have to also have this agenda this whole this same way of behaving that first of all you respect everything around you. And I know I was talking a lot about human beings but it's everything. It's also other people's time. It's people's property. It's even inanimate and and animals. We talked about today in the the class about can you take can you talk about inanimate? Can you talk can you slander an animal and talk about an animal? No you're not allowed to. Doesn't matter if you're talking to the wall. But nevertheless same thing here you you your respect is for everything. First let me respect the existence of what's in front of me then later on we'll do already calculations if the person deserves it not deserve it. It's not up to me. He is the judge. He's going to be the judge. I have to do the minimum. Why? Because it's not good to my nearness. It's refining my my nearness. But practically it starts developing this uh softness to know how to respect everything. And it starts you know where? It starts with the little things not with the big things. And you to want to put put it into action is you start applying it to very little things when it comes to other people's property to people's time to the surrounding around you. You know you live in a community we have a beautiful show. Some people you see they care some people they they they leave behind them like as if there's a janitor here that cleans after them. No this respect for the place. You you clean after you you put things around. It's a place where you eat it's a place where you pray whatever it is. This is again the same idea of starting applying it when you apply it in something small then it starts affecting in much bigger things.