How to Acquire the Attribute of Yosef ha-Tzaddik In last week’s article Ya’akov’s Fear in Going Down to Egypt, we learned that through the strength of his character, specifically his shemirat einayim, Yosef was able to break the tumah of immorality that filled the land of Egypt. As a result of his unprecedented strength of…
It is taught in Kabbalah that Hashem has three hands: יָד הַגְּדוֹלָה [yad ha-gedolah, the great hand], יָד הַחֲזָקָה [yad ha-chazakah, the strong hand], and יַד הָרָמָה [yad ha-ramah, the exalted hand]. What are these hands? They are spiritual lights, i.e. the sefirot in the upper world of Atzilut. Yad ha-gedolah corresponds to chesed on…
As is known, ‘left’, ‘right’ and ‘middle’ aspects exist in the structure of the Supernal Lights, i.e. the sefirot in the world of Atzilut. The right side descends from chochmah (‘wisdom’) and is dominated by chesed (loving-kindness, giving), the left side descends from binah (‘understanding’) and is dominated by gevurah (severity, strictness, judgment, self-restraint), and…