Meron 5781
THE MEANING OF HOD SHE B’HOD
הוֹד שֶׁבְּהוֹד
וידם אהרן – "And Aaron was silent.”
HOW IS HOD… PRESENCE?
Acknowledgement + Praise + Humility + Accepting = הוד Hod / Presence
HIGHER TESHUVA
Question: How should we feel and what can we do regarding the terrible tragedy in Meron?
Answer: We should engage in teshuvah, tefillah (prayer), and tzedakah (acts of kindness) in merit of the wounded.
(Higher teshuvah refers to teshuvah out of joy, at least internally, requiring a paradoxical state; the same is true regarding tefillah and tzedakah).
Regarding those whose life was taken – Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai took them to his chamber. We should request that they plead for the true and complete redemption through Mashiach immediately.
May the hod (splendor) הוד turn back from davah דוה (a permutation of the letters of hod meaning agony) into "splendor" and "majesty" in a good and revealed way for all.
– RABBI YITZCHAK GINSBURGH
Gleaning & processing… Lag Bomer Meron 5781:
The essence of “Hod”, the midda (quality) of Lag B’Omer.
REBBETZIN TAMAR TABACK
Hod sheb’Hod, is the essence of receiving without active and conscious comprehension.
Accepting, like it says about Aaron, “and he was silent” in the face of the death of his two sons, who the sources say were even greater than Moshe and Aaron themselves. My husband’s first cousin’s husband Yonatan was the 45th casualty from the Meron tragedy. May his wife and children and entire family be consoled together with the aching whole of Klal Yisroel.
What can we do?
We can become more focused than ever.
That’s what a woman in labor needs to do.
Take in more air and focus on birthing.
And believe we are going somewhere
and every word, every choice, every day counts.
Right now we need to practice our middah of Vayidom וידם.Sadly,we have practiced way too often, especially these past 14 months. Only Hashem knows why He needs to conduct the world in this manner now. One thing is certain. For those that thought the middah hadin ended with Pfizer and Moderna, and we could lay down our guard, we have been shown otherwise. Our neshamos are on high alert still and we must maintain a high level of vigilance to generate the zechusim necessary to get through.
-RABBI HENOCH PLOTNIK (See below for full article)
בִּלַּ֤ע הַמָּ֙וֶת֙ לָנֶ֔צַח וּמָחָ֨ה אֲדֹנָ֧י יְהוִ֛ה דִּמְעָ֖ה מֵעַ֣ל כָּל־פָּנִ֑ים וְחֶרְפַּ֣ת עַמּ֗וֹ יָסִיר֙ מֵעַ֣ל כָּל־הָאָ֔רֶץ כִּ֥י יְהוָ֖ה דִּבֵּֽר׃ (פ)
He will destroy death forever. My Lord GOD will wipe the tears away From all faces And will put an end to the reproach of His people Over all the earth— For it is the LORD who has spoken.
ישעיהו כה: ה
REBBETZIN YEHUDIS GOLSHEVSKY
It takes a lot of emunah to stay with the awareness that there was surely a hamtakah going on at such a holy place and such a holy time. Hopefully all of the nifgaim and all of the families and all of Klal Yisrael will feel that there was also a hamtakah.
Turn דוה into הוד.
YAEL DWORKIN
Hod is on the bottom of the left side which is the side of Gevurah/Dinim/chesronot.
As such it is vulnerable to the achiza/grasp of klipos/disconnection feelings from HaShem/yeush.
Hod re-arranged spells devah meaning- sickness and misery. Hod shb'hod is a dangerous place to be, and the inyan of RaShbi is that he is mamtik the din of this potential feelings of fierce disconnect from H' and kedusha- To turn דוה into הוד.
Watch shiur: https://youtu.be/wakTDwaGOpA
What’s here is very big.
The mind cannot grasp.
The heart can feel.
That’s what’s here now.
For all of us.
An opening of the heart
Way deeper
And wider
And way more expansive
Than what the mind can grasp or fathom.
- FREIDY SPIRA
The Hod Continuum
RABBI YIZCHAK GINSBURGH
Spiritual vision is associated with the sefirah of hod (acknowledgment). This is particularly important in that the appellation “Jew” (Yehudi) comes from the name of the tribe of Judah (Yehudah), whose word-root is hod. Hod represents a number of attributes in the soul: Praise and thanksgiving (hodayah), acknowledgment (hoda’ah), confession (vidui), and glory (hod)—all having the word hod as their root. The characteristic common to them all is the consciousness of surrendering to a higher Divine power in the world and the soul. This property is similar to that of selflessness and making one’s self “small,” following the verse, “for you are the smallest of peoples.”
According to Kabbalah, the companion sefirot of netzach and hod correspond to the two kidneys and to the two legs. The kidneys are referred to in the Talmud as the “kidneys of council”[1] and like the image of legs, relate to a deep inner intuition in the soul driving it forward to accomplish its mission. It is this internal power of the soul that allows a Jew, even in the hardest of times, to cling to a vision of redemption.
... Although prophecy no longer fully manifests itself as a regular faculty among the Jewish people, each person retains the potential glimmer of prophecy deep within. Achieving a vision of a rectified future can only be grasped through our *present reality. The dynamics of leadership are potent tools for contacting deeply dormant powers of the soul, enabling us to manifest the redemptive process as an essential part of our lives, and in so doing bring the future into the present.
Full article:
https://www.inner.org/chassidut/the-hod-continuum-from-destruction-to-the-glory-of-the-temple
Go into HOD הוד ... What is coming our way?
-NECHAMA SARAH BURGEMANN 2019
“Whatever H-shem sends us… may we respond on the highest level in the deepest rectified place in our lev/ heart.”
As we pray for someone… if a family member, we go to kivrei tzadikim, daven with intensity, etc. But our effort is not as powerful as the relationship gets further from us or for someone who did something not so nice to us and then something happens to them, chas v’shalom.
What we learn from Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, whose neshama was the essence of Hod shebeHod, that he had the same love for a tzadik and a rasha. His neshama was so gadol that his light and love reached to the rasha.
*THIS is the level of the tzadik within us. * We all have this inner tikun within our selves- to cultivate this nekuda as we are counting the Omer. It is a high madrega because we are human and our instinct is to care more about those close to us, those who we love.
*We are all evolving in this level of geula consciousness of One big family. We are One collective soul. *
*To be able to receive whatever H’ is giving us. Whatever news we are getting… * whatever bakasha for tefilla…
to be able to pray equally for a person who we just heard of as we pray for someone in our own family.
This is a level we can all inspire to achieve – especially when challenged with someone who we’ve had a discordance. To be able to litkaver on that person, and not fall into judgement
Go into Hod. To get to the level of temimut mamash in Yesod – to the emes / truth of our relationship
Temimut is the inner aspect of Hod. Emes is the inner aspect of Yesod.
Really just BE in this Klal Neshama.
Receiving whatever H-shem is sending us on a level of equinimity. * Ones suffering is equally as painful as someone else’s. As Jewish people, and as the heart of humanity, *we are evolving into Geula consciousness
Our humility is being cultivated through the counting of the Omer. We are here to be shluchim of the shechina
as we are refining our Middot. We do the inner work with each of the 49 aspects of the kochot of the neshama
The final tikun is that we receive the Torah as one collective neshama. Am Echad B’Lev Echad.
Whatever H-shem sends us… may we respond on the highest level in the deepest rectified place in our lev/ heart.
We are really getting down to the nitty-gritty of where we’re holding in this world– who and what are our main relationships… our main priorities… our main focal points? what are our true connections? It’s really a time of birur. How is all our inner work up till now being expressed in the most essential aspects of our life-our relationships. Are our hearts aligned with our commitments?
H-Shem is saying, “My Dear Daughter, I’m sending you this…”
*Observe how you react… * Where do you have to improve?
B’ezrat H’ we will all reach our potential of who H’ wants us to be in the deepest way as we accept and love ourselves in the process and know that H’ loves us.
"My splendor (hod) became my destroyer"
(Daniel 10, 8) 🕯️
RABBI NIR MENUSSI
Today, Lag BaOmer, hod within hod, the festive day of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, became for us a day of tragedy and mourning. 45 people whose sole wish was to draw closer to their holy source lost their lives in a terrible, painful unfathomable disaster. Dozens more are wounded, some struggling for their lives, and the worlds of many families were instantly overturned.
Lessons will surely be learned, and responsible parties possibly found, but nothing shall replace the loss of lives, nor fill in the gap they left in the hearts and lives of their families and friends.
The message of the sefira of hod is simple acknowledgment that we are not the masters of our lives, nor can we comprehend why they are governed the way they are. On the day of hod within hod all we can do is raise up our hands and eyes to the heavens, to our merciful Father, in prayer for mercy, condolences and redemption.
"And a living one should take it to heart" (Kohelet 7:2). Soon the daily Sefirat haOmer message will be sent as usual. The message was written before last night's calamity and does not refer to it. It is dedicated to the elevation of the souls of the departed, the consolation of their loved ones, and the health of the wounded.
May we all have a true Shabbat of peace. Shabbat Shalom.
Rabbi Efrem Goldberg
The fire of Lag Ba'Omer was severely diminished when 45 neshamos were extinguished in the tragic event in Meron. While we will continue to mark Lag Ba'Omer as the yahrzeit of Rav Shimon Bar Yochai, hundreds of parents, children and spouses will now also mark it as the yahrzeit of their loved ones who died this day.
When Rebbe Akiva lost 24,000 students, he didn't become hopeless, he didn't give up or give in. When the last funeral concluded, when the last shiva was observed, on Lag Ba'Omer he found 5 new students and started again.
Says the Chida, Lag Ba'Omer is the celebration of never becoming hopeless or despondent. It is a day of tenacity, resilience and a commitment to carry on and to continue our magnificent heritage and our sacred mission in this world.
Just when the bonfires will burn out and Lag Ba'Omer will come to an end, it will be time to light the Shabbos candles. The message is clear. Keep the fire burning. Keep the passion, energy, enthusiasm going. Live the legacy of Rebbe Akiva, Rav Shimon Bar Yochai and the forty five individuals who cannot any longer.
As you light the candles tonight, daven for yourself and your family, but also for all those who will spend this Shabbos without their loved ones.
DIVRE CHIZUK FROM RABBI HENOCH PLOTNIK REGARDING THE TRAGEDY IN MERON LAST NIGHT
After WWII there was a gathering in London to address the horrible tragedies Klal Yisrael had experienced. Someone brought up various issues that the tzibbur was lax in and encouraged their reawaking in those matters.
Rav Chatzkel Abramsky zt"l ascended the podium and said that after the tragic deaths of Nadav and Avihu (at a time of great celebration,no less) all the pasuk says is "Vayidom Aharon",Aharon was silent.
There was no blaming,finger pointing,...such silence and acceptance of midas hadin. That is our job at the moment (It is noteworthy that not until later on does the pasuk allude to the various reasons for their premature deaths, but at the moment...nothing.
Right now we need to practice our middah of Vayidom וידם.Sadly,we have practiced way too often, especially these past 14 months. Only Hashem knows why He needs to conduct the world in this manner now. One thing is certain. For those that thought the middah hadin ended with Pfizer and Moderna, and we could lay down our guard, we have been shown otherwise. Our neshamos are on high alert still and we must maintain a high level of vigilance to generate the zechusim necessary to get through.
In the Asara Harugei Malchus piyut we recite on Yom Kippur,it relates how the angels protested until Hashem threatened to turn the world back into nothing if those Tzaddikim did not die. This is because the world had lost its right to exist due to people's shortcomings,and only the great merit of dying Al Kiddush Hashem could save it. Had the Malachim had their way, there would be nothing left at all.
We must view this tragedy as well as another chapter in our history of losing sincere Ovdei Hashem at a time of heightened simcha shel mitzvah, as perhaps a necessary zechus for us all.
Who knows anything? Our job is to remain silent.
"What now?"
A response to tragedy by Devorah Kur
… I heard some thoughts from Charlie Harary who says that as Corona is ending off in Israel, this Lag B'Omer was going to be our first public celebration. Instead it turned into a tragedy. We are puzzled to even try find answers, but we can try and find a response. Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai have already shown us how. Rabbi Akiva showed us how important it is to pick ourselves up and continue to to do good in the world, and as he did this, his student Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai revealed great light and spiritual inspiration to the world.
A beautiful message here that I think we can all consider, especially in honouring those whose lives were lost and their light has been removed from the world, is how we can share our own light in the world. Each one of us has our unique light to share, let's do that, especially now when there is light missing.
May the bereaved families be comforted by their tragic losses, and may all those injured in the incident receive a full and speedy recovery.